Erie RR Light Mikado

Erie RR Light Mikado

Hello people, it’s me, 611 Hype Man, with my first solo release! You may remember me from such releases as the RF&P E Units and…crickets.

But anyway, moving beyond that, here is a brand-new skin for Neighbor Kid’s excellent USRA Light Mikados. And since it’s currently October, we’re going with something spooky today. That’s right, it’s the…Erie Railroad! Mwahahahahaha!

For those of you not in the know, the Erie Railroad was one of the first railroads in America (founded in 1832), but would wind up being the forgotten competitor to the much more famous NYC, PRR, and B&O in the New York City* – Chicago market (*although the Erie technically didn’t make it into New York City proper and had to settle with a terminal in Jersey City and ferry/bus service from NYC). Their lines served much of upstate New York, northern Pennsylvania, and central Ohio on their way to Chicago. The Erie rostered a total of 211 Mikados across 3 separate classes, which would see heavy usage on freight trains up until management started buying diesels in the late 1940s and early 1950s, with the last being removed from the roster and scrapped in 1952. As for the Erie themselves, at around the same time they started suffering from the symptoms of “Northeastern Railroad Disease” (characterized by mounting passenger losses, poaching of business by new trucking companies, and the hollowing out of NE industry in general), beginning a slow downward slide that would see them merge with the Lackawanna RR in 1960 to form the appropriately named “Erie Lackawanna.” The EL would continue to degrade until the bankruptcy of their neighbor Penn Central in 1970 and Hurricane Agnes in 1972 finished off the once proud line. After being folded into Conrail in 1976, large portions of the Erie’s old mainline to Chicago would be abandoned in favor of similar ex-PRR routes. Sad!

So technically, the Erie never rostered USRA Light Mikados (they did have heavies though), but this loco is close enough to the pre-WW1 N-1 Class Mikado to warrant a reskin. So here you go. You can thank me later.

Features:
Introduction Date: 1911
Retirement Date: 1954
Road Numbers: Randomized between 3000-3199
Vandy Tender Only

Credits:
Neighbor Kid for the main USRA Mikado mod
theMeatballHero for the random numbers

Dependencies:
Railroad Fonts Base Pack by theMeatballHero
Railroad Fonts: Conrail Family by the MeatballHero

Final Thoughts
“Serving the Heart of Industrial America” – Erie Slogan.

Stay tuned for more projects in the near future, including Baltimore & Ohio ALCO FAs!

Required items:
Railroad Fonts Base Pack
Railroad Fonts: Conrail Family
USRA Light Mikado