The Lake Shore Railway Museum

The Lake Shore Railway Museum - North East, PA

The second stop for me on this trip would have me in the small Northwestern Pennsylvania borough of North East. This town is home to another Lake Shore & Michigan Southern passenger station which is the home of the Lake Shore Railway Museum. Originally built in 1899, this museum is operated by the Lake Shore Railway Historical Society and is home to several pieces of freight and passenger equipment including a former New York Central GE U25B locomotive along with their recent addition, a former Norfolk Southern GE B32-8. Both of the aforementioned locomotives were built not far from the depot at General Electric Transportation Systems in Erie. I would spend a fair amount of time here taking photos and railfanning. This is a great museum that has lots to offer the railfan and historian alike and is also on the National Register of Historic Places.
Special thanks goes to the museum's web site for historical information regarding some of the equipment shown here. The photos here are organized so as to show a particular aspect of the museum before moving onto something else, so they are not shown in the order they were taken but were all taken during my visit that day, enjoy...

The former Lake Shore & Michigan Southern (New York Central) passenger station at North East, PA. This station has historic train
equipment all around it along with a large collection of railroad artifacts inside the station as well as an HO scale model train layout!

Another view of the station. There is also a speaker mounted on the station building that broadcasts the railroad radio in this area as well.

The signal light underneath the "North East" letterboard at the station's entrance is lit up green when
the station's inside exhibits and gift shop are open. The outside grounds are open all day.

Inside the museum is this live steam model of New York Central 2-8-2 Mikado #2374.

Lots of railroad artifacts await you inside the station!

This nice HO scale model train layout is also set up inside the museum.

Now let's check out some equipment at the museum! Former New York Central 1947 Budd Stainless Steel 56 seat coach which is
still in Amtrak Phase I paint. It still has Amtrak's #5689 but was originally built as NYC #2950. I'm a member of the Western NY
Railway Historical Society here in Buffalo and we own 6 more of these coaches. A total of 60 were built for the Central in 1946
and 1947. The open windows in this car were installed long after the car was retired from Amtrak.

Original Empire Builder Dining Car #1251 "Lake Wenatchee" which is a 1951-built car by American Car & Foundry. The car was originally
built as a 36 seat diner and was eventually converted to a 48 seat diner. The car operated as Amtrak #8068 at one time and is the only
car of its kind in the museum's collection. The car was most recently repainted in 2013.

Another original Empire Builder car is part of the museum's collection. Sleeping Car #1273 was built by Pullman in 1950 and named
"Pend O'Reille River". This car never went to Amtrak and is in its original as-built configuration. This car is configured with a total of
8 duplex roomettes, 3 double bedrooms , 1 compartment, and 4 open sections. The car's exterior was also painted in 2013.

Former New York Central GE U25B #2500. This locomotive was built at the nearby General Electric Transportation Systems plant in Erie
in 1963. It was the first U25B built for the New York Central and according to the museum is one of only two ex-NYC units of this type to
still exist. It was last used by Conrail in 1982. GE repainted it into NYC paint in 1993.

The Illuminating Company #6 a fireless steam locomotive that was built in 1937 by the Heisler Locomotive Works in Erie. This 0-6-0
steamer was used in Ashtabula, OH by the Cleveland Illuminating Company until 1973. 30 were built and and approximately 6 survive.
The museum's only steam locomotive, it was restored to run on compressed air in 2002 and repainted in 2013. It's the only operating
fireless steam locomotive in North America.

The museum's most recent addition, former Norfolk Southern GE B32-8 #3563 (also known as Dash 8-32B). This engine was built in
1989 at GE Transportation Systems in Erie and is the first engine of its kind to be preserved in a museum. Only 49 were ever built.
I guess I'm starting to show my age here as I can remember seeing these units on mainline freights with NS, time sure flies!!!

Chicago, South Shore & South Bend Railroad #802. An electric locomotive in the "2-D+D-2" configuration and called "Little Joe". 20 of
these were built and this is one of only 3 that are known to exist. It was one of the last mainline electric freight locomotives to operate
in North America and was retired in 1983.

Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Baggage Car #1530. This car was built by the CB&Q in 1918 and is
the only baggage car in the museum's collection and is used for exhibits/displays.

Pittsburgh & Shawmutt Wooden Caboose #164. This caboose was built by the Russell Snowplow Company of Ridgeway, PA in 1916.

A short train of equipment at the museum lead by Ellwood National Forge #188, a 1950-built locomotive by GE that was used by
the Pennsylvania Power Company of New Castle, PA. This unit is operational and is used to move equipment around the museum.

As soon as you pull into the museum's parking lot, you go over this road crossing. This track eventually leads back to the CSX
mainline so this museum does have a connection to an active railroad.

Of course, here in North East, there's no shortage of active freight trains as the station is located next to two active mainlines. Over on
the NS is this westbound manifest lead by NS EMD SD70M-2 #2766.

The Loram RailVac excavator was also on the same NS train as pictured above.

Next up is CSX Train Q-264 with GE ES44AC #826 leading this eastbound through North East.

This one snuck up on me! Here's an eastbound CSX freight with GE C40-8W #7815 leading. The building in the background
is owned by Welch's, the company that makes some of the best tasting grape juice in the world and many of the grapes used
for that delicious grape juice are grown in this part of the country!!!

This eastbound CSX van train had GE ES44AC #707 leading as it whizzed by the museum.

What I showed you here is only a small sample of what this museum has! This is one of the best railroad museums in the northeast as you have tons of equipment on display and no end to the hit parade of freight trains (and 2 Amtrak trains also) that pass by here each day! For more information on this excellent museum including more historical information, I've included a link to their website below.
After I left here, I headed over to Iroquois Avenue which parallels the GE Test Track to see if any new locomotives were being tested but none were there. I then headed to McDonald's for lunch before continuing to my final destination of Conneaut, OH to visit the Conneaut Historical Railroad Museum. Click that link below to see more from another great museum inside a former Lake Shore & Michigan Southern passenger station!