None survived, but a rare photo of tripleheaded B&O 2-8-8-4s on the Fairport, Ohio branch in 1957:

http://abpr2.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi? ... anColl.jpg

That is some serious horsepower. I wonder how long a coal drag has to be to justify something like that. It would also be interesting to know if anything is pushing.

Very impressive photo!

Brings back a few memories, since I took the photo. The train was 127 cars, approximately 10,000 tons, and because of the grades and curves on this ex-narrow-gauge branch, all that power was needed. There was no pusher, and that was the problem, though.

It was a Labor Day weekend and the crews were called out of Painesville to run light to DeForest Jct. to pick up the train, which had been left there by a crew bound for Willard. To speed up the move so everyone could get home, the conductor decided tpput all three EM-1s on the point, since having one as a pusher normally would have required a runaround move at Middlefield. That proved to be too much, and a drawbar on the third car gave up on a curve-grade combination a couple of miles south of Middlefield. The balance of the trip consisted of three EM-1s pulling three cars into Painesville.

"Normal"power on this branch at this time was two EM-1s on any westbound (compass north) trains, sometimes doubleheaded, sometimes with one as pusher as far as Middlefield and then doublehead from there to Painesville.

The B&O always seemed to do everything the hard way, and this branch was probably the epitome of that.

Herb Harwood

As a P.S. to this, during the last days of steam on the Lake Branch, B&O apparently decided to increase the train lengths and, correspondingly, the motive power. Three EM-1s became a relatively common sight, although for the reason just given, they were spread two on the point and one pusher as far as the summit of "Swine Creek Hill" (scene of the drawbar disaster) at Middlefield, Ohio. At that point the pusher was moved to the point, the crews had coffee or lunch, and the train departed as a tripleheader as far as Chardon. At Chardon began the long downgrade to Lake Erie at Painesville and Fairport, and the pusher (now in the lead) would detach and runlight to Painesville while the crew set up retainers.

Mountain railroading in"flat" Ohio!

Herb Harwood

What became of that particular branch? It must have had some good bridges if it could handle three EM-1s at a time!

Although the computer atlas programs seem to say otherwise, my SPV atlas says it's gone from the northwest side of Warren to Fairport Harbor. I remember planning to look for it the last time I was in Youngstown, and they told me at the B&O Station Brewery not to bother, that it was gone. (The brewery itself closed a few weeks later, so.... )

Herb -

Thanks very much for the insight in this post and your previous one. Always great to know the "story behind the story!"

Les

Answering the question about abandonment, the Fairport coal dock with its ancient MacMyler dumper was closed in 1965 when B&O negotiated a traffic agreement with the B&LE to handle this business through Conneaut. (The coal came from western Pennsyvania origins, so it could be routed B&LE with little trouble.) This took all the heavy traffic off the line, leaving only the Diamond Shamrock (formerly Diamond Alkali) chemical plant at Fairport as a customer. After the plant's closing, the line was cut back to the Copperweld Steel plant near DeForest Jct. in the Warren area. The last trip north of there ran 10/31/81 and the track removed in the spring of '82.

Herb Harwood