Who and what was conductor George Rush waving goodbye to in this 1976 scene in Akron? Watch Roger's Durfee's tribute to the memory of Erie Lackawanna and decide for yourself.

If you have a passion for the late Erie Lackawanna, then you’ve got to see Roger’s Durfee’s music and images tribute to the EL. A link to the 3-minute program is provided at the bottom of this paragraph.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxH-F99kAcQ&context=C4ee886cADvjVQa1PpcFO9i21aNZT4AG7cI_YEuSItR-USN53QcBs=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D25WKJ8vXok&feature=relmfu

Roger has written a commentary that explains how and why he put the program together. You can read that by clicking on the link below.

http://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/photography-pages/one-of-these-mornings-on-the-el/

Blogmaster Craig Sanders provides his own interpretation of the program and what he saw in it. To read his comments, click on the link below.

http://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/photography-pages/one-of-these-mornings-on-the-el/how-a-program-just-blew-me-away/

Bright red leaves stand out as an eastbound CSX train passes the signals at Pawnee Road west of Lodi in early October 2011. (Photograph by Roger Durfee)

The weekend of Oct. 8-9, 2011, was a photographer’s dream. With clear, sunny skies and unseasonably warm temperatures, shutterbugs were out en masse to take advantage of the favorable conditions. Even better was the fact that fall foliage in Northeast Ohio was starting to blaze away in red, gold and orange.

Akron Railroad Club member Roger Durfee became a self-described “shootin’ fool” during the weekend. He traveled west along the CSX New Castle Subdivision in search of fall foliage and trains. To view a gallery of the images that Roger captured that weekend click on the link below.

http://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/trackside-tales/quest-for-fall-foliage/

The view of the memorial on January 9, 2011, as captured by Roger Durfee.

The view of the Edward Road memorial as captured on January 9, 2011, by Peter Bowler.

http://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/photography-pages/two-views-of-a-trackside-memorial/

A Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad train kicks up the snow as it nears Bath Road on January 16, 2011. (Photograph by Roger Durfee)

If you saw the four seasons program at the January 2011 Akron Railroad Club meeting, you no doubt admired the winter photograph of Roger Durfee. A conductor for Norfolk Southern by day, on weekends in the winter you will more than likely find Roger track side with camera in hand.

He says winter offers more opportunities for dramatic images because of the variety of weather conditions. It is not all snow and clouds.  Posted here are few of Roger’s recent winter images. All were recorded on January 16, 2011.

BNSF power leads a coal train east of Kent eastbound on CSX.

A westbound CSX intermodal train passes the golf course on the east side of Kent.

A CSX westbound coke train passes through Kent along the Cuyahoga River. The sun was in and out on this day.

B&O No. 800 leads the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad train into Peninsula.

Passing by the fountain at the motorcyle club at Smith Road just north of Akron.

In a view from the Route 261 bridge in Kent, the Wheeling & Lake Erie train from Falls Junction lumbers toward Mogadore. The slow speed of the train made it possible to get horizontal and vertical angles at this spot. (Photographs by Roger Durfee)

Saturday, December 18, 2010, dawned bright and amazingly clear in Northeast Ohio. With several inches of snow having fallen in the past week, it would be the perfect day to get out for some winter rail photography.

I started out up at Falls Junction to see the Cleveland Commercial Railroad’s “new” LTEX GP39-2, the 2372. I then headed to Brady Lake to catch 20R on the Norfolk Southern.

With NS and CSX being quiet I headed over to shoot Bob Rohal’s “Flash” in the snow at Shelly Materials just west of Kent.

As I was doing that I heard horns. There was nothing close on CSX or NS so I figured it was the Wheeling & Lake Erie.

A short drive to the Wheeling bridge over Mogadore Road in Kent found the W&LE scrap train heading south for Canton with immaculate GP35 No. 112 in the lead.

The chase was on! All in all I caught the train at 18 locations.

At the time, I didn’t realize exactly what I was shooting with that 112. That unit “was” the 2679, one of the two high hood red and yellow painted locomotives, otherwise known as “painted ladies.” The Brewster shops finished it earlier in the month, and this trip had to be one of its first runs as it shows having been released for duty four days prior.

