I headed down into the southwestern corner of NY last weekend to catch a ride on the New York & Lake Erie RR RR. This shortline owns the southern portion of the old Buffalo & Southwestern branch of the Erie RR/Erie Lackawanna. (Buffalo Southern leases the northern half from Erie County.) I have missed out on a couple of NY&LE excursions in recent years so i was very happy for my schedule and the weather to cooperate.
Although the FPAs are not of Erie or EL heritage, NY&LE honors its history with an Erie-inspired paint scheme. The only difference is a blue background, instead of black.
With that being said, NY&LE's biggest locomotive wears a rather different scheme- which matches their coaches. BTW, this Alco is the only high nose C425 left in existence, a former N&W unit and a movie star! Those who saw "Planes, Train & Automobiles" may remember #1013 pulling the Contrak train... which was filmed on the NY&LE a few miles away. The NY&LE was kind enough to let me visit the engine house, where #1013 was getting some TLC:
The FPAs have been drained for the winter. Thus power ofr the excursion fell to #308. This Alco S1 is a former Erie unit, and stayed with EL until the S1 fleet was sold to other RRs in 1965. She seems right at home on former Erie/EL iron. This is was shuffle to move the FPAs out of the way.
Shoving back into the station- the conductor is hanging off a former Erie Stillwell coach:
All photos in this post were taken by me Saturday 12/6/2014 in Gowanda, NY.