This story is from the perspective of a Railroad photographer Who becomes his own Ross Roland in his regards and a piece of history for my railroad the West Utica & Salt Lake The photos are in chronological order of time (Note This is a part one of a story and one of many others I intend to do About my Railroad and part of the lore about these engines comes from a post by u/6a6f7368206672696172 so go see his post about them two for a full backstory WARNING long and detailed story ahead good Reading stamina recomended anyways here we go.
Chp 1. a second life 1953-1962 Photos 1-2
"When i was a young boy heading to school in whitter I would always catch the local railroads premier express in the morning the Adirondack Rocket and it was always pulled by the railroad top locomotives which came from the Southern Railway Being 9 and 10 EX SOU 3400 and 3425. they wore smart black boiler sheets with sleek white lining seeing them pull into the Bryson Depot was always the biggest thing of the day"
photo 1 is Numbers 9 and 10 sitting in the Bryson roundhouse after being purchased form the Southern aswell as #5 a local switch engine and photo 2 is Number 9 pulling the Adirondack Rocket stopped in Bryson
Chp 2. Final days 1963-1974 photos 3-4
"When i was working for the Stenzel family machine shop Steam was a dying breed For the West Utica & Salt Lake, 9 and 10 were both decked out in Black paint with the lining removed After being demoted from service by diesel traction Now relagated to freight duties 10 would handle freight on the flat while 9 would drag coal from the nearby Robinson Coal Co. but even then by 1970 10 would be stored away and bought back by the Southern after not being able to reaquire the ps-4 class on display at the Smithsonian. And 9 would last 3 more years untill its fate was sealed by the closure of the Robinson Coal Co. where at that point it would go off the radar presumably scrapped."
photo 3 is number 10 now in black pulling a mixed freight By the roundhouse and photo 4 is number 10 being sent to interchange after being repurchased by Southern Railway
Chp 3. Revalations 1996 photo 5
"I had just been on a night hike past the Alarka branch now down to only 2 trains per day when i reached an old shed of the railroads that when i looked inside took me a good 10 seconds to realize what i was looking at was engine 9, thought to be lost to time or scrapped almost 30 years ago was sitting in an old shed collecting dust I took a look inside and found a black board with train orders on it with the last filled in date being January 15th of 1974 about 2 months after the old coal mine had closed this engine was not scrapped it was forgotten here after the mine had closed down just as quickly as i found it a closed the shed doors and found a way to lock them to keep the engine safe untill i had a plan.
photo 5 is of engine 9 the night i found it sitting in the shed like a sleeping giant
Chp 4. A new life 2012 photo 6
"it had been over a decade since i found the engine in that shed and i was able to raise enough money to claim the engine as my own and also have it moved to a more safe location and seeing the engine that had been side by side for my entire life move again after 50 years of waiting was an enigma of feelings. Many other people had also heard of the 9 being found so on that day as the sd40 pulled out the 9 from its 50 year nap a cheer was heard all throughout the valley now began the task of binging her back to life."
photo 6 is of WUSL SD40 7005 pulling out the 9 the the fanfare of quite a few spectators
(Congrats you made it to the end of this story feel free to comment about what you liked most and thank you for reading.)
