I liked when the BM&R ran two trains, I remember the PRR E8's passing us at Leesport when I rode the Railfan Weekend II train June 27, 1987 from Temple with 425. The E's were heading southbound to Temple while we were heading northbound to South Hamburg. When they passed, it seemed like they were going 50 mph and the horn blew right in my ear! It was loud! How often did the BM&R run two trains? When were those two trains with the Reading diesels passing each other at Leesport in this video?
Thanks for the information. And I just said the paintscheme on the U-boats were similar. The Blue Mountain & Reading was on the Questar/Pentrex video "Great American Train Rides: Volume 2" made in 1995, so my information was a bit off.
I thought it was the Blue Mountain & Reading. Or are they two different railroads. The BM&R had the same scheme on their U23B. Thanx fur sharin'! 4 1/2 thumbs up!
What kind of horn did those blue BM&R CF7's have? It sounded like a blat horn, like what some F units and GG1's had. Was it a Wabco E something or a Leslie A-200?
Fmnut, can you answer this question? How were they able to run long distance excursions on Conrail which boarded at Temple station Sept. 1985, then also Leesport, Shoemakersville, and South Hamburg fall 1987, and 1988 but they stopped running those trips after 1988? Did Conrail put its foot down and say no to the excursions after a while or wasn't Andy Muller interested in doing them anymore? I know it would be much harder if not impossible for Reading and Northern to run excursions on NS today.
Why did the BM&R stop tourist trains on the original line? Weren't they making any money? I rode it a few times, 1986, 1987, and 1988 with blue diesel switcher pulling RDC from Temple, Railfan Weekend II June 27, 1987 with 425 from Temple, and an Easter train in 1988 with 2102 from South Hamburg. I also rode behind 2102 from Emmaus to Pennsburg Sept 1991 and 425 Leesport to Jim Thorpe June or July, 1992 and Tunkhannock June, 2009. Why isn't 425 running this year? Will it run again in the future?
Why did the railroads switch from steam to diesel in the first place? Because diesel cost less, was less maintenance/labor intensive, and easier to run. But, on tourist railroads, it's steam that brings out the people and equals more ticket sales. Why is Strasburg popular? Because they run steam everyday. Why are most eastern PA/NJ tourist railroads except Strasburg and Steamtown not running steam and using diesel this year? Is it because most of the steam locomotives are down for maintenance?
