What is the B&CCS?
The Balfour and Colucci Creek Southern is a proto-freelanced (freelanced around a general prototype) railroad.
In the alternate version of history in which the railroad exists:
The B&CCS operates mostly over the former New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad's Maybrook line, running through New York, Connecticut, and into Massachusetts. It was initially a smaller railroad, connecting Newburgh, NY and Beacon, NY via it's shared trackage rights over the NYNH&H Poughkeepsie bridge. However, It eventually grew to buy the NYNH&H out and become a decently sized class I railroad.
In real life:
The B&CCS is my N scale model railroad. I currently have a 1' by 6' switching layout, and have designed and am preparing to build a 4' by 8' layout. For rolling stock, I have about 20 locomotives, 40 freight cars, and 20 passenger cars. I model the era from the 1970s to the 1990s, giving me the ability to model a wide variety of rolling stock, locomotives, and paint schemes, as well as show off my interest in and skills at creating heavy weathering.
In the alternate version of history in which the railroad exists:
The B&CCS operates mostly over the former New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad's Maybrook line, running through New York, Connecticut, and into Massachusetts. It was initially a smaller railroad, connecting Newburgh, NY and Beacon, NY via it's shared trackage rights over the NYNH&H Poughkeepsie bridge. However, It eventually grew to buy the NYNH&H out and become a decently sized class I railroad.
In real life:
The B&CCS is my N scale model railroad. I currently have a 1' by 6' switching layout, and have designed and am preparing to build a 4' by 8' layout. For rolling stock, I have about 20 locomotives, 40 freight cars, and 20 passenger cars. I model the era from the 1970s to the 1990s, giving me the ability to model a wide variety of rolling stock, locomotives, and paint schemes, as well as show off my interest in and skills at creating heavy weathering.
The B&CCS - A Written History
The history of the present-day Balfour and Colucci Creek Southern Railroad (Autumn of 1985) begins in the year 1883, when the Balfour Railroad is formed and work begins on laying track to connect the (fictional) town of Balfour, New York to the town of Newburgh on the Hudson River, and to the Central New England Railroad’s Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge, bringing rail traffic to the town of Balfour including passenger traffic and freight to and from the town’s Central Hudson Valley Printing Company. Just 3 years later, while construction was still ongoing for the BRR on the West Shore of the Hudson, a similar process was beginning on the East Shore opposite the BRR. In 1886, the Colucci Creek Southern Railway Company was formed, with the purpose of connecting Wappingers Falls, NY with Beacon, NY, with the road’s titular creek being just south of Wappingers. The CCSRY would eventually work out a deal with the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad to lease and operate one of the tracks from New Hamburg (a hamlet of Wappingers) to Poughkeepsie, allowing for interchange between the CCSRY and the CNE, and, by extension of the Poughkeepsie Bridge which opened in 1889, the BRR, beginning a near century long partnership between the two lines, with the interchange of freight and passengers between the companies becoming a daily occurrence.
In 1904, the CNE, and thus the rail line and Poughkeepsie bridge were acquired by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. Little changed other than the names on the rolling stock though for the CCSRY and BRR. The New Haven continued the agreements the CCSRY and the BRR had with the CNE, so freight and passengers from the roads continued shifting back and forth across the river.
Between 1900 and 1910, the DomCol Railway Company and JCRail Corporation would be formed, each being relatively short lines connecting industries and small towns to points on the New Haven in the area between Poughkeepsie NY and Poughquag NY, adding to the number of reporting marks beginning to show up in the area. Over the next 2 decades, all the railroads would grow and expand, with increased wartime traffic in the late 1910s and the rails still maintaining their place as America’s go to mode of transportation, right up until the crash of the stock market on October 29th, 1929, ushering in the Great Depression. While on the whole railroads didn’t fare nearly as bad as many other industries, the impact was still felt in a downturn of ridership and an increase in operating costs. Seeing each other struggling, and with more than 30 years of partnership across the river from one another, the heads of the BRR and the CCSRY got together and worked out a deal to increase revenue and decrease losses - the two railroads would merge, forming a new railroad known as the Balfour and Colucci Creek Southern Railroad. The B&CCS began operations on June 1st, 1932.