It’s now a “GP35-3″ with new electronics, a new short hood, and a new paint scheme.  Gotta love the Wheeling. Who else is putting out GP35 rebuilds that look this good! To view more photographs from this chase, click on the link below. 

http://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/trackside-tales/sun-snow-and-an-immaculate-wle-loco/

Roger Durfee

Coming out of the wood and coming up a grade near the Mogadore Country Club.

In Middlebranch with the Essroc silos in the distance.

This photo by Roger Durfee of a Norfolk Southern intermodal train passing the rockslide detectors at Cassandra, Pennsylvania, is featured in the December 2010 section of the 2011 NS calendar.

Akron Railroad Club member Roger Durfee had a photograph selected for the 2011 Norfolk Southern calendar, but don’t look for it in 2011. Say what? This will take some explaining.

Durfee’s photo of an NS stack train plowing through the snow at Cassandra, Pennsylvania, was placed with the December section of calendar. That makes sense given that cold and snow are mainstays in the last month of the year. But Roger’s image is in the December 2010 section of the calendar, not the December 2011 section.

Stranger still is that Roger had the photo for the December 2010 section of the NS 2010 calendar. So if you want to display Roger’s Cassandra in winter photo for December 2010 you need to take down his photo of an NS steel coil train taken at Bedford that was used for December in the 2010 calendar. Got all that?

Roger, who works as a conductor in the Cleveland Terminal, said in the biography section of the calendar that winter is his favorite time to photograph railroad operations because the images can be quite dramatic.

His shot at Cassandra was recorded while he was attending a meeting of the Conrail Historical Society in nearby Cresson, Pennsylvania. During a break in the meeting, he grabbed his camera and headed out trackside in what he described as brutally cold temperatures. But he was dressed warmly and reported being more worried about the effects of the weather on his camera than on himself.

Roger’s images have appeared in the NS calendar for the past several years. All calendar images were recorded by NS employees and the selection process to be in the calendar is competitive.

You can see more of Roger’s winter images during the January 28, 2011, ARRC meeting. Roger will be one of four members presenting a tag team program titled “The Four Seasons.” Roger will present, you guessed it, the images for winter.

Three Ohio NS employees also had photographs published in the 2011 NS calendar, although just one of them was taken in Ohio. Willie Brown, a locomotive engineer based at Mingo Junction has two images in the calendar. The January 2011 image shows a train near Powhatan, Ohio, while his image of a train at Time, Pennsylvania, is the photo for December 2011.

Christopher Rotondo, a locomotive engineer based in Canton, has an image of a train at Chester, West Virginia, that graces the May calendar. Bill Gantz, a locomotive engineer based at Powhatan Point, Ohio, has the image that illustrates October 2011. It was recorded at Galilee, Pennsylvania.

The Norfolk Southern executive train awaits its depature from Cleveland on October 16, 2010. The train carried "Miracle Kids" on a roundtrip to Toledo.

It doesn’t happen often, but when it does it sure gets attention. We’re speaking about an appearance by the Norfolk Southern executive train in Northeast Ohio. NS may be known for black locomotives, but the black, white and gold livery of the F units that lead the executive train are head turners. The passenger cars that accompany the train are painted Tuscan red, a livery similiar to that used by NS predecessor Norfolk & Western for its passenger trains.

Few ever get a chance to ride on the NS executive train. It is, after all, a business tool used to ferry high-ranking executives and to entertain shippers, key government officials and other VIPs.

Sometimes, though, the exec train is used for public relations and charity purposes. Such was the case on October 16, 2010, when the train journeyed to Cleveland from its home base in Altoona, Pennsylvania, to carry several “Miracle Kids” on a roundtrip journey between Cleveland and Toledo on behalf of the Children’s Miracle Network.

Akron Railroad Club member Roger Durfee, who is an NS conductor, was among several NS employees who volunteered to work aboard the Miracle Express. Serving as the “official” photographer, Durfee provides us an onboard-view of what it is like to ride the NS executive train.

Photographs by Roger Durfee

The full-width dome car provides a spectacular panaromic view.

The view from the theater car of Lakefront line between downtown and Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. The Greater Clevelant RTA Red Line is visible to the left.

The lift bridge over the Cuyahoga River in downtown Cleveland recedes in the distance as does Cleveland Browns Stadium.

