Bessemer & Lake Erie brocomotives #878 and #905 at the Greenville Yard. I wanted to describe these as sisters, but they’re clearly not.
Regardless, as a youngster in Girard, PA, I survived on a street that paralleled the long-abandoned Erie Extension Canal, connecting Lake Erie to Pittsburgh. The canal hadn’t been used since the 1870′s, but the Bessemer had its right of way along the western edge of the canal on this dead-end street. The Bessemer trains were a constant during the 1970′s-taking iron ore down to the steel mills in Pittsburgh and returning with coal headed to Conneaut, Ohio. The trains would shake the house and wake us up during the night. It was annoying, but I loved it. Back then, trains rocked my world, and the Bessemer was it. As far as I was concerned, the logo with its cross-section rail denoting the “I” was pure genius. Well, an imagined “I”...I’m still laughing that I still can’t remember Bessemer isn’t spelled with an “I”.
I’m surprised the Bessemer is viable [it’s now owned by Canadian National], but it still carries ore to the Edgar Thomson works of US Steel-the last mill in Pittsburgh-and returns with coal, although I have no idea who or what needs coal these days.
