My kind of neighborhood. The Everett Railroad's Mogul #11 charges past a string of older residences on the hill above Main Street in Roaring Spring, PA, with a short passenger train bound for the city's little station, which lies just ahead.
The locomotive pictured here is pretty special to your's truly, for this is the very first live steam engine that I ever saw when I was a kid. This engine spent the majority of its working life running back and forth in New York's wine country, on a little short line called the Bath and Hammondsport Railroad. When she was retired in favor of diesel engines, her owners kept her squirreled away in a shed, refusing to let her be scrapped. Then, one day, along came Dr. Stanley Groman, a man who founded one of the nation's first steam railroad museums, a place called Rail City, in Sandy Pond, NY. Dr. Groman convinced the B&H folks to sell #11 and she became the power for Rail City's excursion train, running on a one-mile loop of track. One summer, in the mid-1960s, my family was vacationing in northern NY, and we saw signs advertising Rail City. My Mom & Dad took me to see #11 and I had my first steam train ride that day. I still have some 8mm film that my Dad shot during our visit that day. Rail City closed a few years after our visit. The road that ran past the place was bypassed by an interstate highway, and the visitor traffic slowly dried up. Number 11 was eventually sold, and changed hands a couple of time, never running again until Everett Railroad owner Alan Maples acquired her a few years back and started a restoration effort. She's back now, looking better than ever, and she's in a good place. Here's wishing the Everett Railroad every bit of success in the development of their steam excursion program. Number 11 is a sweet little engine. If folks happen to be railfanning in the Altoona area, make it a point to stop by Hollidaysburg and see her!
Steam scenes from Pennsylvania's Everett Railroad, featuring the former Bath & Hammondsport 2-6-0 #11, operating on photo charters and local Christmas Trains.