Genesee & Wyoming 125th Anniversary Heritage Unit attends the Ridgway Firemens Bicentennial Parade

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On June 22nd, 2024, Midnight Mainline & I headed to the Ridgway Firemens Bicentennial Parade in hopes to see if Genesee & Wyoming Inc.'s 125th Anniversary Heritage Unit #1899 was still on display at the Ridgway Depot, which is called the 200 West Main Business. As we had to park outside of town and walk about 20 minutes to the depot, we saw the 1899 was not sitting next to the depot, but was sitting next to the parking lot for the depot and was facing north. So they wyed the locomotive the pervious night on the Ex. PRR Line which runs to St. Mary's, PA, before parking it by the BR&P/B&O Depot. We managed to capture the parade going by, sadly in backlit conditions but still a cool occurrence not to take photos. After the parade we would grab photos as it got cloudy before walking back to car and moving it to the depot. We would then wait for the sun to go down, and perform a night photo shoot. The Night Photo Shoot was very successful as we were discussing our plans with the Depot Owner's and her friend's we were planning in doing a Night Photo Shoot with the G&W Heritage Unit and was curious if they knew anyone with a classic car. Her friend tried to get a Classic Fire Truck but found out he was sick. So as we were taking photos of it as the sun disappeared, a local resident on a bike decided to pull up and get photos of the 1899. He asked kindly if he could get some and we said sure we'll pause while he did that. Then both my buddy & I, looked at each other and thought of the same thing, why don't we ask him to be a prop to pose with GNWR #1899. So we asked and he was totally fine with it and he actually loved the photos so much that he didn't even take his own. We made his night, which actually he made ours. We told him we tried to get a Classic Car down here but was unsuccessful, so him posing with the bike made up for that. Of course we got his contact info so we could send him his photos with the 1899. Not shortly afterwards we got to talk to the Depot Owner again before heading back home so we could get some rest and return in the morning with Dropped Signal. We managed to get some exposures of the 1905 Built Ridgway Depot by the Buffalo Rochester& Pittsburgh Railroad (which became the Baltimore & Ohio), with the golf cart sadly, but luckily we did ask the Depot Owner to bring the keys after she left, as we figured it was too late for her to move it for our exposures, so we requested it to be moved in the morning so we could get the 1899 with the Depot unobstructed. Big shoutout goes to her for moving it, and not only that, giving us the heads-up they were moving it the next morning.

We would arrive back on the scene the next day, June 23rd, 2024, with now Dropped Signal along, and we managed to show up just when the crew arrived. We were happy to see "The Smoke God" as what I previously nicknamed him for his time on the WNYP, would be our engineer on the 1899. He now works for the Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad. They would have issues starting up the locomotive, as the previous crew had left AutoStart on which is useless to a engine that would be sitting more than 24 hours which can drain the batteries. After trial and error, they finally got the 1899 started up. We then asked if he could position the locomotive by the depot as it was requested by the Depot Owner since it wasn't on Display next to the Depot for the Parade. He was totally cool with it, and we managed to get them to pose it in 2 positions by the Ridgway Depot. A Big Thank You goes to the crew for doing that for us. We chased the 1899 back to Johnsonburg, and after they parked the 1899, they would hop in the Geep that is the yard local. We would manage to catch that switching the Yard & a Facility. And we did manage to see the 1899 parked as well before leaving for the day.

We did get to hear that Leslie RS3L a little bit on this chase, but make sure to stay tuned for more uploads as we did get to chase this unit leading SIBF not even a week later hearing that beautiful RS3L even more. Also, we have plenty of content on the way jam-packed with Fallen Flags, Old Signals, Special Units, Unusual Trains, Classic Power, Heritage Units, Train Horns, and more Steam Locomotive Content. Our month of July will most likely be more tamed as we our next trip we are hoping to attend is the Reading & Northern 2102 excursion to Pittson in August. The Fall is jam packed with so many events I'm interested in, it's not even funny. I still will be pushing out content though cuz we've got a lot!

Midnight Mainline YouTube Channel Link:
   / @midnight_mainline  

Dropped Signal YouTube Channel Link:
   / @droppedsignal