As the 1930s moved forward, transitioning to the 1940s, the fortunes of the B&CCS would take a turn for the better. Wartime traffic connecting Newburgh and Beacon to the NH Maybrook Line helped the B&CCS to grow a good safety net of cash and expand more, even while other roads like the New Haven were once again beginning to find themselves in murky financial waters. By 1950, diesel locomotives had begun to enter the scene, helping to further maintain a healthy financial state on the B&CCS. Dieselization began for the B&CCS on November 16, 1950 with the arrival of BCCS 301 and 302, the first of an order of 10 ALCO RS-2s. The New Haven, on the other hand, had begun acquiring diesel switchers and early locomotives during the tough years of the Depression, and in addition to its diesel and steam fleet, had one of the more extensive electric rosters in the country, with its main competition in that regard only being the nearby New York Central and Pennsylvania. While the NH had clawed its way out of bankruptcy in the 1940s, a series of poorly managed presidencies and financial and operational decisions brought the mighty NH once again towards bankruptcy. By 1952, the road was almost completely bankrupt, hemorrhaging money. Worried that their largest collaborator would fall apart, and with plenty of liquid capital, the B&CCS purchased a controlling interest in the NH and bailed it out in early 1954, effectively acquiring the much larger road. With new leadership in place, the New Haven would once again become profitable, though passenger traffic was declining, and control of the NH Maybrook Line from the yard in Danbury, Connecticut to Maybrook would go to the B&CCS. The smaller yard at Balfour would be converted to the road's main engine facility and shops, while the Maybrook yard was maintained as the major line terminus, since the two yards were relatively close together.
Now in control of the NH’s locomotive designs and plans, the B&CCS decided to begin producing some of the last newly built steam locomotives in the US in late 1954. These locomotives would be classified as the I-6 Hudson, and built at the in-house locomotive shops in the Balfour, New York Yard and Engine Facilities. Using the same shrouding and approximate dimensions as the New Haven I-5 but implementing modern techniques and technologies similar to other railroads’ “Super Steam” locomotives, allowing for better acceleration and speed. These 5 locomotives, numbered 1600-1604, worked to speed passengers from Danbury, Connecticut to Maybrook and from Beacon up and over the Poughkeepsie Bridge and down again into Newburgh.
As the 1950s came to a close, like most of the rest of the country, steam on the B&CCS - New Haven system was singing its swan song with the speedy I-5s and I-6s and the B&CCS’ A-2 class 4-8-4s hustling passengers along the rails, and the powerful New Haven L-1 Santa Fe type helper locomotive and B&CCS D-4 class 4-8-2 Mountains being some of the final freight focused steam locomotives running the system’s mainlines. By the beginning of the 1960s, steam had made it’s exit, with the B&CCS I-6s being retired by the beginning of 1959, the final steam locomotive was retired off of the B&CCS’ roster, being ALCO Built A-2 Northern #2479, on July 20th, 1960. Steam on the New Haven didn’t last much longer, with Baldwin Built L-1 2-10-2 #3415 being the final NYNH&H steam locomotive to be retired on March 17th, 1961. However, the B&CCS management understood the importance of history, and as such, a number of B&CCS steamers, including all 5 I-6s, were sent to museums or preserved in towns along the B&CCS’ route. In fact, #1600 was preserved at the B&CCS’ Balfour Locomotive Shops, becoming sort of a shop mascot for the facility where she was built.
