(erielack) Erie steam

["Rogers, Brian D." <bdrog_@_conncoll.edu>]

How about calling this thread "Erie Steam" instead of "pecking..."
 
I'm 68, and we moved to Alfred Station, NY, in 1945, midway between Hornell and Tip Top on the Erie passenger main.  Mostly we saw the heavy Pacifics working hard upgrade toward Tip Top with their Chicago-bound trains, or coasting eastbound down to Hornell, nine miles east.  Magnificent machines, as D. Biernacki's book clearly shows.  Upgrade they produced great stack "talk", but downgrade you were more aware of the rolling of the 10 or 11 head end cars, coaches, and sleeper(s) because the engine was hardly working at all.  The village is in a narrow valley below the rail line, and these sounds filled the valley six times every 24 hours, as I recall.  
 
The daily way freight was hauled by a 2-8-2, I think, with a fat Elesco feedwater heater, westbound in the morning and eastbound in the afternoon.  Through freights were very rare on that line because of the grade, but they occasionally came through, maybe if there was a problem on the River Line.  It was an amazing day when the first one came through behind an EMD black and yellow A-B-B-A lashup.  Was there ever a sweeter Diesel paint scheme?  The two-tone green of the later E8s was nice, being both elegant and understated, but the black and yellow was bold and dramatic and made you sit up and take notice.  It still does, even if it's in HO gauge. 
 
The sound plus the smell of coal smoke and steam of an arriving train at Hornell was memorable, but even more vivid in memory is the heat radiating from the Pacific as it rolled slowly past the platform as it brought the Erie Limited or another train to a station stop.
 
Regards to all.
 
Brian Rogers
ELHS 3153   
 
 

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