Internal combustion on the railroads must have been quite a novelty back in the thirties, and not just for the attention to a Zephyr, either. Check out this newsreel on a homebuilt job on the Oneida & Western:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6OxkhNGd9Y

Maybe the movie was "undercranked" but it looks like this beast could move right along. It started out as a 1929 Chevrolet--I know because my dad had one. Rather amazing that someone was out taking movies in this area--it's not near much of anything. According to the Official Guide for May 1951, they were still running a motor car then, but the Short Line Doodlebug book also lists a Brill Model 55 car that was retired in 1953, so that may have replaced the Chevy.

Oneida & Western steam power; do I recall that an example (or examples) from the road, might still exist? Or is my memory playing tricks on me again?

Les

Les, you're right, two of the O&W's steamers survive.

One is now Alabama Central 29; built by Alco in 1923 for the Birmingham Southern as that road's No. 35, then sold through equipment dealer Birmingham Rail and Locomotive to Chattahoochie Valley as that road's No. 35, then becoming No. 29 on the O&W before going to Alabama Central. It's on display in Dora, Alabama at a mining museum. Does anyone have more current photos of the engine on display than what I found?

http://hawkinsrails.net/shortlines/acr/acr.htm

http://digital.archives.alabama.gov/cdm ... 03/rec/313

http://www.alabamacentralrailroad.com/last.html

http://www.alabamacentralrailroad.com/

The other is or was something of a celebrity. Built new for the O&W by Baldwin in 1916 as the O&W's No. 20, this 2-8-0 would become Rahway Valley No. 15 in 1937, being sold to the latter road through Birmingham Rail and Locomotive. In 1959, following the RV's dieselization a few years earlier, she was sold to F. Nelson Blount, later becoming Monadnock, Steamtown and Northern-Monadnock Northern No. 15. She's in Scranton today.

http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_bo ... /shs2r.htm

http://www.railarchive.net/randomsteam/mn15.htm

I wonder what else might be out there.

J3a-614:

Interesting! Thanks for the info.



Les

And thank you for the compliment, Wes, but as I have said before, the real thanks go to the people who have this material and share it where other guys like me can find it!

Gee, the internet can make you an instant ex-spurt!

(I had a coworker who was considered an expert on unemployment compensation law; he often gave talks on the subject to businessmen and labor union people. He would joke, being the expert, that if you took the word apart, "ex" meant "former," as in ex-wife, while "spurt" meant "a little bit of something." So he said he was once something, but now he wasn't. . .Too bad he passed away too soon, too much weight and too much smoking. . .)