Meanwhile, ALCO and GE Built Diesels and Electrics dominated the rails on the NH while a small number of EMD GP30s and SD24s made the rails more diverse in the B&CCS roster. By the end of the 1960s, EMD FL-9s had added to the NH’s roster, and SD40-2s and GE U25Bs ruled on the B&CCS. While the B&CCS is managing to keep itself and the NH afloat through the 60s and into the 70s, much of the American railway system was falling apart, particularly in the Northeast, where the New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroads were coming apart at the seams. In a desperate attempt to stay afloat, they merged into the Penn Central railroad starting on February 1st, 1968, but combining two longtime rivals into a single operating culture was a doomed venture from the start. The railroad interchanged with the B&CCS System and heavily with DomCol Railways, which had grown to connect between the B&CCS and the former NYC Harlem line and had by this point merged with JC Rail under the DomCol name. In 1970, within 2 years of beginning operations, Penn Central would declare bankruptcy, which also left DomCol Railways floundering. Within a year of Penn Central's bankruptcy, DomCol Railways followed suit on May 20th, 1971. By 1975, DCRY was in desperate shape, so in a similar manner to the NH, the B&CCS System stepped in and acquired the road, operating it the same way as the NH, as a separate railroad within a system.
Also with the early 1970s came the inception of Amtrak, with operations beginning on May 1st, 1971. DomCol Railways handed over its short schedule of remaining passenger operations to Amtrak on that date, but the B&CCS and New Haven had been relatively more successful than many other Northeastern passenger companies and held on to its passenger trains. However, the loss of RPO contracts in September of 1967 had begun to take its toll, and by 1975, all of the B&CCS’ long distance routes were handed over to Amtrak, while commuter service was retained, subsidized by state governments.
With the take-over of many Northeastern roads by the National Government through the creation of the Consolidated Rail Corporation, or Conrail, rail in the Northeast began recovering. The B&CCS began to work on a project to thank its employees for their dedicated service and to connect more with the general public. On February 1st, 1977, the Century Steam Program was announced. Starting that month, work began on restoring I-6 Hudson number 1600, “The Balfour Beauty,” to operation before the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the system’s construction on April 1st, 1983.
As the 1970s became the 1980s, it was time for some consolidation and system streamlining, and on July 1st, 1980, the New Haven Railroad was officially merged into the Balfour and Colucci Creek Southern Railroad. As the railroads had been operating almost as one for nearly a decade, it just made sense to consolidate and simplify operations into a single company. The NH reporting marks would still be added to some new pieces of rolling stock, but they would not carry any New Haven graphics.
As the B&CCS’ centennial celebration grew closer, a couple of other celebratory items were announced. A former Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy EMD F3A and F3B were purchased from the BN, freshly painted into Balfour Maroon, Creek Blue, and Sunlit Orange, and assigned freight runs to break them in, delighting nearby railfans. They were then lined up for assignments leading executive trains and, most relevant to the Centennial celebrations, escorting #1600 around the system running excursions side by side with the Hudson. One final celebratory measure was the announcement of 6 locomotives into Heritage paint schemes. 2 EMD SD40-2s would be painted into a scheme utilizing the Balfour Railroad’s Balfour Maroon color and emblem, 2 GE B30-7s into a scheme using Creek Blue and the CCSRY’s emblem, and, freshly upgraded with all new electrics and a cleaner prime mover by GE, a pair of ALCO-GE C420Rs into a scheme using the classic New Haven Warm Orange and Hunter Green palette merged with the more modern NH Block Letter (McGinnis) logo in Black and White, to celebrate the history of the system. 1600 was steamed up for the first time in two decades on October 23rd, 1982, and by early 1983, she was ready for her spotlight.
On April 7th, 1983, with company employees and railfans from around the system gathered at the Balfour Locomotive Shops as BCCS #1600 steamed out of the shops, whistling a welcome to the attendees as she pulled onto the turntable, surrounded by the fresh paint of the heritage fleet. Utilizing a fleet of passenger cars collected from local museums and storage tracks around the system, mostly former New Haven “American Flyer” lightweights and classic Pullman Heavyweights in either New Haven or B&CCS lettering, #1600 and F3A #9960 and F3B #9961 led system-wide excursions that day and for the next 6 months, until mid-October, when the railroad closed the excursion season. With the excursion season at an end, #1600 was utilized in occasional revenue freight runs until the following spring, when the excursion season began again, though the number of excursions scheduled after the centennial celebrations were completed.
