Valley Railroad 3025
| Valley Railroad 3025 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 No. 3025 at Deep River in 2021. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Valley Railroad 3025 is a China Railways SY class 2-8-2 "Mikado"-type steam locomotive. It was built in 1989 by the Tangshan Locomotive and Rolling Stock Works as SY-1658M, and it was exported to the Knox and Kane Railroad (K&K) in the United States. In 1990, No. 1658 began hauling tourist trains for the K&K between Knox and Kane, Pennsylvania, and it often operated over the railroad’s primary attraction, the Kinzua Bridge. In 2006, the locomotive was put into storage, following a decline in ridership on the K&K.
In March 2008, No. 1658 sustained heavy damage, when the shed it was stored in was burned by arsons. In October, it was sold at an auction to the Connecticut Valley Railroad (VALE), who shipped it to their Essex, Connecticut location and rebuilt it to cosmetically resemble a New Haven locomotive. Renumbered as No. 3025, the locomotive returned to service, in 2011, and it began hauling tourist trains for the VALE.
Background
[edit]Design
[edit]No. 3025’s original class, the Chinese SY (abbreviation for shangyou (Chinese for "aim high")[3] locomotive, was a development from the JF6 class, which in turn was a variant of the heavier ALCO-designed JF1 class,[4] but the SYs received some design features the JF1s and JF6s lacked, including taller smokestacks, alternate motion bracket arrangements, a higher boiler pressure (210 psi (1,400 kPa), a lower axle loading (15 tonnes (33,000 lb), and all boxpok driving wheels.[3][5] Their tender tanks, which carried 9.5 tonnes (21,000 pounds) of coal and 25,000 liters (6,600 U.S. gal) of water, were designed with sloped-back sides for improved rearward vision for crews, since the SYs often operated in reverse.[6]
The first SY (SY-0001) was erected from the Tangshan Locomotive and Rolling Stock Works, in 1960, and then Tangshan, along with some other manufacturers, constructed over 1,800 locomotives for the class, until production ceased, in 1999.[7][8] In service, the SYs were primarily used for freight and switching services in Chinese mining and industrial areas, such as coal mines, iron ore mines, steel mills, and power stations.[3][9][10] The SYs would also haul passenger trains for workers on long-distance industrial rail networks.[3]
History
[edit]Knox and Kane Railroad 1658, as it was then known, was one of three China Railways SY class steam locomotives that were built by the Tangshan Locomotive and Rolling Stock Works in 1989 exclusively for tourist operations in the United States. Sloan Cornell, the founder of the Knox and Kane Railroad, purchased the locomotive at an undisclosed cost, and it arrived in Pennsylvania in the beginning of 1990.[11]
The locomotive ran for the Knox and Kane between 1990 and spring of 2006, when the railroad ceased all operations.[11] In storage in an engine house in Kane, locomotive 58 and other rolling stock was subjected to an early-morning arson attack on March 16, 2008. The locomotive was severely damaged, more so than its housemate, the 2-8-0 No. 38, which had thicker boiler skin. Its cab was lined with wood, which was completely destroyed.[citation needed]
On October 10, the locomotive was purchased at a liquidation auction by the Valley Railroad.[12] The new owners restored the locomotive to operating condition, and transformed its appearance to that of a New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad locomotive, numbered 3025.[13] Restoration was completed in 2011, and the locomotive entered revenue service on November 25, 2011, pulling the North Pole Express and becoming one of the railroad's regular road locomotives.[11]
Gallery
[edit]-
Valley Railroad 3025 operating as Knox and Kane No. 58 in July 1990 -
No. 3025 being parked near the Kinzua Bridge as Knox and Kane No. 58 in October 2001 -
3025 operating on the Connecticut Valley Railroad in 2011, after being restored. -
Firebox doors of 3025 -
3025 at Goodspeed Station during the Lee Carlson Memorial Photo Charter on April 24, 2021. -
3025 at Tate’s Cut in Deep River on September 24, 2021 -
VALE 3025 about to depart from Essex on December 17, 2021
References
[edit]
- ^ Gibbons (2016), p. 174
- ^ Gibbons (2016), p. 163
- ^ a b c d Gibbons (2016), p. 63
- ^ Gibbons (2016), p. 1
- ^ Gibbons (2016), p. 2
- ^ Gibbons (2016), p. 71
- ^ Gibbons (2016), p. 69
- ^ Gibbons (2016), p. 70
- ^ Gibbons (2016), p. 156
- ^ Gibbons (2016), p. 159
- ^ a b c Associated Press (December 25, 1989). "Steam Rides Again! China Engines, U.S. Rails". The New York Times.
- ^ "New Haven 3025". www.friendsvrr.org. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
- ^ "Essex Steam Train - www.rgusrail.com". www.rgusrail.com. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
Further reading
[edit]- Gibbons, Robin (2016). Locomotives of China - The JF6 Family - The JF6, PL2, YJ and SY Classes. United Kingdom: Tynedale Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9934192-1-8.
- Miller, Max R. (2017). Along the Valley Line: The History of the Connecticut Valley Railroad. Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 978-0-8195-7737-5.
- Nanos, Tom (March 2012). "Mikado Reborn". Railfan & Railroad. Vol. 31, no. 3. Carstens Publications. pp. 28–33.