Here’s my dad’s pic of a Chessie Steam Special heading through Darby PA, on its way from Philadelphia to to Baltimore in September 1978.
I was standing next to him when he took this shot, I think… I know I saw and shot the Steam Special with him that day, and I wasn’t driving yet, but I have no memory of this spot, so I’m not 100% sure.
…I was standing track side…{C&O}, here in Muncie…{now the Cardinal Greenway Trail}, when that train passed thru…Heading south. I remember the whistle sounded so weak and shrill. Can’t put a date on it.
Nice pic…
Amazing!
I have seen models offered of that train, but always thought it was a railfan’s dream consist. I was unaware that it was the ‘real deal’.
Thanks, for sharing!!
I remember it well. Not only was it an interesting draw to trackside, but it offered the public many opportunities for rare C&O and B&O mileage if you got tickets to ride.
I was at Pine Junction when it had to make the zigzag move to get off Conrail to get to the B&OCT line to Barr Yard (where the chicago runs originated and terminated).
I also remember seeing its successor, the Chessie Safety Express (basically the same passenger cars, but powered by C&O 614) going through Porter, off the C&O and onto Conrail trackage. It looked, and sounded, very good!
I will be honest… I’m really glad my dad got me to go trackside with him. (Even though I don’t recall the return run, I have vivid memories of the outbound run and the 2101 thundering through).
Thing is that I was only interested in freight trains at the time, freight with diesel power (yeah, I know, incredibly dumb… but I was a teenager and didn’t see the big picture yet).
As I recall, I agreed to go with him because I thought we’d see some B&O freight trains. He took a great shot of one that day in black and white which I’ll post soon.