In May 1967, 97 was operating on one of the New Haven trips, this one over a portion of the lower Naugatuck Valley line. This is a coal and water stop at Derby, Conn. shown in this photo by Edwill Brown. 97 has cut off the 5-car train and pulled in along the freight house platform, where the coal truck could easily access the tender. Bill Zaiser is oiling the headlight generator; the gent in the plaid fedora standing by the tender is Bob Carlson.

97 carries her polished brass candlesticks (which I think came up from the South with the engine) and Mike Robinson's very own Armspear class lamps.

When 97 started getting serious repair and maintenance work at the Valley RR shop in the later 1970s, the shop forces were somewhat horrified to discover the lead truck was held together by 15-20 braze repairs done years and years before in Alabama. Horrified, because a few of them remembered doing 45-50 mph on the New Haven 10 years before with that brazed-up truck!

The cash-short New Haven was interested in anything that would make some money, especially on weekends when lots of passenger cars and locos and infrastructure stood idle. They were not hostile to fan trips, and plenty of them ran all over the NH lines, operated by different sponsoring organizations. Blount operated CPR 1278 (Steamtown 127) on a series of trips in the area south of Boston in Spring 1967; they were apparently poorly publicized and lost money, so were not repeated.

Howard P.

97 is back on the train and ready to head north. In 1967, the New Haven didn't spend much for weed spraying...

Howard P.

Weeds or not, that Consolidation looks at home on those rails.
Any idea as to why Penn Central squashed future trips?

Howard -

Not the first time this has happened. There is a line in the famous 1940's song "Pardon me Boys, is that the Chattanooga Choo-Choo?" Next line includes "Track 29....", so when they converted the old Chattanooga Station to a hotel/shops attraction and purchased a steam engine that had run on the Smoky Mountain Railroad, of course they numbered it 29. Probably even stranger than numbering the 2-8-0 after a train number; here they named an engine after a station track!

Les

I suspect that in 1969, PennCentral wanted to put on a brave front to stave off suggestions of bankruptcy by showing that they were not desperate for extra income. That was also the year that they stopped running the large annual charter trips from Lancaster, Pa. to Atlantic City, N.J.

It would be nice to see the VRR build a tender that matches the loco's original that is pictured here in these photos.

The one they use now is just too bulky looking... but that's a minor cosmetic detail.

Great Photos!

I'm sure someone with more knowledge will chime in, but I believe the tender is still on the property in Essex and that its use was discontinued for a tender with more capacity.

Ahhh, those were the days! Really enjoying those photos since I was on the first 3 trips that #97 powered, all with #97 starting from Hartford. The 1967 trip was on a very hot day and quite a contrast with the previous trip at the end of October 1966, which was quite cold. I believe both of these trips were sponsored by the Connecticut Valley Chapter, NRHS and most of the locomotive staff was from the Steam Department of the Connecticut Electric Railway Association, operators of the trolley museum at Warehouse Point (E Windsor), CT. By the 1967 trip the locomotive received a rather fancy paint job and "Connecticut Valley" appeared on the tender - we wanted to apply "New Haven" but the NYNH&H did not give permission for this. Connecticut Valley was after the chapter, not its future home on the lower Valley line.
I found the 1967 trip the most interesting as it ran from Hartford to New Haven, then to Devon and up the lower Naugy to the Derby-Shelton coal and water stop. From there it was up to Waterbury, then onto the Highland to Hartford. Yes, there was some spiritrf running on the Hartford main line and maybe that led to the injector failure that halted the train at North Haven, right next to the site of the future Ramada Inn that would be the location of New Haven Railroad Historical and Technical Assn fall reunions years later. A 500 - possible the 548 - came out of Cedar Hill to rescue us and hauled us through the Cedar Hill Yard - giving the engine crew time to make the repairs necessary to one or both injectors. We resumed our run to New Haven Union Station, where #97 was cut off and wandered back behind the power plant area to get water. I can't remember any other problems on the trip, and as I was helping the crew I managed to ride the top of the tender from Terryville (another water stop) back to Hartford. As a 16 year old this was quite a thrilling experience!
Over the winter of 1967-68 plans advanced for the establishment of a tourist railroad in Connecticut and this led to the formation of a new volunteer group, the Connecticut Valley Railroad Association in January 1968. That group would be involved with the final 3 main line trips, all in 1968, and would move the base of operations from Hartford to Danbury for the final two trips - unfortunately for me as I had no car and Danbury was out of my range from the Springfield Mass. area.
A few other comments - I remember hearing that the Vermont Railway was behind the locomotive number change from 200 as they had a locomotive of their own numbered 200 - but I can't find any evidence of this - as close as I could find was that several years later they purchased a GP38 and numbered it 201.
Regarding the end of the main line fan trips - I heard that the Penn Central used the cost of insurance as an excuse to price a proposed trip beyond reality. A proposed trip from Danbury to Old Saybrook would have cost something like $35.00 1969 dollars and this was judged to be beyind what most potential passengers would pay.
Does anyone know if Ed Brown is still with us? I remember that he was quite a fan of the Maine 2 footers.

CVRA7 - Interesting that I just found another engine numbered 97. This one at the museum in Duluth, Georgia. The U.S. Army 0-6-0T had been number 5050 but supposedly became Georgia Power Company 97. The only photo I could find of it when in service for Georgia Power showed no number on the engine but it DID have a round number plate on the smokebox door but the angle of the camera was such that I couldn't see for sure if it read 97. Maybe someone from the Southeastern Railway Museum there in Duluth can confirm that the engine was really number 97 when in service at GA POWER.

Les

OK, a couple more shots to illustrate CVRA7's post (as long as no one's getting bored...):



97 has cut off the train in the New Haven station and is in the yard being watered and serviced. Some of those old NH wood coaches survived to join 97 at Essex a few years later. John Krause photo.



In this Edwill Brown photo, the westbound extra pulled by 97 is coming to a stop at Milford on the New Haven's four track mainline, during the circle trip described above. One wouldn't even THINK about doing anything like this 46 years later....much less suggesting it to Metro-North!!

97 carried a New Haven whistle for these trips, I'm pretty sure. It may be the same one that VRR 3025 carries nowadays.

Howard P.

Howard,

Are these photos taken with a 4x5? Perhaps a Graflex Speed Graphic or Crown Graphic?

John Krause shot 4x5 Graphics. Edwill Brown shot 2 1/4" square negs, I think with a Yashica-Mat or Minolta Autocord (both twin-lens reflexes, basically Japanese copies of a Rolleiflex, with Tessar-type 4-element lenses). I had printed their negs about 20+ years ago; the VRR-related Krause negs (including 97 and 103 on operations before the VRR) are now owned by Max Miller, long-time VRR Historian. The Edwill Brown negs were borrowed for printing, returned to Brown, and I do not know their current whereabouts.

Howard P.
Medium Format, NY

Thanks Howard, I can almost smell the D76 when looking at the photos and reading your recollections.

David Wilkins
Tri-X Pan, MO