B L&E I didn't see it at first.

Renovo PPR

Renovo PPR

Just a Farmer
Dec 23, 2006
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Somerset County PA
Here is a simple photograph of the B L&E a few years back. Just a neat photograph of the red train.

funit.jpg


However look in the background. Like I said with a quick look you don't see it so fast. However was it something from the past doing a little freight duty?

f2.jpg
 
Ya but if you look even closer the engineer is smoking in the cab. I thought they were not allowed to, ummm. Maybe its just a pen hes holding in his fingers.
 
I'm surprised to see the Missabe units in the middle of that lashup... I didn't think the two roads shared power, even though they were part of Great Lakes Trans.

Those B&LE F units got sent out on lease back in the '70s and '80s. There's pictures of them on CP freights in Ontario. And I recall in the late '80s that CN leased some B&LE SD9s.... they must have really been hurting for power! :)
 
DM&IR leased out power in the off months throughout its history. There are plenty of instances of them on the Clinchfield, DT&I, and other lines, so why not also on a road under common corporate control?

B&LE's traffic faded along with the Pittsburgh steel industry in the late 1970s through the 1980s so it's only natural that they'd have surplus power in that period.

~BS
 
Squidbait said:
I'm surprised to see the Missabe units in the middle of that lashup... I didn't think the two roads shared power, even though they were part of Great Lakes Trans.

Those B&LE F units got sent out on lease back in the '70s and '80s. There's pictures of them on CP freights in Ontario. And I recall in the late '80s that CN leased some B&LE SD9s.... they must have really been hurting for power! :)
Click to expand...


I see B&LE units here all the time with DM&IR units,but never in the lead.I also believe they did send engines back and forth between the two roads as Ive seen BL&E engines lettered for the DM&IR.

Chris
 


Yes, as Chris posted, the two railroads tradded locos many times to compare maitenence costs, wich were always almost exactly the same. The Dmir revieved BL&E (861 I think) it stayed around long enough that the DMIR painted a pumpkin on it an dubbed it "The Pumpkin" until it recieved DMIR paint. Many DMIR locos were sold the the B&LE including many SD-Ms.​
 
DMIR and BLE have swapped/leased/traded engines for decades. In fact the Missabe had one set of BLE F7's on their property so long they repainted them with DMIR heralds in place of the Bessermer ones!! The roads have sent stuff back and forth for decades, at least as far back as the B&LE 2-10-4's that came to the Missabe around 1951.
 
Now I recognize the shot. I remember seeing it on another site, with the caption that the F had recently been taken out of service. The photo was taken in early 2000. Or was it just another lookalike scene?
 
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