End of Steam
by Richard J. King (c) 2018
The Rahway Valley Railroad’s first diesel-electric locomotive, No. 16, had arrived from General Electric on January 29, 1951. After a month of tinkering and testing, No. 16 was pressed into fulltime freight service on February 26, 1951, after No. 13 was unexpectedly sidelined. Yet, steam still waited in the wings for a couple more years.
No. 14 had last operated on June 26, 1950 and was cut up and shipped out for scrap on December 15, 1951. No. 13 was repaired after her accident, but wasn’t needed. By 1953, George A. Clark was afraid to put a fire in her. No. 15, however, was in fine shape as it had received an extensive overhaul in the CNJ’s Elizabethport Shop in March 1950 at a cost of about $10,000 (~$103,000 in 2018 dollars). As such, the railroad’s last steam engine was kept serviceable as backup to its first diesel.
The Rahway Valley was still a one diesel railroad in November 1953. George Clark had contemplated acquiring a second 70-tonner for over a year. Several breakdowns had necessitated firing up No. 15 for a few days at a time. Clark had tried searching the secondhand diesel market, hoping to save the railroad some cash, but couldn’t seem to find anything of note. It’d be another few months before he ordered another unit from GE.
Late in the evening, on Monday, November 23rd, a faulty gasket on No. 16’s turbocharger was discovered to be causing significant oil leakage. The diesel was shoved in the shop and brothers George and Bob Davis went to work with repairs. Clark spent hours out in the shop, worrying the job along.
Early Tuesday morning, Frank Froat started the task of getting No. 15 under steam. The 1916-built Baldwin hadn’t felt the heat of burning bituminous coal in its firebox since February of that year. The locomotive’s narrow firebox called for a clean but light fire, something never achieved without care. Froat, who had spent decades on steam locomotives both as fireman and engineer, was the least bit cavalier after a nine month lapse. “A botch job he made of it” wrote Bill Young. Clark, already stressed over the diesel, was fuming. He cleared the mess himself and No. 15 didn’t get out of the shed until 11:15 AM that morning.
No. 15 looked good and worked well enough. The railroad’s shop foreman, George Davis, who preferred steam over diesel till the day he retired, kept the 15 in good repairs. In fact, he had recently painted most of the locomotive.
Freight traffic was behind with Tuesday’s late start and stayed that way through Wednesday. Thursday was a holiday – Thanksgiving – and the railroad would be closed. Even so, Clark knew he’d have to have a crew work part of the day to stand a chance of possibly getting caught up. That skeleton crew consisted of George Davis as engineer, George Clark as fireman, and Bob Davis as conductor.
By Friday, it was apparent that George and Bob Davis weren’t having much success left to their own devices. Their sibling acrimony probably didn’t help matters. Bob Davis eventually went home and Clark got two CNJ men from Elizabethport to come up to Kenilworth. The four men worked late into the night to get 16 going again.
No. 16 returned to service in the morning hours of Saturday, November 28th. George Clark and George Davis worked around Kenilworth with the diesel that morning. The regular crew, with Frank Amoroso firing, used No. 15 for the road work. This was the first time two crews had been used on the line since 1946.
No. 15 was taken out of service that afternoon, its fire dropped.
The end of steam on the Rahway Valley.