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Rails Across the Berkshire Hills Railroad Photography 1980-1984 By John Bazan So
Rails Across the Berkshire Hills Railroad Photography 1980-1984 By John Bazan
Soft Cover
Copyright 1984 Black & white photos
Pages not numbered 50-60 pages?
Introduction
Four years ago I stood on a towering keystone railroad arch in the Berkshire Hills near Middlefield, Massachusetts, watching seven Conrail blue diesel locomotives across the river blast, inch and wind a ponderous westbound freight train up through the mountainous Westfield Gorge. From that day, that gusty but awakening spring afternoon in 1980, I began photographing trains.
It was an adventure those four memorable years. Throughout the Berkshire Hills to photograph trains I traveled, visiting historic old bridges and tunnels, vintage gingerbread stations, forgotten villages and forgotten railroads. All generated that great air of excitement called railfanning, and I must confess, I fell victim to the epidemic from the very start.
By watching trains I learned about railroads, their operations and traditions, but I also saw changes arrive locally. Conrail eliminated pushers on the old Boston and Albany in 1982, and the sight and sound of an SD40-2 packing 3000 horsepowers behind a Conrail caboose is all but a memory. Nowadays, Conrail engineers must 'double the hill'-break the train in half-if and when their train looses traction on the steep climb between Chester and Washington, Massachusetts.
From the West and over the Berkshire Hills came new diesel locomotives. Majestic dinosaurs they were, in contrast to the familiar GP38s and SD40s. From General Motors, by way of the Boston and Albany, came Conrail's latest SD50 units, numbered from 67006739. From General Electric came the dashing B36-7 locomotives, numbered from 5000-5059. I always liked the GE units. Their fierce, bulldozer-sounding four-stroke engine, over-sized radiators, and rounded cab give them a distinctive sound as well as a custom-like appearance. General Electric certainly brings "good things to life", for train-lovers, at least.
There were other changes. In 1981, Conrail sold the only two local branchlines to the Boston & Maine: the scenic Pittsfield-Canaan (Conn.) line and the sleepy little Pittsfield and North Adams line. B&M services the Pittsfield-Canaan with a single GP9 and crew based out of Pittsfield, but the Pittsfield and North Adams road is now serviced out of North Adams, and only as far south as Adams, a distance of five miles, over B&M's Fitchburg Division. The remaining track south of Adams sees infrequent use.
But for me, it was Conrail and the Boston and Albany that made me a railroad buff. The pushers are gone today, however, and to me, the pushers had always given train-watching an 'extra punch'.
Six giant Conrail locomotives, eighty ramblin' freight cars and a caboose separated the last pusher I saw in Middlefield, Massachusetts: an episode I shall never forget. Up around the ice-covered bend that pusher crept, a flashy blue SD40-2 pounding rigidly behind the caboose in a cloud of dust. The steel behemoth thundered towards me relentlessly, its howl of 3000 horsepowers screaming above the roaring and swift current of the Westfield River. Past me the powerful locomotive thundered, pounding westbound across a solid concrete arch and quickly vanishing behind a deep dark granite cutting.
Still, the turbocharged roar of the engine hung in the air. A distinctive roar it was that afternoon, resembling the mournful sound of a huge propellor-driven plane lost on an overcast day amid the clouds. But soon the last echo of the engine gave way to silence. I stood alone waiting, somehow. Why? I'm not sure. I turned back for home finally, only to stop again to wait alongside the track.
Down from the West a warm blustery wind swept past me, winding its course through the gorge much like an imaginary ghost train. Tree branches swayed, icicles crackled and shattered, miniature ground streams sparkled in the overcast sun. Suddenly, it was spring again.
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