With the success of the restoration and operation of #1600, and railroading in the northeast generally on the rise again, with Conrail having became profitable again starting after 1980, the B&CCS decided to begin work on the restoration of DomCol Railways #1212. #1212 was a former New York Central J3a Hudson that was sold to DomCol after being retired off the NYC, and worked for five years hauling freight and passengers until DCRY also retired steam in 1959. In 1960, rather than going to the scrap yard, it was donated to the newly formed Connecticut Valley Railroad Society, kickstarting their rolling stock collection. By 1980, the Naugatuck Railroad was winding down operations, so the CVRS stepped in, moving their operations to Thomaston, CT and setting up the Railroad Museum of New England and converting “The Naugy” to a tourist line. #1212 had not run in over 20 years at that point, and had been poorly maintained for the first 7 to 8 years of that dormancy, so when the B&CCS Management came to the museum in search of #1212 for restoration, the museum worked out a deal with the railroad where their much beloved locomotive would still spend time at the museum every other year so long as the museum could provide facilities and equipment to maintain the locomotive while there.
And that brings the history of the B&CCS up to date. It is currently early fall 1985, and #1212 has been moved from the RRMNE to the Balfour shops, delivered by Conrail to DomCol, then DomCol to the B&CCS proper, and from there to the steam section of the Balfour Shops. Its restoration is scheduled for completion by the end of the decade. In the meantime, moves are being made towards another round of consolidation, where it looks like DCRY may be properly rolled into the B&CCS. #1600, #9960, and #9961 are wrapping up another successful excursion season, and will continue running freight between excursions and between seasons, and the freight business itself is doing very well. With that, only time will tell what the story grows into in the future.
In 1904, the CNE, and thus the rail line and Poughkeepsie bridge were acquired by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. Little changed other than the names on the rolling stock though for the CCSRY and BRR. The New Haven continued the agreements the CCSRY and the BRR had with the CNE, so freight and passengers from the roads continued shifting back and forth across the river.
Between 1900 and 1910, the DomCol Railway Company and JCRail Corporation would be formed, each being relatively short lines connecting industries and small towns to points on the New Haven in the area between Poughkeepsie NY and Poughquag NY, adding to the number of reporting marks beginning to show up in the area. Over the next 2 decades, all the railroads would grow and expand, with increased wartime traffic in the late 1910s and the rails still maintaining their place as America’s go to mode of transportation, right up until the crash of the stock market on October 29th, 1929, ushering in the Great Depression. While on the whole railroads didn’t fare nearly as bad as many other industries, the impact was still felt in a downturn of ridership and an increase in operating costs. Seeing each other struggling, and with more than 30 years of partnership across the river from one another, the heads of the BRR and the CCSRY got together and worked out a deal to increase revenue and decrease losses - the two railroads would merge, forming a new railroad known as the Balfour and Colucci Creek Southern Railroad. The B&CCS began operations on June 1st, 1932.
As the 1930s moved forward, transitioning to the 1940s, the fortunes of the B&CCS would take a turn for the better. Wartime traffic connecting Newburgh and Beacon to the NH Maybrook Line helped the B&CCS to grow a good safety net of cash and expand more, even while other roads like the New Haven were once again beginning to find themselves in murky financial waters. By 1950, diesel locomotives had begun to enter the scene, helping to further maintain a healthy financial state on the B&CCS. Dieselization began for the B&CCS on November 16, 1950 with the arrival of BCCS 301 and 302, the first of an order of 10 ALCO RS-2s. The New Haven, on the other hand, had begun acquiring diesel switchers and early locomotives during the tough years of the Depression, and in addition to its diesel and steam fleet, had one of the more extensive electric rosters in the country, with its main competition in that regard only being the nearby New York Central and Pennsylvania. While the NH had clawed its way out of bankruptcy in the 1940s, a series of poorly managed presidencies and financial and operational decisions brought the mighty NH once again towards bankruptcy. By 1952, the road was almost completely bankrupt, hemorrhaging money. Worried that their largest collaborator would fall apart, and with plenty of liquid capital, the B&CCS purchased a controlling interest in the NH and bailed it out in early 1954, effectively acquiring the much larger road. With new leadership in place, the New Haven would once again become profitable, though passenger traffic was declining, and control of the NH Maybrook Line from the yard in Danbury, Connecticut to Maybrook would go to the B&CCS. The smaller yard at Balfour would be converted to the road's main engine facility and shops, while the Maybrook yard was maintained as the major line terminus, since the two yards were relatively close together.
