Bonus Photos From Pennsylvania & Ohio

  For this travelogue, I invite you to eat dessert first or eat the pizza crust first! I'm gonna show you a series of photos taken BEFORE the "Night At The Railroad Museum" event started. The reason for this is quite simple, this day started for me visiting these other places and would end with the events at the Lake Shore Railway Museum in North East, PA. I started this day somewhere near 4:00am, making the drive from the Buffalo area to my first stop at Bort Road in North East, PA. My plan was to photograph Amtrak Train #48 - The Lake Shore Limited, then head to Erie to go have breakfast at Chick Fil-A since we don't have this chain in Buffalo! I would end up chatting with a couple railfans from the Rochester, NY-area, then a group of fans showed up from Reading, PA who were also in town for the museum events!
  After a great breakfast, I hopped back on I-90 and took a drive to Ashtabula, OH to check out the former Lake Shore & Michigan Southern (New York Central) passenger station there which is now used by CSX as a freight office/signal house of some kind. I was also looking for photo locations in the area as I would be back here again in a month to see Nickel Plate Road Steam Locomotive #765 when it makes an excursion run to Ashtabula from Youngstown.
I eventually made my way over to the Conneaut Railroad Museum which is located inside another former LS&MS passenger depot. It is also home to Nickel Plate Road #755, a sister locomotive to #765! After spending some time here, I decided to go back to Erie and would get a room at the Red Roof Inn there. After checking into the hotel, I decided to "take a nap" since it was now later in the afternoon and I've been going at this now since 4:00am! Initially, I planned on spending most of the night at the "Night At The Railroad Museum" event as it was set to be open all night for railfanning though I knew I had to work the following day so I was glad to have the hotel and I knew I could stay out late but not all night since I had to eventually get some sleep!
  After taking a nap, I headed up to North East to attend the actual event. There were a group of railfans I knew from Buffalo who made the trip here as well. The museum started a night photo session featuring their GE U25B that's painted up for New York Central. The museum grounds were also open for anyone who wanted to do night photography (like me) as well as just hang out and watch trains, all night! There was also a constant stream of slide/photo shows outside that were put on by several people. I would stay there until sometime after midnight as I knew I did have to work the next day so eventually, I drove back to Erie to the Red Roof Inn and would call it a day, then the next early afternoon, make the drive back home. Included here are "Bonus Photos" taken before the events at the museum! Enjoy...

Amtrak Train #48 - The Lake Shore Limited comes flying through North East, having departed it's most recent stop at Erie, PA on time.
I arrived here at the Bort Road overpass within 5 minutes of when this train arrived here!!! Today's train had GE P42DC #174 leading.

Next up was CSX Train Q-004 with GE ES40DC #5314 leading this eastbound.

Here we have westbound CSX Train Q-377 with GE C40-8W #7375 leading, this was a former Conrail unit.

Over to the Norfolk Southern's Ex-Nickel Plate main, we have westbound Train #205 on a heavily banked curve (no this was not
photoshopped to get that effect!) with GE C40-8W #8340 which was another former Conrail unit on the head end.

Back over to the CSX Former New York Central Water Level Route, we have eastbound manifest Train Q-386 with GE C40-8W #7767 which
looks like she could use a trip through the paint booth!

And here would be my "photo of the morning"! We have a meet with CSX Train Q-386 passing Q-167. To provide location, we are 70 miles from Buffalo
here and if you're hungry, you can get an Egg McMuffin at the nearby Golden Arches though this morning, I'm heading to Chick Fil-A!

After a great breakfast, I drove out to Ashtabula, OH to check out the old Lake Shore & Michigan Southern passenger station here which is now a
signal house/freight office for CSX. Obviously, I couldn't get any closer to it per the sign in this photo, it definitely looks like it's seen better days.

Another view of this historic depot.

Now back in Conneaut, OH, I stopped by the Conneaut Railroad Museum at another former LS&MS passenger station. According to a sign in the
station, the last passenger train stopped here in 1962.

The highlight of the collection at the Conneaut Museum would be former Nickel Plate Road Class S-2 2-8-4 Berkshire #755 which has been here since
1964 and is sporting a fresh coat of paint. This is a sister locomotive to the NKP #765 which I'll be riding behind coming up on August 1st!!!

A view of the front of this mighty Berkshire!

A "sort-of" cab view out the fireman's side of NKP #755!

A "cab view" from #755.

An eastbound CSX van train passes by with EMD SD60I #8751 for power, and yes, it's another former Conrail unit!

Former Bessemer & Lake Erie Hopper Car #76857, built in 1937, it's on display with the NKP #755 in Conneaut.

Bessemer & Lake Erie Caboose #1825 is also on display and you can walk through it as well.

Over at the nearby Norfolk Southern Conneaut Yard, we see EMD SD60E #6941 and EMD GP38-2 #5035 with a couple cabooses.
Photo was taken with a Sigma 18-250mm zoom lens from the street!

A view of the yard from Chestnut Street in Conneaut. I still remember riding behind Norfolk & Western Class J 4-8-4 Steamer #611 in 1993 and we were
all let off the train in this yard as Conneaut was the endpoint destination for that trip! Now let's head back east!