An NS local (right) sports the caboose assigned to Motor Yard in Macedonia. At left is the theater car of the NS executive train.

The full-width dome car used on the Norfolk Southern executive train. This car was formerly part of the Conrail executive train fleet. It was originally built for the Santa Fe as a dormitory-dome-lounge.

The Missouri Pacific heritage unit of the Union Pacific reposes at the fuel rack at Collinwood Yard on July 24, 2010. (Photograph by Roger Durfee)

Akron Railroad Club member Roger Durfee was on his way to a summer festival in Cleveland with his wife on July 24, 2010, when he intercepted the Union Pacific heritage unit 1982, which is decorated for the Missouri Pacific. To see more of Roger’s photos of the unit and another surprise, click on the link below.

http://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/trackside-tales/finds-on-the-way-to-a-summer-festival/

An eastbound Norfolk Southern coal train with two BNSF units trailing, crosses the Bridge No. 1 over the Cuyahoga River. The view is from the observation of Cleveland Terminal Tower. (Photographs by Roger Durfee)

The public observation deck of Cleveland’s Terminal Tower reopened on July 18, 2010, after being closed since September 2001. ARRC member Roger Dufee and his wife, Michelle, were among those who waited in a long line to reach the perch on the 42^nd floor of Cleveland’s most distinctive landmark. From there, they enjoyed a captivating panoramic view that included views of the Norfolk Southern Chicago-Pittsburgh mainline on Cleveland’s lakefront.

The building, officially opened on June 28, 1930, is 52 stories tall.

It was the second tallest building in the world—behind the Empire State Building in New York City—until 1953.

The glass-enclosed observation deck has a capacity of 50 and was to be open for four consecutive weekends beginning July 10. The observation deck has been open only during special occasions in recent years. It was renovated as part of a $40 million rehabilitation project that wrapped up in January this year.

Terminal Tower was built as a office building and hovered over the Cleveland Union Terminal. Intercity trains used CUT until December 31, 1971. A former Erie Lackawanna commuter train continued to use the terminal until it made its last runs on January 14, 1977.

The train station, now a shopping center known as Tower City, continues to serve RTA trains.

Hulett ore unloaders can be seen inside the loop in the trees just below those three tanks in the upper left of the view of Whiskey Island.

An RTA Lakefront line train on the bridge over the NS. Note the Art Deco style of the Coast Guard station on the other side of the Cuyahoga River.

The Iowa Interstate business train reposes in the late afternoon sun in downtown Oakmont, Pennsylvania, on July 11, 2010. (Photograph by Roger Durfee)

As odd as it might sound, if you wanted to see the Iowa Interstate during the weekend of July 9-11, 2010, but didn’t want to trek all the way out to Iowa, all you had to do was be in Pittsburgh. The IAIS parked its business train in suburban Oakmont, which was the site of the LPGA U.S. Open golf tournament being held at the Oakmont County Club.

The train was parked downtown in an easily accessible location that was also quite scenic for an urban setting.

Akron Railroad Club members Craig Sanders and Roger Durfee journeyed to Oakmont on Sunday to photograph the IAIS train in late afternoon light. The weather cooperated and the train was quite striking in its red, yellow and black livery.

Before arriving in Oakmont, though, the pair also captured some images of the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, the Wheeling & Lake Erie, Norfolk Southern and the Youngstown & Southeastern. Yes, that’s right. They shot the YS. Well, sort of. The railroad had parked its locomotive fleet and a few cars by the depot in North Lima, Ohio, for the weekend.

To read Craig’s account of their trip and to view more of Roger’s photos, click on the link below.

http://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/trackside-tales/a-bit-of-iowa-in-pittsburgh/

On Monday, ARRC member Richard Jacobs caught the IAIS executive train as it rolled through Ohio en route home. He captured the crew change on the W&LE at Brewster and then caught the train again near dusk at Orrville. To read Jake’s account of chasing the IAIS executive train, click on the link below.

http://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/trackside-tales/a-bit-of-iowa-in-pittsburgh/not-the-usual-brewster-crew-change/

Crew change at Brewster! A new W&LE crew confers with the crew leaving and the IAIS man in the red vest, before boarding the Iowa Interstate Railroad executive special westbound at Brewster, Ohio, on Monday, July 12, 2010. (Photograph by Richard Jacobs)

Buried in the engine service facility, the Kansas City Southern "eco set" reposes before more testing on the Buffalo & Pittsburgh. (Photographs by Roger Durfee)

Roger Durfee  knew there was a Kansas City Southern ”eco set” (GP22ECO-W) testing on the Buffalo & Pittsburgh Petrolia job out of Butler, Pennsylvania. But the units were testing on a weekday job and Roger works on weekdays Thus going it would be tough to make it over there to see them working.

