When I arrived at the station I couldn't believe my eyes! I was expecting to ride CVSR's Budd car set. Instead I found 2 Alco FPA-4 locomotives and a string of cars. To add to the delight one of the FPA-4's was CVSR's ex B&O locomotive which I had not seen before, still in B&O paint. Time to grab the camera and fire off some shots. At about 8:40 am I went to the ticket counter and bought a round trip ticket for $15 to Akron. The trip was to take 3 hours. "All Aboard" was sounded at 8:50 am after all brake tests were completed. My ticket said "Coach 1 - Seat 3a" but as it turned out there were only a few passengers and seating arrangements went unchecked.
Finally, at precisely 9:00 am the engineer gave a couple blasts on the horns and a thick black smoke column belched form the lead Alco. The locomotives were operating in "push - pull" mode, one at each end. On the northbound trip the B&O unit would lead. The engineer gently eased the train out of the sidings and onto the "main". Then we stopped to allow him to throw back the switch. Then we got going! At about 10 mph we wound our way through the Canton Parks dodging pedestrians and cars, and headed towards North Canton. I was especially excited to see what 38th St and Guilford would look like from a new perspective. (haha). When the train blew the horns for the crossing I knew Penny would be listening for me. Now we were up to a break-neck speed of 25 mph and there was no stopping us.
It was interesting to note that the trailing locomotive on each leg of the trip was shut down to conserve fuel. It was also interesting to hear the engineer apply power only in bursts to maintain speed and not operate continuous power. After all, this was a leisurely trip, which would take 1.5 hours Vs 30 minutes by car, but that's perfectly OK, we're riding 2 vintage Alco's! (circa 1950's).
After we cleared all the street crossings in Canton we hit the open spaces and headed on towards Akron. Of special note was the fact that we were to actually go "through" or more precisely enter and go past the Akron - Fulton Airport property. This is the home of Goodyear and the Goodyear blimp. The hanger can be seen for miles away and we were to go close enough to see it up close. Also, the conductor told us that if a plane was taking off we might have to stop the train as we would be less than 100 feet from the end of the runway with nothing between us! Great stuff! Nothing taking off .... oh well. This is not a commercial airport, just used by executives and such.
We entered the suburbs of Akron and it's back streets, passing the obvious low income area's and industrial complexes. Finally we arrived at Akron Northside Station and pulled in to a stop. We were to drop off ongoing passengers and then back up down the track to allow the southbound train from Cleveland to enter the station for a meeting, and to transfer it's passengers to our train bound for Canton. Akron is the exchange point for passengers as the whole line is single track. CVSR operates 2 trains, a north section and a south section, Canton to Akron and Akron to Cleveland train. We stopped long enough to load supplies for the concession car and board more passengers from the Cleveland train before the engineer once again blasted the horns and pulled out on the return leg of our trip.
On the return trip I took up position in the vestibule with an open window for the entire 1.5 hour trip. As we once again passed the Akron - Fulton airport we had a plane taking off and went directly over the train. We continued our trip onwards to Canton, rocking and bouncing along the track at a steady 25 mph. As we entered North Canton the train slowed down to about 15 mph due to the many crossings we would encounter and heavy road traffic.
We arrived at Canton Lincoln Highway Station 3 minutes ahead of schedule. I had come to the end of a fantastic journey behind 2 vintage Alco diesels. It was a memorable trip for me and one that I'm sure to repeat ........ in the near future as my $15 ticket would allow me to complete the northern leg of the trip at no extra charge. .......... but that's another trip!
