Friday, June 23, 2017

Quick Stop in Utica

Utica, NY has several interesting pieces of equipment on static display, besides a large and successful scenic railroad.  I'm not sure whether all of these display pieces belong to the Adirondack or the NRHS.  
An Alco road switcher:


A Santa Fe diner is rather far from home:


And a Pennsy cabin car:



Finally, the real jewel of the fleet has not yet recovered from a bad accident.


This nice little NYC switcher was sitting on display on a stub-end siding near the station, minding its own business about two years ago, when a vandal released the hand brake on a loaded hopper.  The car rolled downhill, over the derail, and smashed into the locomotive.  It's still on display, but there's obvious frame damage to both loco and tender, as well as other parts.  








And across the tracks from the Amtrak platform is the southern terminal of the Adirondack Scenic.


They seem to have a variety of paint schemes in use.  Some day we'll have to find time to ride.





Finally, let's have another contest.  Identify what this was used for and win a prize.  (Hint: this is not in Utica, it's elsewhere.)  Only one entry per person, please.

5 comments:

Josh Sutherland said...

Cleaning ice out of tunnel/snowshed roofs?

Anonymous said...

Some sort of counterweight ?

Randy Stahl

Anonymous said...

No couplers... welded solidly to the rails... it must be the world's largest end-of-track bumper?

Mike G.

Anonymous said...

almost looks like something of Civil War vintage
C Kronenwetter
IRM Member

lee wells said...

You've got me stumped. It's hard to tell how high it actually is, but the pipes at the top look like they could be used to deice trolley wire. Doesn't look like it would fit under most bridges over railroads.

L. Wells