As he managed to get a Thursday off recently and headed for Butler. The Petrolia job is usually called around 10 a.m. at Butler, does some switching, then departs north. The job had been running with a pair of B&P painted GP-9′s and the KCS set, and sure enough that set was resting in the engine house upon his arrival.

To read Roger’s report of his chase of the units and see a photo gallery, click on the link below.

http://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/trackside-tales/long-way-from-kansas-city/

Chasing the Goodyear blimp over Akron led to chasing this Wheeling & Lake Erie train. (Photograph by Roger Durfee)

Click below to read Roger’s account of the chase and view a gallery of photographs.

http://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/wle-20th-anniversary-tribute/the-blimp-and-a-chase-on-the-wheeling/

Wheeling and Lake Erie No. 302, wearing a Rio Grande tribute livery, passes the one-time depot in Kent. The building is now operated by a feed store. (Photograph by Roger Durfee)

But he wanted to find an Akron Barberton Cluster Railway job and he pressed ahead anyway. Then Roger got lucky. He stumbled onto the southbound Wheeling & Lake Erie train out of Falls Junction.

What was unusual about this train? Click below to read Roger’s report and view a gallery of photographs.

http://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/wle-20th-anniversary-tribute/cloudy-saturday-on-the-cleveland-sub/

BNSF 4731 clad in Santa Fe warbonnet colors leads the Q380 eastbound as a walker enjoys an early morning sojourn. (Photographs by Roger Durfee)

I had a little time to kill before attending an Operation Lifesave event in Cleveland on April 28, 2010, so I decided to hang out at the Marcy bridge. It was a cool but sunny morning, and CSX was busy.

I caught a wide variety of trains and foreign power, which can by typical for this line. Included in the sights were locomotives from BNSF, Union Pacific and Soo Line

Roger Durfee  

A pair of Soo Line units lead the Q393 westbound. Seeing two matching Soo Line units is getting to be a rare site.

A trio of Union Pacific units with flags flying leads the Q091 westbound. This train, one of the hottest on CSX, is a run through perishables train that originates on the west coast. The cars are returning to be reloaded with more produce.

Yes, CSX did run trains with its own power on the point. CSX 435 soars high above a couple of walkers on the towpath trail below.

The "Spirit of Goodyear" lands at the Goodyear hangar at Wingfoot Lake as a trio of Wheeling & Lake Erie locomotives passes by. (Photograph by Roger Durfee)

The railroad is not the only attraction there. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company maintains a hangar at Wingfoot Lake for its blimp, the “Spirit of Goodyear.”

Recently, Roger finally achieved a long-time goal of shooting a train and the blimp at the same time. Read his report about how he made this dream come true and view more photoraphs by clicking on the link below:

http://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/wle-20th-anniversary-tribute/the-wings-of-the-wheeling/

Norfolk Southern westbound stack train 25Z comes out of the Garfield sag east of Beloit, Ohio, on April 10, 2010. (Photograph by Roger Durfee)

Saturday, April 10, 2010, dawned in northeast Ohio with clear skies and pleasant temperatures. It was perfect weather to go out to photograph trains. Akron Railroad Club members Craig Sanders and Roger Durfee spent the day exploring the Norfolk Southern Cleveland Line around and east of Alliance.

By afternoon, they had reached the Garfield sag and were rewarded with ideal lighting for a westbound stack train coming up and out of the sag.

To read Craig’s report on the outing and view more of Roger’s photographs, click on the link below.

http://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/trackside-tales/sagging-east-of-alliance/

Power on Wheeling & Lake Erie trains can be anything and it usually is. (Photograph by Roger Durfee)

Already the section includes a historical sketch of the modern Wheeling, complete with a few factoids about the original W&LE, which began in the 19th century and operated through 1949 when it was swallowed up by the Nickel Plate Road.

