Adirondack Scenic Railroad (ASR) May 2011
Based at Utica, NY, the Adirondack Scenic Railroad is a very well run Railroad indeed. On this trip the main purpose was to ride with Bart Jennings on one of his “Rare Mileage Trips”, which was to cover both the line from Utica to Carter, which the ASRR run over with their regular services, and the line to Lyons Fall, which the Mohawk, Adirondack & Northern (MA&N) operate over with their freight services.
We’d planned the trip expecting Alco’s on both days, originally we’d been hoping for Mohawk locos, which we couldn’t fail with, however it then came to light that the ASRR would be using their own power, which meant we were in the lap of the gods regarding Alco power as the C424 #4243 had just been put off-lease and the RS3 #8223 was out of service. However, the ASRR had just bought two RS18’s and were returning them to service #1835 & #1845, unfortunately neither was fit for traffic at the time the train operated, yet one was a week later, which we found sitting under the bridge at Utica as we passed back through, so close yet so far……
As luck did have it the ASRR’s GP9 #6076 required assistance on the first day’s trip, to Carter, which was so kindly provided by the MA&N in the shape of Alco C425 #805! And a good day out it was, unfortunately the weather was a bit rubbish but the C425 more than made up for that. From an Alco perspective we weren’t so lucky the following day, for the trip to Lyons Fall, as the ASRR’s EMD F10 #1502 had been tripped in from the shops and worked the train in multiple with the GP9 #6076 on the outbound with the GP9 working back on it’s own, and the F10 left dead on the rear of the train.
There were plenty of photo-stops on both days, some requiring more challenging approaches to reach the correct spot than others, but all in all it was an excellent weekend, with no major injuries….. Details of the “Rare Mileage Trips” operated by Bart can be found on the Southern Appalachia Railway Museum’s website, along with photos from previous trips; http://www.techscribes.com/sarm/sarm.htm
The ASRR’s fleet as at May 18th 2011 was as follows:
Alco
1835 (RS18u) Under repair
1845 (RS18u) Under repair
8223 (RS3) Out of service, waiting a turbo
4243 (C424) Off-lease, to leave the railway
EMD
1500 (F7A) Stored out of service
1502 (F10) In service
1508 (F7A) Out of service, maybe to be bought by the railway
6076 (GP9) In service
705 (SW1) Stored
