Today's Train of Thought- Way to Go Ohio, Aug 24th 2013

Today's Train of Thought takes us to the verdant fields in the eastern corner of the Buckeye State.

Referred to in tourism literature as the 'Little Switzerland of Ohio', Sugarcreek, OH is known for its gently rolling hills, Amish and Swiss background and until a few years ago, the home of Ohio Central's steam program. The public excursions stopped with the Genesee & Wyoming acquisition of the Ohio Central. However the OHCR's previous owner, Jerry Jacobson, retained his considerable collection of former Ohio Central steam locomotives as part of the deal.

Not only did Jacobson retain his steam fleet, he also had a roundhouse constructed from scratch to house everything. Although he made it clear from the outset that he wouldn't be operating excursions out of Sugarcreek like before, the steam locomotives housed in what would be called the Age of Steam roundhouse would be made available to other scenic and tourist railroads in the region, including the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic outside of Cleveland.

Of course, as the Age of Steam roundhouse is being constructed, there's still a railroad for Genesee & Wyoming to run. The OHCR line through Sugarcreek runs north-south through the gently rolling hills (hence the 'Little Switzerland' moniker) between their Coshocton hub and the Wheeling & Lake Erie interchange in Brewster, OH. Commodities hauled include coal, steel, grain and aggregates- and with ongoing drilling and exploration of the Utica Shale, there's potential for additional traffic including pipe and fracking sand.

Here, railpictures.net contributor Richard Thompson caught Ohio Central B23S-7 #4093 and a trailing Super 7 trundling past a cornfield with a southbound mixed freight outside of Sugarcreek, OH on July 30th 2012. The two-unit lashup represents a sort of 'before and after' of the Ohio Central with the trailing unit in GWRR orange and black.

Today's Train of Thought- Everything's Gonna Be A-OK! July 16, 2010

Today's train of thought takes us to the Sooner State and one of it's newer shortlines- one with a somewhat fortuitous acronym.

Between 1980 and 1996, the 73-mile stretch of former Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific tracks between McAlester to Howe, OK had no less than four parties owning or operating it- the Rock Island, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railway (also known as 'The Katy'), Union Pacific and the State of Oklahoma. The Katy purchased the line immediately after the Rock Island's 1980 bankruptcy and liquidation. In 1986, the State of Oklahoma purchased the line from the Katy while allowing the Katy to continue operating over it until their 1991 acquisition by Union Pacific. A similar deal with the UP remained in place until 1996, when the UP transferred all operating rights to the newly formed Arkansas-Oklahoma Railroad (the A-OK).

Interchanging with the Kansas City Southern at Howe and the UP at McAlester, the A-OK hauls wheat, frac sand, plastic, stone, gravel, pipes, coal as well as occasional carloadings of Army munitions from the McAlester Army Ammuntion Plant on the Howe-McAlester line. In 2001, the UP agreed to lease its 36-mile Shawnee branch between Oklahoma City and Shawnee, OK to the A-OK. Traffic on this separate line includes cars inbound for GM distribution facility in Midwest City, OK.

Motive power for the A-OK has been pretty varied since its inception as well. The line started off with some secondhand EMD GP series diesels and older end-cab EMD switchers before increased traffic meant the A-OK (like the Wellsboro & Corning in Pennsylvania) would need bigger and higher horsepower locomotives.

This seemed to coincide with the CSX and Norfolk Southern splitting up Conrail a decade ago- one byproduct of that was that both lines felt they had more locomotives than they needed and began selling off some of the motive power they inherited from Conrail.

And this is where the A-OK got some of it's newer diesels. At first, the A-OK wound up with about a half-dozen of the standard GE B23-7 locomotives from Conrail. This was followed by the appearance of two additional, rarer B23s....the rebuilt Super 7s built for the Monongahela Railroad more than 20 years ago. Conrail wound up acquiring them in their 1993 merger of the Monongahela, but by the time it was split between CSX and NS, Conrail, Norfolk Southern and CSX had acquired more state-of-the-art examples of GE motive power. The Super 7s were dispersed to a few shortlines and reigonals such as the Providence & Worcester, Ohio Central and Arkansas-Oklahoma.

Here, railpictures.net contributor Arthur James catches two examples of the GEs rostered by the A-OK, with rebuilt Super 7 #4093 leading unrebuilt B23-7 #4061 across a small trestle at Wister, OK on a bright February 2008 day with a small cut of cars for the Kansas City Southern interchange at Howe. The locomotives are painted in colors reminiscent of Rock Island's earlier colors (although the Rock Island never owned any Dash 7s- super or otherwise). As one commenter on railpicture.net pointed out, a casual glance seems to indicate that the A-OK takes pride in it's equipment and dedicates some effort into keeping it clean.

Today's Train of Thought- It's Going to Be a Super (7) Day; Oct. 25 2009

Today's Train of Thought features one odder creations to have come from General Electric's Erie, PA factory in the last 20 years- the experimental 'Super 7' series. The Super 7s were basically heavily rebuilt 'Universal' series locomotives that were traded into General Electric for newer Dash 8 locomotives. Instead of scrapping them completely, GE decided to keep the frames and trucks and give the vintage trade-ins new motors and carbodies. It was only marginally successful- with the Monongahela Railway being the only domestic customer for an order of what was essentially eleven heavily rebuilt ex-Western Pacific U23Bs [U= Universal; 23 = 2300 HP; B = 4-axle wheel arrangement]. However, the Super 7 series generated some interest south of the border, as Mexico's Ferrocarriles Nacionales Mexico (the then state-run railroad) ordered close to 100 to be rebuilt from their retired U36Cs as well as some former Delaware & Hudson and Southern U33Cs and Milwaukee Road and Union Pacific U30Cs. This fleet survived the subsequent privatization of Mexico's railroads and was included in the fleet of TFM (Transportes Ferroviaria Mexicana- now Kansas City Southern de Mexico) and can still be seen operating anywhere between Veracruz and Chicago. Some of the Super 7 demonstrators found their way north to a new home on Quebec ore-hauler Roberval & Saguenay, as well.

Within a few years of ordering the Super 7s, the Monongahela was taken over by Conrail. Conrail, in turn, was split between CSX and Norfolk Southern in 1999. The Super 7s dutifully served Conrail and CSX before the latter decided to sell off the oddities. Takers for the 11-unit fleet included the Providence & Worcester, Ohi-Rail, the New Castle Industrial Railroad, Arkansas & Oklahoma and Ohio Central. On a bright August 2008 day, railpictures.net contributor Mike Mautner caught OHCR B23-S7 #4093 and a sister Super 7 heading up the Coshocton-Zanesville, OH 'Steel train' across the Tuscawaras River bridge in West Lafayette, OH.

Since this photo was taken, shortline operator Genesee & Wyoming announced their acquisition of the Ohio Central railroad. So it's entirely possible that besides wearing the paint of Ohio Central, CSX, Conrail and the Monongehela, the 4093 might also be wearing G&W's trademark orange in due time.