Steam Revenue Freight - On the Road to Paradise

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• published: 15 Nov 2012
• views: 380782

Penn Rail Videos is proud to present, our 300th YouTube video. We knew the footage featured in this video wasn't something that we could just post as a regular video. This footage is incomparable to anything else we have. This is steam pulling revenue freight trains, in the 21st Century. And it's happening on the "Road to Paradise", better known as the Strasburg Railroad. We have footage from three separate visits during 2012. For those not familiar, the Strasburg Railroad within recent years has gotten back into the freight business; transloading to be precise. For the most part, the freight would be handled by the line's SW8, #8618. However very rarely, one of the steam engines would be called upon to perform the said duty. For 2012, the Strasburg Railroad began to make steam-powered freights a scheduled activity. For those who wanted to ride, they paid the train's conductor and we're actually aboard a revenue freight train, pulled by an authentic steam locomotive - sometimes even two! Friday, July 6th, 2012 - We lucked out on this hot summer morning; it was quiet with just ourselves and the locomotive crew. We'll watch as these gentlemen prepare ex-N&W; 4-8-0 #475 for its run out to Paradise, as they will pick up one lone car. Luck was on our side, as the steam freight was met by an Amtrak Keystone service train, racing eastward towards Philadelphia. The respective trains even salute each other! After we follow them out and back, we'll watch them spot the car to be unloaded. Wednesday, August 22nd, 2012 - Once again we are our in Amish Country bright and early to witness a steam locomotive pulling a revenue freight train. Once again it would be #475 doing the honors. This time however, there were SEVEN loaded cars down at the interchange track. Because of the amount of weight, it was decided that SW8 #8618 would go along for the ride, just in case. This train was also a "mixed train", in that there was a coach in the consist behind the freight cars. Quite a crowd on this morning too! We set off to follow the train out and back. This day's train consisted of a few hoppers, boxcars, and centerbeam (lumber) cars. With such a sizeable train in tow, we voted to position ourselves at Cherry Hill. This would give us an opportunity to witness steam power in the 21st century, at it's finest! Even the SW8 had to give 475 a little bit of help as she climbed the 1.25% grade. Once again, we'll watch #475 spot the cars in the East Strasburg yard. Wednesday, October 24th, 2012 - With daylight savings around the corner, we make one last attempt to capture steam-powered revenue freight before the weather becomes cold, and the days are shorter. On this day however, we were gifted to find not one, but TWO steam locomotives fired up for this run. We managed to get #475 again, but assisting #475 would be ex-CN 2-6-0 #89. The two engines would grab a sizable train off the interchange train at Leaman Place, and proceed west. We made our last clip of this video #475 and #89 starting the climb towards Cherry Hill, just west of Paradise at a spot called "Long Curve". We would personally like to thank the Strasburg Railroad in putting on quite a show of steam power in 2012. While they've always had a class act, the folks here have really set the bar with their preservation of steam railroading from a by-gone era. We hope that in 2013, the Strasburg Railroad continues to operate these types of trains for many of us to enjoy and savor once again. We would also like to personally thank Mike Huhn. On the day of the steam double-header, our camera battery malfunction and we thought we were stranded. This amazing event could not have been documented by us, if it wasn't for Mike Huhn allowing us to use his FlipCam. We are forever grateful to Mike and his generosity will not go unnoticed. We want to especially thank our subscribers and fans. It's because of you folks that we continue to bring you the best we have to offer in railroad entertainment. We strive to bring you action-packed high-definition quality productions, and we're glad that you seem to think that our videos are in fact worth watching. Thanks to all the fans, viewers, and subscribers for helping us reach this momentous occasion.