Now in control of the NH’s locomotive designs and plans, the B&CCS decided to begin producing some of the last newly built steam locomotives in the US in late 1954. These locomotives would be classified as the I-6 Hudson, and built at the in-house locomotive shops in the Balfour, New York Yard and Engine Facilities. Using the same shrouding and approximate dimensions as the New Haven I-5 but implementing modern techniques and technologies similar to other railroads’ “Super Steam” locomotives, allowing for better acceleration and speed. These 5 locomotives, numbered 1600-1604, worked to speed passengers from Danbury, Connecticut to Maybrook and from Beacon up and over the Poughkeepsie Bridge and down again into Newburgh.
As the 1950s came to a close, like most of the rest of the country, steam on the B&CCS - New Haven system was singing its swan song with the speedy I-5s and I-6s and the B&CCS’ A-2 class 4-8-4s hustling passengers along the rails, and the powerful New Haven L-1 Santa Fe type helper locomotive and B&CCS D-4 class 4-8-2 Mountains being some of the final freight focused steam locomotives running the system’s mainlines. By the beginning of the 1960s, steam had made it’s exit, with the B&CCS I-6s being retired by the beginning of 1959, the final steam locomotive was retired off of the B&CCS’ roster, being ALCO Built A-2 Northern #2479, on July 20th, 1960. Steam on the New Haven didn’t last much longer, with Baldwin Built L-1 2-10-2 #3415 being the final NYNH&H steam locomotive to be retired on March 17th, 1961. However, the B&CCS management understood the importance of history, and as such, a number of B&CCS steamers, including all 5 I-6s, were sent to museums or preserved in towns along the B&CCS’ route. In fact, #1600 was preserved at the B&CCS’ Balfour Locomotive Shops, becoming sort of a shop mascot for the facility where she was built.
Meanwhile, ALCO and GE Built Diesels and Electrics dominated the rails on the NH while a small number of EMD GP30s and SD24s made the rails more diverse in the B&CCS roster. By the end of the 1960s, EMD FL-9s had added to the NH’s roster, and SD40-2s and GE U25Bs ruled on the B&CCS. While the B&CCS is managing to keep itself and the NH afloat through the 60s and into the 70s, much of the American railway system was falling apart, particularly in the Northeast, where the New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroads were coming apart at the seams. In a desperate attempt to stay afloat, they merged into the Penn Central railroad starting on February 1st, 1968, but combining two longtime rivals into a single operating culture was a doomed venture from the start. The railroad interchanged with the B&CCS System and heavily with DomCol Railways, which had grown to connect between the B&CCS and the former NYC Harlem line and had by this point merged with JC Rail under the DomCol name. In 1970, within 2 years of beginning operations, Penn Central would declare bankruptcy, which also left DomCol Railways floundering. Within a year of Penn Central's bankruptcy, DomCol Railways followed suit on May 20th, 1971. By 1975, DCRY was in desperate shape, so in a similar manner to the NH, the B&CCS System stepped in and acquired the road, operating it the same way as the NH, as a separate railroad within a system.
Also with the early 1970s came the inception of Amtrak, with operations beginning on May 1st, 1971. DomCol Railways handed over its short schedule of remaining passenger operations to Amtrak on that date, but the B&CCS and New Haven had been relatively more successful than many other Northeastern passenger companies and held on to its passenger trains. However, the loss of RPO contracts in September of 1967 had begun to take its toll, and by 1975, all of the B&CCS’ long distance routes were handed over to Amtrak, while commuter service was retained, subsidized by state governments.
With the take-over of many Northeastern roads by the National Government through the creation of the Consolidated Rail Corporation, or Conrail, rail in the Northeast began recovering. The B&CCS began to work on a project to thank its employees for their dedicated service and to connect more with the general public. On February 1st, 1977, the Century Steam Program was announced. Starting that month, work began on restoring I-6 Hudson number 1600, “The Balfour Beauty,” to operation before the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the system’s construction on April 1st, 1983.
