One advantage of the Mad River & Nickel Plate museum I neglected to discuss last month is their location next to a busy Norfolk Southern mainline. In the photo above you can see W&LE SD40-3 #3067 leading a train east into Bellevue. Following it is EMD #6381, a SD40-2 that was leased and then purchased by the W&LE in April 2002.
W&LE in Bellevue
Rio Grande in Ohio
Did you know that a rare D&RGW roams the rails in Ohio? It was a wet, overcast morning in Clyde, Ohio when I happened to see engine #301 in the distance. I apologize for the poor photograph, as I wasn’t exactly watching the tracks at this point.
Engine #301 is a GP40 that was sold to the W&LE from Union Pacific in 2001. I took the photo on the original W&LE line (ex-Nickel Plate) now owned by Norfolk Southern. The “new” W&LE was spun off by NS in 1990, taking their name from the original railroad that was bought by the Nickel Plate. The trackage rights to Toledo for W&LE trains were granted as part of the Conrail split in 1999.
The D&RGW was a transcontinental bridge route running from Denver to Salt Lake City. The mountain railroad featured the highest main line route in the United States. In 1988 the railroad merged with the Southern Pacific, and the combined company was purchased by the Union Pacific in 1996. There are only a handful of locomotives left in D&RGW paint.