Top photos from December 26th, 2019

December 26th, 2019

Leaving family near Buffalo, we continued westward, stopping for three eastbounds at the museum at North East. We found the Bessemer and Lake Erie with a rare BLE leader in the yard in Conneaut but could not get a good shot from the one forested vantage we found across the valley, and finished the day with a stop at the Napoleon, Defiance & Western Railroad, a railroad with the dubious distinction of being known for its rather exceptional lack of maintenance.

North East, Pennsylvania

(map) The town of North East is the home of an excellent museum of preserved railway equipment, including a weird GE-built "little Joe" Russian electric locomotive that was never delivered to the former Cold War adversary. The museum is on the web here. The museum is built around a well-preserved station on the busy CSX Buffalo-Chicago line and encourages railfans with a scanner blaring over the platform and a clear view of both the CSX and NS lines.

Conneaut, Ohio

Steve told me I needed to check Conneaut -- and you do too. It is an interesting town on the south shore of Lake Erie which is not easy to explore but has plenty to see if you are willing to go down small single lane roads to their ends.

Napolean, Ohio

Napolean is the northern limit of the Napolean, Defiance, and Western Railroad. Chasing this line is relatively easy -- even on foot.