Locomotive quietly moves along

HOLLIDAYSBURG -- Who needs the K-4?

While the iconic No. 1361 steam locomotive remains inoperative 20 years after the Railroaders Memorial Museum launched an effort to get it running again, another organization has been operating a steam locomotive seven miles to the south for a little more than a year.

The Everett Railroad has been doing so quietly, if that adverb can be applied to something so inherently noisy, yet with great frequency:

After Christmastime runs in 2015, the company sent its No. 11 Alco 2-6-0 on about 20 excursion days last year and seven so far this year -- with 31 more on the docket.

On Saturday, the company ran three "World War II Victory Train" trips to Brooks Mill and back, with a cadre of re-enactors aboard, along with customers --including a few actual World War II veterans.

Railroad company owner Alan Maples bought the No. 11 Alco, which was built by the Cooke Works in Paterson, N.J., in 1920 for expert to the Cuban sugar cane fields, in 2006 from the Middletown & New Jersey Railroad of Middletown, N.Y., according to the Everett Railroad website.

The locomotive now operates out of the company's shops in Claysburg, according to Sophia Vaughn, railroads' manager of passenger excursions and public affairs.

The company's primary business is carrying freight to local industries, a business that earns the money to finance the excursions, according to Vaughn.

The Alco may not be Altoona-born like the K-4, but on Saturday, it nevertheless sent out the characteristic black smoke and gritty soot, and the engineer tooted the raspy whistle, long, then short, and the cars rocked and clacked over the jointed rails, past yards, scrappy woods, the Beaverdam Branch of the Juniata River and remnants of the old Mainline Canal, filled with algae-covered, stagnant water.

Riding on trains is so much better than riding on planes, said Tom Brenner of Hollidaysburg, retired welder for Berwind Railway.

There is always something to see, Brenner said, just as the open door of the baggage car he was watching from revealed a horse galloping away in an open field, its mane flying, like an illustration in a Victorian novel.

At Brooks Mill, the little locomotive uncoupled, then with the help of manual switching, moved from the front of the train to the back, recoupled, then took the train, chugging backwards, back to the replica station at the start of the trip, near the DeGol Industrial Center.

Saturday's event was done in cooperation with the Blair County Historical Society.

"(We're) really fortunate to be able to offer this experience," said Society Executive Director Joe DeFrancesco.

A family train ride is scheduled for 1 p.m. today.