As the 1970s became the 1980s, it was time for some consolidation and system streamlining, and on July 1st, 1980, the New Haven Railroad was officially merged into the Balfour and Colucci Creek Southern Railroad. As the railroads had been operating almost as one for nearly a decade, it just made sense to consolidate and simplify operations into a single company. The NH reporting marks would still be added to some new pieces of rolling stock, but they would not carry any New Haven graphics.
As the B&CCS’ centennial celebration grew closer, a couple of other celebratory items were announced. A former Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy EMD F3A and F3B were purchased from the BN, freshly painted into Balfour Maroon, Creek Blue, and Sunlit Orange, and assigned freight runs to break them in, delighting nearby railfans. They were then lined up for assignments leading executive trains and, most relevant to the Centennial celebrations, escorting #1600 around the system running excursions side by side with the Hudson. One final celebratory measure was the announcement of 6 locomotives into Heritage paint schemes. 2 EMD SD40-2s would be painted into a scheme utilizing the Balfour Railroad’s Balfour Maroon color and emblem, 2 GE B30-7s into a scheme using Creek Blue and the CCSRY’s emblem, and, freshly upgraded with all new electrics and a cleaner prime mover by GE, a pair of ALCO-GE C420Rs into a scheme using the classic New Haven Warm Orange and Hunter Green palette merged with the more modern NH Block Letter (McGinnis) logo in Black and White, to celebrate the history of the system. 1600 was steamed up for the first time in two decades on October 23rd, 1982, and by early 1983, she was ready for her spotlight.
On April 7th, 1983, with company employees and railfans from around the system gathered at the Balfour Locomotive Shops as BCCS #1600 steamed out of the shops, whistling a welcome to the attendees as she pulled onto the turntable, surrounded by the fresh paint of the heritage fleet. Utilizing a fleet of passenger cars collected from local museums and storage tracks around the system, mostly former New Haven “American Flyer” lightweights and classic Pullman Heavyweights in either New Haven or B&CCS lettering, #1600 and F3A #9960 and F3B #9961 led system-wide excursions that day and for the next 6 months, until mid-October, when the railroad closed the excursion season. With the excursion season at an end, #1600 was utilized in occasional revenue freight runs until the following spring, when the excursion season began again, though the number of excursions scheduled after the centennial celebrations were completed.
With the success of the restoration and operation of #1600, and railroading in the northeast generally on the rise again, with Conrail having became profitable again starting after 1980, the B&CCS decided to begin work on the restoration of DomCol Railways #1212. #1212 was a former New York Central J3a Hudson that was sold to DomCol after being retired off the NYC, and worked for five years hauling freight and passengers until DCRY also retired steam in 1959. In 1960, rather than going to the scrap yard, it was donated to the newly formed Connecticut Valley Railroad Society, kickstarting their rolling stock collection. By 1980, the Naugatuck Railroad was winding down operations, so the CVRS stepped in, moving their operations to Thomaston, CT and setting up the Railroad Museum of New England and converting “The Naugy” to a tourist line. #1212 had not run in over 20 years at that point, and had been poorly maintained for the first 7 to 8 years of that dormancy, so when the B&CCS Management came to the museum in search of #1212 for restoration, the museum worked out a deal with the railroad where their much beloved locomotive would still spend time at the museum every other year so long as the museum could provide facilities and equipment to maintain the locomotive while there.
And that brings the history of the B&CCS up to date. It is currently early fall 1985, and #1212 has been moved from the RRMNE to the Balfour shops, delivered by Conrail to DomCol, then DomCol to the B&CCS proper, and from there to the steam section of the Balfour Shops. Its restoration is scheduled for completion by the end of the decade. In the meantime, moves are being made towards another round of consolidation, where it looks like DCRY may be properly rolled into the B&CCS. #1600, #9960, and #9961 are wrapping up another successful excursion season, and will continue running freight between excursions and between seasons, and the freight business itself is doing very well. With that, only time will tell what the story grows into in the future.