D&H #4112 becomes A&A #114!

What is old sometimes becomes new again. Such is the case with D&H RS3 #4112, which was rebuilt by the D&H in the mid-1970s along with some sister engines into a new class of RS3m (or RS3u). She started off as a regular Alco RS3, as shown below in March 1971.

Here she is in September 24, 1974, in Watervliet just months before being sent out for rebuilding. I have no idea if the word "bye" on the end was a D&H employee's foreshadowing of the event or not, but it is ironic if nothing else.

I wrote about the rebuilding several years ago on my blog here, and at the time mentioned that I was interested in this engine because it had been repainted by the D&H in a classy red/white/blue scheme and numbered #1976 for the Nation's bicentennial celebrations. I even opined here that there was a good chance that it took part in one of the many gathering of bicentennial locomotives that was sponsored by Kalmbach Publishing Companies' Trains magazine. Here she is nearly two years later on September 25, 1976 in Bellwood, Illinois. The Rock Island engine behind her suggests a gathering of bicentennial engines.

After the D&H renumbered her #506 to fit in with the roster scheme of the other RS3m engines it kept on going. This is what she looked like in May 01, 1977 in Bethlehem, PA.

Unlike many of the D&H's Alco engines, she survived through the period when the NYS&W was appointed operator of the D&H. This shot shows her in August 1989, working with another leaser engine. 

Finally, she was sold to the Tioga Central Railroad, then the Wellsboro & Corning Railroad, and then the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad in 2014. The WNY&P repainted her solid black with yellow chevrons in October 2014. Sadly, I didn't have the foresight to take pictures of it when it was on the Tioga Central in its faded but showing bicentennial colors. 

I lost track of the engine after 2014 and didn't think much of it until last year when it was acquired by the shortline Arcade & Attica Railroad, of which I have written about much on my blog. I have yet to go out and see her in person, but I hope to correct that soon. Here is what she looked like in August 2023 after just being received by the A&A. They numbered her #114, which was the next slot in line (they already have engines numbered #110, 111, 112, and 113). 

Note that Bowser has announced HO scale models of these engines in several D&H paint schemes, as well as one in the WNY&P. Can we hope that it will someday offer it in the A&A #14?

20 years in Albany

On Saturday, August 14, 2004, I left my hometown of Rochester for my new city of Albany where I was attending law school. I had full intentions of returning to Rochester upon graduation, but during the next three years things such as the retraction of the local economy (caused in large part by the collapse of Kodak and Xerox) and the offering of a good job in Albany caused me to stay here. I was so sure it would be temporary that I never changed my Rochester-based cell phone number (and I still haven't 20 years later!)

It wasn't my first time in Albany, though. Here I am in September 1989 at the ripe old age of 7. Who would have thought that decades later I would be working within seconds of where this was taken?

The first railroad tracks I explored were the concrete canyon just north of Kenwood Yard where the tracks snake through and around Interstate 787. It was night, I was naive, and there were absolutely no trains running at the time. 

A few weeks later, I used a paper road map I bought at a gas station to head to Pattersonville, NY, where there were no train tracks at all. I learned later they had been torn out only a year or so before. The map hadn't been updated, leading to my dilemma. Oddly, though, I could hear trains even though the rails had been pulled up. Turns out I was hearing trains just across the Mohawk River (which I couldn't see because of the trees). I later started railfanning in Amsterdam, NY. Here are some recent pictures taken right outside of Amsterdam.

My first real adventure was to Colonie Yard shops the following April, followed by other places. It is a great area to railfan, and I love Albany. We have taken Harrison downtown to the NYS Museum several times already. I will need to see if this knight is still on display and try to take a similar picture.

D&H and Chessie by Agway (April 1986)

I don't know much about this shot except that it is dated April 1986. Based on a comment received (thanks!) this is probably Binghamton, NY. I bought it because of the neat Agway and the Chessie locomotives, which I think have a sharp paint scheme (even though it screams 1970s).

Published: Sinclair Gas Station article in NER Coupler magazine

My scratchbuilt HO scale Sinclair Gas Station was featured in the NMRA Northeastern Region's (NER) The Coupler magazine. It starts on page 5. 

For the full construction blog posts see here and here.