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Durbin & Greenbrier Valley
ACQUIRES TWO B&O GEEPS: The Durbin & Greenbrier Valley tourist railroad has ac- quired former Baltimore & Ohio high nose GP9s 6530 and 6532 from a quarry in Millville,
W.Va. They’re currently wearing faded blue paint with proper B&O lettering and heralds.
Eastern Berks Gateway
READING BRANCH REVITALIZED: The Eastern Berks Gateway Railroad has leased 8.6 miles of former Reading Railroad trackage running from Pottstown to Boyertown, Penn., from the Redevelopment Authority of Berks County. The route is also known as the Cole- brookdale Line. EBG is providing freight serv- ice to the NS interchange at Pottstown using former Conrail GP10 No. 7580, still in faded CR blue, which was acquired from North Car- olina’s Clinton Terminal Railroad and a PRR N5b caboose which came from the Rivanna Chapter NRHS in Virginia. In addition, the Colebrookdale Railroad Preservation Trust plans to operate passenger excursions over the line starting under the Secret Valley Line name in October. A $1.4 million grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Transporta- tion will help pay for track improvements.
East Broad Top
MOUNT UNION END OF LINE IS SOLD: The East Broad Top Preservation Association has purchased four miles of the East Broad Top Railroad between the Norfolk Southern interchange at CP Jacks in Mount Union, Penn., and the Aughwick Creek bridge. The line consists of dual gauge track in Mount Union with the remainder being three-foot gauge. EBTPA president Larry Salone says he wants to purchase the balance of the rail- road as far as Alvan, which would include the segment that’s hosted the EBT narrow gauge steam operation out of Orbisonia and Rock- hill Furnace since 1960. Crews are inserting new ties in the dual-gauge section between Mount Union and an industrial park in Al- lenport, which be operated for common carri- er freight service under the name East Broad Top Connecting Railroad. EBTCR filed for an operating exemption with the Surface Trans- portation Board on March 20. The East Broad Top has been owned by the Joseph Ko- valchik family’s salvage company since its abandonment in 1956. EBT is a National His- toric Landmark.
Fillmore & Western
THE PLOT THICKENS: The conflict be- tween the Fillmore & Western Railway and its landlord, the Ventura County Transporta- tion Commission, intensified in early March when the VCTC filed suit to evict the rail- road from the former Southern Pacific Santa Paula Branch. The Commission had notified the railroad that the lease would be termi- nated on December 1, 2013, but the railroad continued to operate. In January VCTC sent the railroad a letter telling it to suspend op- erations, which it did not, so the suit was filed. In response, FWRR filed an emergency
Santa Fe Alco Anchors Texas Museum
THE GULF COAST CHAPTER NRHS has donated a historic diesel locomotive to the Rosen- berg Railroad Museum in Rosenberg, Texas. The Alco S2 was built in 1945 as Santa Fe No. 2350 which worked in California and the Texas Panhandle before being retired in 1977. No. 2350 was donated to Gulf Coast Chapter NRHS in 1999 by General Electric International, Inc. It had been used by GE at its Houston heavy equipment repair facility, but became surplus when most rail- related work was moved from Houston to north Texas. The donation was arranged in support of the planned move of Gulf Coast Chapter NRHS’s historic railroad equipment collection to the new Texas Railroading Heritage Museum in the Houston area. Gulf Coast Chapter NRHS and Rosenberg Railroad Museum will cooperate in arranging for the movement of the locomotive from Houston to Rosenberg. No date has been set for the move as yet.
An Eye-catching GP15-1
GMTX GP15-1 NO. 429 IS PAINTED FOR RICHARDSON PIONEER, a grain elevator op- erator in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. This unit was overhauled and painted by Mid America Car in Kansas City, Mo., and was built as Chicago & North Western No. 4418, later California Northern No. 107 and then San Joaquin Valley 107 before returning to the lessor in October 2013. It’s shown at Madison, Ill., in transit on Canadian National enroute to Canada on February 26, 2014. It’s not known which elevator the unit will serve.
petition for a declaratory order with the Sur- face Transportation Board to allow it to con- tinue to operate. The Commission says the railroad has not fulfilled its contractual obli- gation to maintain the railroad properly, while the railroad says the Commission is in arrears on FWRR’s maintenance allowance and that the Commission has been negotiat- ing surreptitiously with other rail operators to replace it.
Maryland Midland
GEEPS OUT, SD’S IN: While Maryland Mid- land’s natty blue and orange GP38-3’s have mostly been renumbered and repainted in Genesee & Wyoming colors and will be sent to cover the Central Oregon & Pacific (page 28), a batch of blue former CITX SD40-3s in SD45 carbodies have been prepared for shipment east by Metro East Industries of East St.
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MARK MAUTNER
SID VAUGHT
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