Monday, July 14, 2008

Varnish in Town

I got a rather cryptic call from a friend this afternoon. "The tourist train is coming into town right now" he said. It took a minute to figure out what he was talking about. For the Zanesville and Western Scenic Railway to get to its new home near Avondale it would obviously have to come through Zanesville- although I figured it happened while I was out of town earlier this week.

So I raced out of the office and a few blocks away to the yard. A few minutes later a B30-7 led a gaggle of heavyweights, a pair of cabooses and an Sw1 belonging to the former Buckeye Scenic, which was evicted from its home near Heath in an unfortunate series of events precipitated by a real f'ing douchebag, into the yard.

Bringing up the rear was a B23-7. There was a fellow in the cab taking pictures, perhaps to present a different view of this historic event.

The motley collection was being taken to Avondale on the former NYC Glass Rock branch, to be put into storage until the tourist pike gets started. When I first heard that is where the collection was going to be stored, I figured it would be in the woods near the switch with the OC, instead of close to the Ohio 93 crossing. Hopefully it is a safe spot, and all the windows emerge from storage intact. Same with the copper wire, come to think of it.


On my way back from New Lexington I saw the SW1 was indeed close to the road, so I stopped to take a picture- in much better light than our previous encounter. Best of luck to the Zanesville and Western.



The train consisted of a group of heavyweight (6 axle) cars in a D&H inspired scheme, an N&W caboose, a gondola with seats in it, a C&O caboose, and the road's Sw1.