pear more New Haven-esque, as well as smaller tasks like painting, cleaning, tightening bolts and the like. The astute observer of the Valley Railroad will note that all of the rail- road’s locomotives face north, both for practical and cosmetic reasons. First, it looks nicer with trains being pulled by a locomotive facing the “right” way as they depart the station st Essex. But al- so, with the station platforms on the east side of the tracks, it makes it easi- er for the engineer to watch the pas- sengers on the platform. But when No. 3025 arrived in Essex, it was put into the shop facing south. Why is that? CMO Conrad explains, “The locomo-


tive had to be trucked that way because of weight distribution requirements. It had to be unloaded on shop tail track because it had no wheels and couldn’t go through curves or switches on the skids. Tight clearances on that track precluded unloading it facing the ‘right’ way.” So 3025 was placed on the tracks to the north of the shops then slid into the building. The tender, however, was delivered facing north. With the loco- motive facing the opposite direction, the tender had to be turned after it ar- rived in Essex. This was done by disas-


ABOVE: Valley Railroad Chief Mechanical Officer J. David Conrad waits for the arrival of the Providence & Worcester engine to help turn the engine on November 22, 2011. BELOW: En- gine 3025 looks right at home as it stretches its legs inside Essex yard as a part of the testing on November 18, 2011. The Valley Railroad offers Connecticut’s only chance to experience a recreation of branch line steam railroading from the 1920s.


32 MARCH 2012 • RAILFAN.COM


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