470 Railroad Club July 2024 Membership Meeting - Ron Johnson on the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad

Ron Johnson will be back to present a program for the July 470 membership meeting focusing on the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad. He will be showing sound movies converted to DVD featuring F3s and BL2s powering freight trains. He will show a sound movie of a 1980 470 Club "Potato land Special" to Caribou, Maine with Conway Scenic passenger equipment headed by BL2 557 "The American Railfan", which is now on display at the Cole Transportation Museum. A color and B&W movie will be presented, taken by Forest Bunker and narrated by him in the late 1930s and 40s of trains on the BAR. He lived to be 100, was a 470 trustee, and worked as a fireman on steam, diesel and passenger trains. If there is time, a few digital pictures of current railroads operating over BAR trackage will educate attendees

Please click on the link below to start the presentation

   Bangor & Aroostook Railroad

                       Click on the triangle in the middle of the screen 

                        Next, drag the slider in the middle of the screen to 1:23:02 when Ron begins

                        Click on the triangle on the slider to start the presentation

470 Railroad Club June 2024 Membership Meeting - Video and Photos of the East Broad Top Railroad presented by Albert Howes, Jr.

 This program is being presented by club member Albert Howes Jr. Al attended a Dynamo Productions photo and video shoot of East Broad Top Railroad in Rockhill, PA on Nov 11, 2023. Dynamo chartered the narrow gauge former coal train operation for the day to create content for their Facebook and YouTube page. The presentation is expected to last just under 30 minutes.

The presentation begins at 55 minutes into the video. 

Please click on the link below to start video.

East Broad Top Railroad Presentation

Then click on the circle with the words Fire House inside it.

Drag the time bar at the bottom of the screen to 55:00.

Click on the triangle at the bottom of the screen to begin the presentation

Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Conway Scenic Railroad on August 3rd and 4th

 The Conway Scenic Railroad will celebrate precisely fifty years of operation on Saturday and Sunday August 3rd & 4th! It was on Saturday, August 3, 1974 that former Canadian National 0-6-0 7470 made its first official test run between North Conway and Conway, New Hampshire. While on Sunday, August 4 the first tickets were sold for public train rides. 

Since Conway Scenic began on the former Boston & Maine Conway Branch, to celebrate this milestone, on August 3rd and 4th, Conway Scenic’s 50th Anniversary Valley Train will make five diesel-hauled round trips to Conway, augmented by additional round trips using Buddliner Millie. This classic RDC was built for the New Haven Railroad as its number 23. This car is very similar to the Budd RDC’s that Boston & Maine assigned to the Conway Branch from the mid-1950s until the end of revenue passenger service in December 1961.

The railroad has plans to host a variety of activities at North Conway and Conway. Visitors can purchase tickets to depart from either Conway or North Conway. In addition to the Conway trips, short trips on Buddliner Millie Budd Car are planned to make a dash to Intervale and back with special low-cost throwback fares.

The official recognition of the fifty years will begin with the 9:30 AM Saturday Valley train. Activities in Conway are to include the barrel train ride for young children, the “you’re the engineer” model railroad, face-painting, railroad safety displays, and historic photos of the railroad.

Activities in North Conway will include historic displays of Conway Scenic and the history of the iconic North Conway Boston and Maine Railroad Station (150 years old this year.) Also, by the historic freight house there will be opportunities to tour a diesel locomotive cab and a caboose, and board Budd Vista dome Leslie Ann to view a video presentation telling the early Conway Scenic Railroad story.

The Mt Washington Valley Model Railroad Club Layout located in the North Conway freight house will be open to visitors. On a  siding in front of the North Conway Station preserved former Maine Central 2-8-0 501 will be on display for photographers and the general public. The 470 Club is planning demonstrations of their track car, pump car, and velocipede—equipment that represent the historic mainstay for track maintenance crews until the advent of modern-day HyRail trucks (capable of traveling on track or highway).

A photo freight train is scheduled, and with the help of the 470 club this will make a run to Conway before the first passenger excursions, and may also operate toward Bartlett on both Saturday and Sunday. Vintage motive power may include former Maine Central GP7 573 and other classic diesels. VIP Tours may offer a bus service to provide photographer transportation along the photo freight route to visitors with a valid North Conway—Conway ticket.

Tickets will be sold in both North Conway and Conway and will be valid for the whole day. The tickets will also allow the holder to take part in all activities in both Conway and North Conway.

It will be a weekend of Railroad activity and celebration. Join us for a memorable day!

For details and tickets please visit https://www.conwayscenic.com/

1741 Continuing Repairs on July 13, 2024

 

On Saturday July 13th Wayne Allen, Ryan Fothergill and Cory Fothergill performed more work on 1741. Ryan continued to fabricate new walkway portions and flooring for battery box. Wayne changed some bent steps on the locomotives and continued a repair on the rear horn air line. Cory removed the #1 traction motors blower as the housing had rotted and tipped over under the cab. More work will be performed in the short hood section before a new blower will be installed .

Sheet Metal Replacement and Cylinder 12 Power Assembly on 1741 on July 4 2024

 On Friday  July 4th 2024 Ryan Fothergill returned to reinstall new sheet metal panels that were removed due to rot damage. As you can see the front end of the GP9 is starting to come back to shape! Wayne Allen and Cory Fothergill changed one last power assembly for cylinder 12. It had lower compression and once disassembled you could see why. The casting of the 567 piston had broken out over the years, and yes the rings were broken as well. A new 567D liner was installed as well as a new 567 piston. A new power assembly had been installed months back and it was re used. The locomotive was started today for run testing and the work has certainly made 1741 run much smoother. The 470 club is also excited to announce that we have hired Jeff Conner from Railcar painting to paint the 1741 back to Boston and Maine colors. Our timeline should allow for 1741 to be ready for our fall trip.

Power Assembly Work on GP-9 1741

Today.  June 30th 2024, Wayne Allen and Cory Fothergill reinstalled new power assemblies  5 and 16 in the 1741. Friday another liner will be replaced on cylinder 12 and the locomotive will be back together to test.

CSX Donations of a Maine Central Boxcar and Heavy Duty Flat Car arrive at Hazens by Cory Fothergill

 

The 470 Railroad Club is happy to announce the arrival of two more donations from CSX. MEC 40’ Boxcar 998 and MEC Heavy Duty Flat 999 have arrived at Hazens after being stored for the winter at North Stratford on the New Hampshire Central. 

Special thanks to coordination with CSX , SLR, NHCR , and Conway Scenic for helping transport, store, and preserve these historic rail cars. The cars will be moved to storage for now. Please do not trespass to observe them, they will be used during events in the future once restored. 

The flat car was used to haul a Cat side-boom dozer to derailments sites to re-rail cars and locomotives. The flat car (MEC 999) was acquired by the Maine Central after it was ironically derailed on the mountain division hauling a load near East St. Johnsbury Vermont. The car was purchased at AAR value from Missouri Pacific and became a useful flat car for the Maine Central. The boxcar known as the “barn car” was used to carry spools of cable and parts for the dozers to wreck sites. Thanks to Chuck Killian for the following photos from today’s move! Also enjoy these historic photos of the cars as well !