LwS EXTRA: High Iron Company’s 1973 D&H Sesquicentennial Excursion
On Memorial Day weekend in 1973, Ross Rowland Jr.'s High Iron Company organized an excursion train to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the Delaware & Hudson Railroad. The train would be pulled by ex-Reading #2102 dressed up to look like D&H #302. Jim Van Brocklin, who along with John Prophet was a prominent member of the Niagara Frontier Chapter of the NRHS, packed his family into the car and chased the train from just outside Hoboken, NJ to Binghamton, NY. Prior to this event, however, Jim did a "trial run" of sorts by recording a similar excursion that ran on the D&H tracks from Colonie, NY to Montreal, Canada in late April of 1973; likewise pulled by "D&H #302." Jim caught this train just outside of Mechanicville, NY using a portable stereo reel-to-reel tape recorder and two microphones. The results are spectacular.
The image above shows Jim Van Brocklin reviewing some technical data with Father Edward T. Dunn, author of "A History of Railroads in Western New York." It's Jim's recordings of Reading #2102/D&H #302 that are featured in this episode of LWS Extra.
Like John M. Prophet, Jim had a very extensive collection of rail sounds that will be featured in future episodes of Living with Steam.
Here is a video showing the actual run of the High Iron Company "New York State Express" on May 26-27, 1973.
Here is a series of YouTube videos of a documentary from Mark I Video Productions on Ross Rowland Jr. Unfortunately, the video is cut off before the end of part 3.
Part 1: https://youtu.be/y7rVxcTIIBQ
Part 2: https://youtu.be/-NFweQknCKA
Part 3: https://youtu.be/s7axdinrw-o
Ross Rowland Jr.'s High Iron Company organized some of the best and most successful railfan excursion trips in the late 60s into the early 70s.
Here is a write-up in Classic Trains about the "Golden Spike Centennial" train.
Above is an image of Reading #2102 all dressed up as D&H #302. More images of the High Iron Company train can be found at:
Listener Kenneth Gear is a member of the website Trainorders.com and posted an inquiry on my behalf about the 1973 trip. Ken informed me that Ross Rowland was a member of the group on Trainorders.com but did not hear back from him in time to post a message back to the Living with Steam Facebook page. However, Ken did hear back from someone else who was part of HICO and rode #2102 during the Memorial Day trip. Here is the text Ken received:
“I remember the trip...
“Before the morning departure from Binghamton, magazine MRR Craftsman & Tony Koester awarded HICO crew The Model of the Month Award for the "kit-bash" of 2102 into D&H 302. The award prize was a Dremel Motor Tool Kit, which was received by NKP Boilermaker, Joe Karal... Tongues firmly "planted in our cheeks".”
“There was a snap-shot posted in a subsequently published issue of MRR-C .. 2102 always performed like A star.... Very few problems, surprising capabilities. A fine example of the Reading loco-builders' skills. And yes, 2102 was built from a boiler used on an I-10 class, 2-8-0.... and was intended to burn an 80/20 mix of soft coal/Anthracite.”
“On excursions, we burned various soft coal fuels from WV. It fired best, with a large 'heel" (of coked, 'green coal') across the rear 20% of the grate, and under the HT stoker's firing-table. The thin-bed, 80% of the grate was easily kept flat, BRIGHT, and level as a result of the combined action of the Rattling individual 'finger-grates' ( sifting-of) the ash bed, and the strong draft ---- lofting cinders high into the air --- above the speedy T-1class.”
“Another aid to improved drafting was the use of the Cyclone Front End. The Cyclone Front End was a patented design using a spiral, sheet metal vertical drum coiled around the base of the stack, instead of the (high maintenance', typical 'Master Mechanics Front End' ---- with its conventional woven steel netting.”
“The Cyclone Front End was made with special, tough steel ( to fight cinder abrasion and cutting, with vertical corrugations on it's inner, decreasing-radius spiral passage... at high wind velocities up the stack, any glowing embers were abraded against the tighter inner spiral, as they headed to the base of the smokestack.”
“The stronger the draft, the stronger the gas-stream velocity into the spiral... centrifugal force does the rest! Ergo, NO live sparks out the stack, EVER.”
“Wonderfully designed Reading T-1 locos, inspired the G3 class, Pacifics of 1946-48. Reading's General Boilermaker ( extroadinaire), was Ben Kantner, who mourned the scrapping of all 10 of the G-3-class, 4-6-2, brand-new, Reading-built Pacifics, class of 1948. He called those, modern, booster-equipped, engines: "Baby T-1s"“
“I sure do-wish that a couple of those G-3 locos were preserved. Historian, George Hart, told me that all 10 were sold for scrap, in the mid-1950s, to make a month's payroll for the RR.. It's wonderful to see the STRONG Reading 2102, out " strutting her stuff", again!”
Another big excursion offered by High Iron Co. was the American Freedom Train. A great article about the train can be found at freedomtrain.org.
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