We visited Winchester last Sunday. We love to walk in some of the old neighborhoods, they are somewhat reminders of a bygone way of life.
The city seems to be growing quickly, lots of new stores, etc. I even got to handle a Nikon D300 in a camera store..nice machine, but I've got all I can use now, but it was fun playing with the latest.
It made for a fun and pleasant day, but got even better, when on the way home we decided to stop at Gore, Virginia, which is just a few miles away from Winchester.
The Winchester and Western RR has a shop there, here's what we saw.

Coming into the shop this overview:

And this previously posted photo of their unique "road slug":

Also in the yard, this long hood:

And here's the inside:

I would guess the rest of that Geep is inside the shop getting a massage.

Some of the power that was at the shop, a pair of GP9's



498 is marked for short hood forward operation, and as you can see has no dynamic brake blister.
Here's 709, and as you can see, does appear to have dynamics. She's marked for long hood forward operation.



I don't know if that's all the power that the road has. Some units could be at the sand producing area, or at a Winchester terminal.
The main haul of this road is sand, and evidently plenty of it. I did read on the internet that they at one time bought 300 of these cars:

Boy, that EMD GP 9 must have been...is.. a heck of a locomotive. Seems like every shortline has one or a few of them. They aren't young any more, either. The old Chessie (Western Maryland) chop nose GP9, which is currently being painted and readied for duty at the Western Maryland Scenic shop, was built in 1954, and is now 54 years old! The owners are going to have that unit painted black with Western Maryland "speed lettering". She's gonna look good!
Anyway, after spending far too much time at the Winchester and Western, it was time to leave.
Here's another shot of the Gore facility:

A fun day, and the price of fuel being what it is, maybe one of the few trips like this we will make this year.

Ed

Well now there is your answer to those who keep asking which end is the front on GP9's. This shortline has at least one of each! So run your models however you want.

Wyhog

I believe that the WWRR also has operations in South Jersey

Ed,

Great shots. 709 doesn't have dynamic brakes now, the grill on the bottom side has been blanked over. That paint scheme says NKP to me . Also their power was RS11's, but they retired them 10 yrs ago IIRC. And as an aside, I see their sand hoppers out here in Reno Nevada occasionally.

Greg

Greg, thanks for the info on the dynamic brake blister. I never even noticed that detail!
I think they must have gotten some old Nickel Plate locomotives, and kept that paint scheme. In poking around the internet, I saw that several ex-NKP GP's had been on the roster. I kinda like that scheme, at least on an all black locomotive.

Ed

Question: What is the purpose of that break in the forground rails in the first shot?

The last shot with the interesting sky reminded me of a Howard Fogg painting!

KL

I should have taken a shot of that, Kent. It appeared to be a sort of mini-transfer table gizmo.
If I ever get back there, there will be a photo.

Ed

We have been trying to get a speeder run there for a while Gore is a neat little area. I believe you can rent a ride in the cab there and run with the crew for the day.

I have there only speeder and have almost finished restoring it.

They haul about 75 loads of sand to Corning a week for Fiber production acording to a train master up at the Finger Lakes. RR.

Thanks for sharing. I still have never seen the line and I live 45 minutes from it.

Jamie