FAIRPORT, PAINESVILLE & EASTERN
PHOTOS
Over the past several years I had been
able to collect a few dozen slides of the FP&E (thanks primarily to eBay); then
recently I was able to more than triple the size of my collection by obtaining
the FP&E slides of the late Michael A. Tedesco from one of his relatives
(to learn a little more about Michael, click here). I really like Michael's photos because he
took a lot of 'action' pictures (in my opinion there is something special about
seeing a locomotive or train in action as opposed to just sitting idle). I found an excellent local photography shop
to scan my slides—after suffering through 4 other vendors who did poor jobs—so
it is really thanks to them that I can share any of my collection on the
internet.
Due to
capacity restrictions, I am limited in how many pictures I can display on this
webpage, so below is a sampling of what I think are some of the more
interesting photos from my collection.
To view more
photos from my collection, you can visit my flickr pages ("flickr" is
Yahoo's photo-sharing website). To view
over 40 FP&E "action" photos, click here; to view about 20 FP&E "roster" photos
(pictures of the locomotives sitting idle), click here. Make sure to
check out the pictures below before you click on those links!
Because the
scanned photos I am presenting on this webpage are very large in size and
cannot be made to fit here without somewhat reducing their quality, the images
below are only "preview" images; to see the full-sized,
better-quality images, click on the link underneath each picture.
Depending on
how your computer's monitor is configured, these pictures may not appear as
'true' on your screen as they should (this applies both to the photos on this
page and in flickr); if there is a picture you particularly like, then I
suggest you print it out (using a color printer with just plain paper should
work fine)—I think you'll like the result.
This first picture is the oldest in my
collection. It was taken on August 22,
1962 by Dave Ingles. Note the paint
scheme displayed here: bright yellow body with green lettering, green frame and
trimmings, and silver cab roof and trucks.
(By the way, this locomotive color scheme inspired the color scheme of
my website.)
Click here to see the full-sized picture.
This next photo was taken by Michael
Tedesco on December 29th, 1971. Based
on photographic evidence, in 1970 and 1971 the FP&E changed their
locomotive paint scheme from what it was in the previous photograph to what you
see here: a darker yellow body with black lettering, black frame and radiator
grill, and black cab roof and trucks.
Click here to see the full-sized picture.
Here is a nice long-distance photo by
Michael Tedesco taken on July 19th, 1972 from the south end of West Yard that
shows the western portion of the Diamond Shamrock plant in the background. Notice the hoppers turned upside down to the
right of the locomotives, which I believe indicates they are going to be
scrapped.
Click here to see the full-sized picture.
Here is an interesting photo taken by Warren Opalk on May 3rd,
1978. The exhaust stack has been
capped, indicating that the locomotive has been 'mothballed'; as it turned out,
this unit was being 'cannibalized'—that is, parts were being taken from it to
use in the repair and maintenance of its sister units. Two years later this unit (or what was left
of it) was sold to General Electric Transportation in Cleveland, where it was
subsequently converted into a 'mine motor': a special type of electric
locomotive that can enter underground mines (see an example here).
Notice how the angle of the shot
Warren used allows you to see through the radiator grill—very neat!
Click here to see the full-sized picture.
Here is a photo taken on June 8th,
1984 by Nick Chase. Just 20 days later
(June 28th) the FP&E ceased to exist.
However, locomotive #107 went on to work for the Ashtabula, Carson &
Jefferson Railroad.
Click here to see the full-sized picture.
And this is what happens to most
locomotives in the end: they get scrapped.
These are photos of former FP&E #105 (the same locomotive at the top
of this page) as it was being cut up in late 2008 at JRB Grain in Cynthiana,
IN. (For more about how #105 ended up
in Cynthiana, see my FP&E
Diesel Roster page.) Thanks to the Bender family for sending me these photos!
Click here to see the full-sized pictures.
For some other very nice color photos
of FP&E diesels (and a couple caboose photos), I recommend two books: Trackside
Around Cleveland: 1965-1979 and Trackside Around Eastern Ohio: 1965-1995. Both of these books have several good,
full-color photos of FP&E diesels in action—and both books are recent
publications, so they should still be available from any good book dealer. (For more details about these books, see my FP&E Resources page.)
Created by Scott Nixon
July 2009
Updated: September 2009