Warning:  Today’s post has nothing to do with motorcycles other than us being passed by a BMW R1150RT and a K1200GT.  We also saw a Kawasaki Ninja, Honda Nighthawk S, and a Harley Davidson Heritage Softail.  Today’s post is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent any disease.

Yesterday, I had a day off from work, so Amy, Kaitlyn and I all went down to Byesville, OH in Guernsey County to take a ride on the Byesville Scenic Railway.  This weekend was the “Coal Miner’s Festival” and the trains were being pulled by the Ohio Central Railroad’s 1293, a G-5 4-6-2 steam locomotive built in 1948.  According to the Ohio Central Steam website:

 

 

 

 

 

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OHCR 4-6-2 No. 1293 Specifications
Builder:	Canadian Locomotive Company, Ltd.
Built:	June 1948 Bldr. No. 2450
Wheel Arrrangement:	4-6-2 (Pacific)
Driver Diameter:	70 inches
Boiler Pressure:	250 psi
Tractive Effort:	34,000 lbs.
Engine Weight:	234,000 pounds
Weight on Drivers:	151,000 pounds
CPR Class:	G-5d
Fuel:	Coal
Status:	OPERATIONAL

Built for: Canadian Pacific Railway Company as 1293
Sale: 12/1963 to Monadnock, Steamtown & Northern Amusements Corp., Inc. at North Walpole, NH
Transfer of corporate assets: 1964 to F. Nelson Blount
Transfer of corporate assets: April 1965 to Green Mountain Railroad Corporation
Sale: 07/1973 to Steamtown Foundation at Bellows Falls, VT; moved to Scranton, PA in September 1984

Although they were among the last steam locomotives purchased by the Canadian Pacific, the class G-5 bore more than a passing resemblance to other CP 4-6-2’s built as early as 1905. Combining the reliability of an old and proven design with the efficiency of latter day steam technology, the G-5’s were instantly successful, and found favor over virtually all of the CP system.

Six of the G-5’s are still around today. 
No. 1201 is preserved at the National Museum of Canada, in Ottawa.
No. 1246 is on display at the Danbury Railway Museum, in Danbury, CT. 
No.’s 1238 & 1286 are privately owned by Jack Showalter and are stored in Staunton, VA. 
No.’s 1278 & 1293 are at the Ohio Central’s Morgan Run Shops
1278 stored pending future restoration (see 1278) and 1293 stored serviceable.

1293 was run at Steamtown in Bellows Falls, VT in the late 1970’s having been restored for Vermont’s Bicentennial. She ran from Riverside to Rutland and Riverside to Chester, VT for Steamtown operations and last saw service in 1980. At the end of 1979, she pulled a five car train painted in matching black and silver for a month of movie work on the CNR near Montreal filming “Train to Terror” for Astro Films.

This 4-6-2 was moved to Scranton, PA with the rest of the Steamtown collection in September 1984 where she sat dormant until 1996, when the Ohio Central purchased her. She received a 13-month restoration and was returned to service in the fall of 1997.

She debuted at Sugarcreek, OH, on Thursday, September 18, 1997 and after six Sugarcreek to Baltic roundtrip excursions, starred pulling mainline varnish for “SteamFest ‘97″. She has had zero over-the-road failures since.

We arrived at 9:40 AM and we could see the black smoke and steam from the boiler being fired over a mile away.  It was great being there early, as the temperature was only about 40 degrees, which made for some impressive photos.  We were able to get our tickets with no wait.  Kaitlyn asked for the next hour, “Can we get on the train yet?”  We walked around taking photos, watching the crew, and even got to climb up in the locomotive.  We got photos of almost everything we did this day, except when Kaitlyn and I climbed up in the locomotive, as some craft vendor kept Amy busy.  Amy never dreamed we would be allowed to go in the locomotive, so she didn’t pay attention to us. 

 

At about 10:45 we boarded the train and were pulled south out of Byesville, OH by one of the diesel locomotives in the BSRW fleet.  I am not sure of the model of this diesel locomotive.  If anybody knows what it is, leave a comment.  We traveled about 4 miles south, then the diesel cut out of the train and we were pulled back to Byesville by the Ohio Central 1293 steam locomotive.  During the whole ride, there were volunteers in each coach telling the history of the area and telling what it was like to be a coal miner.  These volunteers were very entertaining and informative.  Coal was the major industry of the area.  There used to be 12 deep coal mines along the 3.5 miles of the Marietta Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad that we traveled.   There were many swamps and ponds that the guides explained were mines that had filled with water and collapsed.  During the ride back to Byesville, the engineer of the OCRR 1293 was more than generous with the whistle.  A couple of times along the route, coal smoke was thick outside of our windows.  I love the smell of burning coal.

 

After we took our ride, we walked a block along Second Street to the Rotary Park.  The Byesville Rotary Club was cooking whole chickens over an open fire.  We saw hundreds of chickens cooking on racks over a huge fire when we arrived in the morning.  This was the best barbeque chicken that I have eaten in years.  We sat at a picnic table, being chased by yellow jackets.  We moved to a table in the shade, away from the trash cans, and the bees were not quite as bad.    

After lunch, we waited for the 1:00 PM ride to depart, and we went to a grade crossing to get some photos and video.  Kaitlyn found a smashed penny and a railroad spike.  She sat for about 45 minutes and played with another small girl.  They explored the rails and played in the dirt.  Amy gave up on trying to keep Kaitlyn clean.  When the train came, Kaitlyn started yelling for everybody to “Get off of the tracks!”  She can be heard on the videos as the steam engine is approaching, after a long blast of the whistle.  Amy and I had as much fun sitting and taking photos as we did actually riding the train.  

 

We are fortunate to live in the area that we do.  The Ohio Central Railroad has ten steam engines and they use some of them for excursion rides.  They used to have daily service in Sugarcreek, Ohio just south of us.  I miss the days of seeing the steam locomotives all of the time.  It has been said that the insurance costs too much to continue the frequent use of live steam.  Several years ago, there was a steam tractor that exploded in Medina, Ohio killing several people and there has been a steady decline of steam events ever since. 

I am sorry that this post had nothing to do with motorcycles.  I enjoy trains very much, and I know others do too.  This is the first time that I have had the chance to ride a train pulled by a steam locomotive.  I have seen many steam engines in the past, and I am fascinated by them still.  This trip was a great day spent with family and enjoying trains.  Maybe next year Kaitlyn will be big enough to ride with me on the motorcycle to this event.  If the 1293, or any other steam engine is there, I will be there too.

Tags: Byesville Scenic Railway, Ohio Central Railroad 1293, Pennsylvania Railroad, Steam Engine, Steam Locomotive

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 5th, 2008 at 10:46 pm and is filed under In Ohio, Not really about motorcycles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.