It's been a long time since an engine lettered for the New Haven Railroad switched cars in this yard. After completing their first day of passenger operations for the 2012 season, the Valley Railroad Crew gives the line's new J-1A Mikado a work-out with some yard switching duties. Here, Trainman Chris Hennessy breaks the connection with the Essex Clipper Dinner Train consist, signalling Engineer Paul Lewis that he can pull ahead to the switch at the south end of the yard.
As most viewers know by now, the 1989-vintage, Tangshan SY that formerly operated as #58 on the Knox & Kane Railroad in Pennsylvania, has been reborn as a New Haven Railroad Locomotive, with a new home in Connecticut. In thoroughly restoring this engine from the rusty hulk left behind in the K&K fire, the Valley Railroad folks attempted, through considerable cosmetic surgery, to make this engine look as much as possible like one of the J-1 Mikados that may have worked this line more than half a century ago. The most obvious improvements included removing the slope-back and the high hand-rails on the tender, the fabrication of a completely new cab, and numerous smaller features such as the sun-beam headlight, number plates, and yes, even a genuine New Haven whistle to give her a proper voice. Sure, some vestiges of her Chinese heritage could not be hidden, but she looks very believable as a New Haven Locomotive and she's a great match for the Valley's string of heavy steel coaches.
