Well, the local newpaper in January talked about #33 not operating this year. Well, today I learned that for some unknown to me reason. the HVSRR was forced to sell there operating steam locomotive #33 to somewhere in central ohio. http://home.frognet.net/~mcfadden/wd8rif/img/hvsr14.jpg http://home.frognet.net/~mcfadden/wd8rif/img/hvsr13.jpg the other bad news. the origonal coaling tower had to be torn down to make way for a bike trail. last month I rode the train, it was still standing. but when I went railfanning today It wasn't there and there was a pile of concrete rubble all along the tracks for a distance :tb-sad:. http://home.frognet.net/~mcfadden/wd8rif/img/hvsr8.jpg Also, alot of track along the siding is getting ripped up and moved to make room for the same @%@$ bikeing trail. :tb-confused: One other thing. besides #33 ALOT of rolling stock the place had in march is gone from the property. the woodside caboose is no where in site. nither is the power car. Final bad news. One of the harimans they had had a few windows smashed by vandels during the week so its out of service near where the coaling tower used to be.
The 33 was sold/traded a few years ago to Jerry Jacobsen of the Ohio Central in exchange for, I believe, a GP10. I was a member there during the late '90s, and the 33 was inoperable then. I always thought they did things well. OC restored the engine to operation and it now resides in Jerry's steam collection. Looking at the railroad's web site Welcome to the Hocking Valley Scenic Railway doesn't indicate any problems. John Riddle, who was a heavy hitter with the group, passed away about a year ago; maybe things have soured.
The hocking valley crew had it operating about 3 years ago. however athens county didn't like the pollution and they where forced to stop operating it, it fell into a sad shape, then it was sold. the coaling tower and serveral pieces of rolling stock have been removed over the winter and recently.
A friend of mine was down there a couple months ago and the train was full to capacity. Another friend of mine who is friends with several of the members of HVSR says there is no problems and the railroad is not in trouble. A video posted on here earlier this year showed some of the equipment that supposedly was gone, still in active use by the railroad.
