About 1970, I think. 2-8-0 #97 must be a heck of a locomotive. This was a long trip and she performed beautifully. Unsure of the turn about location. Could it be Danbury? The station is Kent.
Whoever thought a line up of Diesels would look this good, next to a steam locomotive?














Whoever this wombat is, I hope he got a good picture!







The driver of our car was a graduate student, I was a studying for a Bachelor's degree, and the youngest of us was in High School. We did okay for a cluster of young railfans. I wish we had been together in the days of Don Ball and Don Wood, and some of the kids who chased the Pennsy and New York Central in the last days.
You should never underestimate youth.

This is an August 1968 trip from Danbury to Canaan, CT. This may have been in conjunction with "Canaan Old Railroad Days" event in that year. Note the lineup of New Haven RS-3s around the Danbury turntable. 2-8-0 #97 (owned by Steve Bogen) would meet up with NH RS-3 529 18 years later in Essex.

The fedora'd gent leaning out of 97's cab is the NH road foreman (Bert Bacon). The gent in bibs leaning over to pick up the water hose looks like Bob Lyon, who had worked with ESRM's #103 at Middletown, NY and would be active at Valley Railroad in Essex in 1970-71.

The New Haven ran a number of trips using Bogen's #97, starting in fall 1966 and finishing in October 1968. 97 could handle 5 of the Osgood Bradley 1930s lightweight coaches, and usually one of the postwar New Haven "County" parlor-bagg cars (with the booze removed for the weekend at a cost of $25 to the trip operator).

Penn Central said no more trips (some were planned for the 1969 season). By summer 1970, 97 was sitting in the yard at Essex.

Howard P.

Looking at the pics I'd guess the 1950 batch of New Haven RS-3's had the single headlight while the last batch in 1952 had the dual sealed beams? 557 and 558 are duals while 529 has the golden globe.

The ownership page on steamlocomotive.info has me left wondering how they got the number 97? http://steamlocomotive.info/vlocomotive.cfm?Display=303

All New Haven RS-3s were delivered with single-bulb reflector headlights. The 1962 Alco rebuilds came back with twin sealed-beam HLs. The units that survived into late Amtrak ownership (1980 to 85) had sealed-beam HLs applied at the same time they got FRA glazing (and were retired a few years later). RMNE's NH 529 has that twin sealed-beam HL conversion.

Birmingham & South Eastern 2-8-0 #200 was renumbered shortly after it's first few trips on the Vermont Railway in 1964/65. Why #97? Because in the early 60s, everyone knew steam locos were "Old 97"!!! Tradition! Folk Song! Etc.

There are a very few shots of #200 with her original huge (18" dia) sheet metal headlight and "200" on the cab side, up on the VTR. The next (and current) headlights were old NYC R-motor lights that Steve Bogen got ahold of, and those had "97" in the number glasses.

Howard P.

Seeing these old photos reminds me of how much better number 97 looked with that headlight centered on the smokebox door. A personal opinion of course.

Les

Interesting to find the New Haven receptive to steam trips despite not saving a single engine and also think twenty years later that the SY (1647?) would be out and about in a similar manner beyond the Valley's line in twenty years or so.

I wonder how many heritage lines have operated trips beyond their own lines- another later topic perhaps.

Joshua

Joshua, you do know that New Haven offered the last Mike for display, but the community hesitated long enough for it to go to the torch? The city then decided to get the Mike, but by that time she was already being cut. Dumb move on the part of all parties involved.

I'm surprised that no one picked up on 97 and 529 in the same frame. They would be re-united not quite two decades later on the Valley.

Howard beat you to it in the second post of the thread.

Randy, I stand corrected, must have read through it too fast, got in later than I wanted to last night-

Second on Howard Pincus's Robert O. Lyon id, also there is a fellow in a white t-shirt in the turntable shot to the left of97 and on the tender in the Lyon shot that strikes a familiar look, F. W. Zaiser? perhaps? Known for the white t shirt!

Wonder where the candlesticks came from, or went? Sorry I didn't meet the 97 til '69 and yes it's a great chooch! Hope it's back online soon.

Howard -

Yes, old folk song. But wasn't that song "The Wreck of old 97"? I think it pertained to a train number (not locomotive number) on the Southern and a passenger train that went off of a trestle somewhere.

I kind of thought that the 97 number went with the ex-S&C #103; two engines that could have been in the same number sequence on the same old short line railroad, so maybe the change from 200 made a little sense. But the 103 is no longer on the property is it?

Les

"When the facts and the legend conflict, print the legend" was, I think the line from "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance".

Yes, us nit-picky railroad types know all about Sou. Ry. mail train 97 and the trestle in Danville, Va., and that the engine carred a different number (1106??). Etc, etc. But to the "public", the number 97 is for some reason identified with "olde tyme steam trains". Or it was during the 1960s.

B&SE #200 arrived in Tallassee Ala. in 1926, shipped from Alco-Cooke in Paterson, NJ. S&C #103 arrived in Bellamy Ala. in 1925, sent from Baldwin in Philadelphia. I think the two railroads were about 75-80 miles apart, but were not the same management and had no connection with each other, physical or otherwise.

Howard P.