Today’s feature presentation is a series of photographs and a short story by ARRC member Roger Durfee about a day on the W&LE’s Cleveland Subdivision in the vicinity of Wingfoot Lake, located southeast of Akron.

To read Roger’s story and view his photogaphs, click on the link below. Look for more photographs and content in the coming weeks and months.

http://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/wle-20th-anniversary-tribute/wingfoot-lake-and-vicinity/

A sure sign of spring is when the railroads begin running stone trains. Roger Durfee spotted this empty stone train at Motor Yard in Macedonia with a former Conrail unit and BNSF locomotive. Durfee reported seeing this same motive power lashup later in the day departing Chrysler Yard on NS train 65Z. No. 3437 is former Conrail 6982, an SD40-2R rebuilt from SD40 No. 6300. At one point in the Conrail era, this unit was the railroad's "savings bonds" locomotive. (Photograph by Roger Durfee)

The six-page article appears on Pages 34-39 and is headlined “Cleveland’s Streamliner Rocks.”

Sanders began working on the article last November and submitted it in late December. It is published in the annual tourist lines and museums issue.

Accompanying the article is an online only story written by Sanders about the CVSR’s Polar Express train. That feature is accompanied by five photographs taken by Bowler. It can be seen by clicking on this link:

http://www.trains.com/trn/default.aspx?c=a&id=6555

CSX Q138, led by the 5440 leaves Willard amid a winter wonderland. The view was captured on February 8, 2010. (Photographs by Roger Durfee)

Northeast Ohio residents are no strangers to snow and ice. As annoying and inconvenient as winter weather can be, it also presents a beauty that no other season can quite match.

Akron Railroad Club member Roger Durfee headed west from his home in Cuyahoga Falls on Monday, February 8, to Willard to capture some winter shots of CSX trains in the snow, ice and fog. It looked as though Mother Nature had used a spray gun on the trees and other plants to coat them in white. A few days later, he went back, this time to Greenwich, to get some more winter action on CSX.

To see see more of Roger’s winter portraits, click on the link below.

http://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/trackside-tales/the-snow-the-fog-and-csx-trains/

Also included in this gallery as a few images he captured while taking his wife to Geneva on February 19.  There aren’t any trains in the images, but there is much winter beauty to admire.

Someone must be an Ohio State fan at Feathering Hills as a CSX train passes by a picture-perfect winter scene. (Photograph by Roger Durfee)

There is nothing like the nose of a covered wagon breaking a blanket of freshly fallen snow. (Photograph by Roger Durfee)

Durfee, one of the most prolific photographers in the Akron Railroad Club, spent two recent weekends chasing the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, one of his favorite railroads to photograph no matter what the season.

Rare winter sunshine and fresh snow combined to create perfect photographic conditions in late January and early February, getting images wasn’t always easy.

Durfee reports that to record the image shown above, he had to stand in knee-deep snow next to the tracks near the Howe Meadow crossing. He couldn’t easy get away and got sprayed with snow as the train passed. “But it was worth it,” he said.

Aside from the ARRC blog, Dufee’s work can be found on Trainorders.com and Railpictures.net. He said that he has received many positive comments about his winter shots of the CVSR Cabin Fever Express trains.

The winter trains operate through the last weekend of February, departing Rockside Road Station in Independence at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., and Akron Northside Station at 11:35 a.m. Tickets are $10 per person and can be purchased online at cvsr.com or on the train on the day of the trip.

You can find and admire more of Durfee’s winter work on the CVSR by clicking on the link below. 

http://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/trackside-tales/stopping-by-the-cvsr-on-a-snowy-weekend/

Nearly 11 hours late, the westbound Capitol Limited leaves Alliance, Ohio. (Photograph by Roger Durfee)

A massive winter storm that paralyzed the East Coast on December 18-19, 2009, would create a bonus for railroad photographers in northeast Ohio. The storm resulted in the Washington to Chicago Captiol Limited operating through Alliance and Cleveland some 11 hours late and offering a rare chance to photograph an Amtrak train in daylight.

Akron Railroad Club member Roger Durfee was among those who went trackside to record the late Capitol. To read his account of catching the train at Alliance and to view additional photographs, click on the link below.

http://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/trackside-tales/daylight-encounter-with-the-capitol-limited/