The most abandoned, least photographed diesel locomotive in New England.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ส.ค. 2023
- The woods of Connecticut is home to New England's most abandoned, least photographed locomotive. This rare eighty year old former ammunition pushing critter has been left to rot for at least twenty years. Its future is grim.
You can read a touch more about this exploration trip on the LTV Squad (.dot com) website.
This engine was used to bring freight cars from the east side freight yard to Remington arms plant 2 blocks away in Bridgeport, ct watch it in action as a kid
John Hanlon, owner of the Housatonic RR, acquired the loco by donation from Remington Arms c.1984. The photo with the Remington logo was immediately after it was painted by volunteers with the Housatonic Historical and Technical Society (the non-profit arm of HRR) that it was gifted to. The Remington logo was removed at the ceremony (I believe) or shortly thereafter to reveal the Housatonic script lettering logo in yellow) The Hanlon's were very well connected to the Bridgeport area (southern terminus of the original Housatonic RR.) and were successful in getting this loco as the first one for their new tourist operation on the out of service former Penn Central/ New Haven trackage between Boardman's Bridge Rd in New Milford and just south of the Becton-Dickinson plant in North Canaan ( about 2 miles north of the loco's location)
The loco never had a road number applied. HRR referred to it internally as the #300 for its horsepower rating. Two military surplus Cummins engines were acquired to upgrade it, but never installed. The operation originated at the Canaan Union Station and ran progressively further south as the line was cleared of brush. Coaches were acquired from Connecticut DOT (owner of the track) that once served on Metro North and I believe Reading RR originally. As ridership and run length grew the little loco could pull all five coaches but really needed some help. HRR acquired a military surplus 80 ton GE center cab to supplement the little 45 ton. For a while the 45 ton served in pull-pull fashion with the 80 ton (referred to as #500 but also no number ever applied). Once the track was open to the run-around at Cornwall Bridge the need for two locos came to an end and the 45 ton was used less and less until falling into dis-use. Any deal with the Danbury museum was after my tenure with HRR (I was the first paid employee in 1985)
The Bay City crane was another donation that was used in the early days to clear the line. Several areas had mud and debris over the rails and in the ditches so the crane with a clamshell bucket was quite useful. The flatcar it sits on was left in town by the B&M and it was just borrowed but never returned (nor did they ask for it).
The quarry the loco is at once had a small mining railroad that crossed Sand Road at grade from the quarry. Much of the fill used to repair the washouts on the line came from there, but was loaded into a side dump car by the very large CAT loader that replaced the little railcars. The siding was known as Maltby's in New Haven Railroad days. The machine you looked at is an anchor applicator. Those odd shaped pieces clip to the underside of the rail and snug up against the crossties to keep the rail from sliding lengthwise.
I also must admit to being #1 on the ex & disgruntled HRR employee list, but I am no longer disgruntled. I do admire what the Housatonic has become. If Mr. Hanlon still holds whatever grudge he has then so be it. It was an interesting part of my then fledgling railroad career. I am now close to retirement, so it is what it is. You can look on TH-cam for a video done by another early Housatonic volunteer named Geoff Knees. He has more recently been involved with the Danbury group, but I do not know his current status. Thanks for a little blast from the past!
Wow. Al Thank you for this. You've got the inside scoop on this information that is otherwise a little hard to find (unless you happen to know someone or know the exact place to look, which I did not).
I looked up Geoff's video - it's here: th-cam.com/video/wVaxetDUaAo/w-d-xo.html. - a great view into those early HRRC days & this 45 tons use on the tourist train. I knew there had to be footage or photos of it, but somehow missed that video. The passenger cars were ex SEPTA, but if I recall right MN bought them off SEPTA in their early days. My late uncle was a railman who had some slides of them in MN service (slides that are probably in a box in my basement right now).
Not too surprised by the B&M's disinterest in that flat car. I recently road around New England shooting some of the many abandoned boxcar they left scattered around-probably the subject of a coming video.
That old crane on the flat car is pretty cool too!
Congratulations on the information you did find. Trying to find the lineage of industrial locomotives is HARD. "Mainline" locomotives, built by major manufacturers are well documented -- production runs, paint schemes, railroad rosters, etc. Industrial locos, not so much.
I like this, this is my kind of exploration.
Excellent work Joe, it's very nice to see an exploration channel that really makes the effort to dig into the history and back ground of the area/item being explored. Growing a new channel is very difficult, keep at it, you've a great start with much potential. Looking forward to seeing what's next.
Danke. I love going down the rabbit hole on research so that's going to be a part of anything I post on here. I'm liking this format and suspect I'll keep cranking them out for awhile. I'm more or less content to just slow roll things out to the best of my ability and hopefully the channel will grow a following.
Hope it's saved!
I guess the algorithms sent me so I watched the three videos and subscribed as I have a soft spot for Shortline and Industrial railroads. Indeed they can be mysterious yet they all have a personality and while the research can be time-consuming many times answers other questions. Luckily another viewer I noticed had quite a bit of information and as you stated led an obscure mysterious life. Actually that life has been since It was delivered back in 1942 as I'm sure Remington Arms wasn't keen on photography and it probably ran out of your regular schedule and most likely was stored indoors when not used so for 42 years it remained hidden in plain view. I had a good laugh when you said dimples referring to the poling pockets. A friend of mine now deceased one time had a crazy idea fueled by some Old Thompson whiskey that he had lots of power so he donned his welding cap and his father's 1930s leather football helmet and did a Don Quixote number into a poling pocket on an old boxcar. I believe he saw the Stars ( and the light) as the metal failed to move. Anyway even though I'm from Wisconsin the east certainly had quite an amount of Shortline and Industrial activity and was somewhat the Cradle of early railroading. So here's to all the Narrow Gauge track the little side dump cars and those companies long since vanished
Same - short lines and industrials are almost always interesting and the short lines often have the best old "abandoned" stuff laying around.
RKPD stands for the date the item was repacked. This being a brake cylinder, the unit must be removed, completely disassembled then refurbished with new parts.
Wow - thanks. That's a great detail. This part must have been serviced right before Remington sold it.
They need to be saved!
Just looking at the rods, it looks like a US Army 45 Tonner to me
I think the maint equip u looked at is a rail adjuster an tamper
I hate seeing abandoned, historic, or just plain interesting objects vandalized with graffiti.
I tend to agree. I like graffiti but not so much when it's on something old and historic. There's an argument to be made that any new paint on it will help keep the rust away though even one small tag will encourage more as time goes on.
I explore this theme a bit more in a video I'll probably post in a few weeks/months (about how an abandoned passenger train slowly attracted international graffiti writers).
The obvious best solution would be to not leave something like this sitting unsecured for so long.
That little center cab switcher was originally a housatonic locomotive the housatonic blow the motors on it when they had a short excursion train to station @ Canaan ct and then they moved it down to there and I don't know the date of when the thing was moved to where it sits
The loco was moved to the siding late in '86. It was the first locomotive I ever ran.
The track south of Canaan Connecticut to New Milford Connecticut was owned by the state of Connecticut not Metro-North the housatonic railroad bought the track Celtic Kane and all the way down to Danbury from the state and Metro-North back in the late 80s early 90s then I bought the track North Canaan to Pittsfield from Guilford rail systems industries in the 1990s
My reference to Metro North was the trackage rights they got on the Harlem line and route to Beacon. I've heard a few conflicting stories on why they never serviced the one or two Harlem line customers.