Eastern Railroad Discussion > Help save some Alcos!

Three Alcos are in imminent danger of being scrapped. None is in operable condition but any could be a parts supply.

Three are Tioga Central 47, RS3, and Tioga Central ex-Susquehanna 240, an RS1 and Tioga Central 62, another RS1.

All are on the Wellsboro & Corning RR.

If you or someone you know is in position to keep the Visigoths from doing their worst to these locomotives, please do. I will supply contact info.

Two other Alcos, Tioga Central 14, an S2, and 506, a chop-nose ex-D&H RS3 in sorta-Bicentennial paint have also been sidelined, but railroad management wants to get them back into the kind of shape where the inspectors will allow operations.

Edit: you are free to circulate this info to groups or lists as you see fit. The wider the word is spread, the more likely these vintage pieces can be saved.

BobE



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/06/13 06:47 by BobE.

One would think the D-L might ride to the rescue, but they don't have any 539 power, do they?

Why do they need to be saved? A Scrapper is in business to save and resell what can be reused and cut up the rest.

There are countless Alco RS's around here it seems, all in various states of decay, all making locals think of museums as junkyards that they have no interest in at all...

DoctorThunder Wrote:
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> Why do they need to be saved? A Scrapper is in
> business to save and resell what can be reused and
> cut up the rest.
>
> There are countless Alco RS's around here it
> seems, all in various states of decay, all making
> locals think of museums as junkyards that they
> have no interest in at all...


A scrapper is is business to make the most money on metal prices. They have no care for historical significance or part preservation.

Horse hockey, a scrapper gets a lot more money if things are parted out than simply cut up and melted down. But there is not much market for stuff from pre 251 engined Alcos. But I assure you a reputable scrapper most definitely parts things out when monetarily advantageous.

Sorry, anything can be restored, even if not operational. Did you see the Baldwin locomotives that sat at a scrapyard at Roanoke for years and years?? How about the Alco PA's from Mexico, that were only frames? They looked like crap, however one is beautifully restored now and the other is being worked on. One man's junk can be another's treasure. So yes, they should be saved if possible, you don't know what others might be looking for.

To compare some incredibly rare ALCO PAs of which only 1 will ever see anything resembling a restoration (and is still not even close to completion) in my lifetime and some Dime a Dozen Alco RS's is kind of silly.

NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE SAVED! If the owner feels that scrapping them and putting the money in the bank is the right decision then so be it. If you want to pony up the money to save them then go ahead and do it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/06/13 14:08 by DoctorThunder.

Call "Antique Archaeology" (American Pickers)!

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out

RS1's a dime a dozen? Now that is silly. Again, you are missing the point, anything can be restored if someone wants to do it. Plus, if they would be used for parts, it is easier to remove things from a hulk of an engine. Bob just posted this too see if anyone would be interested, you never know.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/06/13 15:23 by WLE2679.

The RS-3m and S-2 were active last year. Both were used on Tioga Central tourist trains.
Is the Tioga Central dead now?

The RS-3m was used for local freight service also, between Wellsboro jct, and the glass plant downtown,

The RS-3m is a significant piece to save, as it is the last of 10 RS-3's rebuilt with 251 prime movers
by M-K, in the 1970's. D-L might be interested in it, if WCOR is not. The S-2 and RS-1 #62 are in relatively good shape.

The NYSW 240 and the other RS-1 are sitting derelict in downtown wellsboro....Both look like parts supplies
at this point....Although there is an NYSW historical society that might be interested in NYSW 240.

That's for at least mentioning these units as candidates for saving.
There is also a lot of historical equipment at Wellsboro jct, too.

Sorry that there are jerks, imo, on this site who don't like Amtk, or preservation, or anything that they think might cost a dollar of their hard earned money, that might be spent on something other than themselves.
I don't even know why they spend $29. of their "hard earned" money to be on this site.
You guys could just shut up, instead of broadcasting your negative views all the time.

But I digress..............

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pdt Wrote:
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> The RS-3m and S-2 were active last year. Both
> were used on Tioga Central tourist trains.
> Is the Tioga Central dead now?


Tioga Central is alive and well. I rode it twice this weekend. It's just not Alco-powered, as new pooh-bahs at Genesee & Wyoming have ordered the Alcos not be used. So, there's SD40-2s front and rear of the passenger trains.

BobE

The Borg of the Shortlines strikes again.

I pay my $29 so I can broadcast my views across trainorders, and I feel good about it too.

It's a shame though that you call anyone who does not agree with preservation of everything, and amtrak, and other stuff jerks though.

FWIW I donate to a number of worthy preservation causes and am a member of a couple other organizations directly related to railroads and railfanning.

And contrary to popular belief I do not kill cats nor do I condone the killing of them.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/06/13 21:04 by DoctorThunder.

I'm on trainorders for news and information.

And well thought out and well expressed opinions are welcome...but, IMHO, yours is neither. You didn't even know that the RS-3m was 251 powered. You didn't even know the conditions of the engines in question.

All I heard was another grumpy old man, saying "what's in it for me" Like there's any shortage of that in the world..

It's bad enough that we have Nimby's and idiots in congress to fight....so I don't know why we need our "friends" on TO
being anti-train also.

The RS3M is not even in question, the units in question are inoperable RS3 Number 47, and RS1's 240 and 62.


You obviously are not even reading anything and are blinded by OMG SAVE THE WOOT WOOTS.


In fact if you read farther "Two other Alcos, Tioga Central 14, an S2, and 506, a chop-nose ex-D&H RS3 in sorta-Bicentennial paint have also been sidelined, but railroad management wants to get them back into the kind of shape where the inspectors will allow operations."


Know what you are talking about, sir.

To add to a few others comments:

Photo 1 - TIOC 506 was also used on the interchange run up to Gang Mills on occasion. 2010-07-15.

Photo 2 - TIOC 47 is also an RS1, not an RS3. 2011-06-26.

Photo 3 - what the tourist train looks like without Alcos - at Hammond Lake 2013-06-12.

It would be nice to see a few of these find good home, TIOC 14 would look good restored in the Buffalo Creek scheme.

Rob Smith

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When did G & W take over?

Doug Wetherhold
Macungie, PA

DoctorThunder Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Why do they need to be saved? A Scrapper is in
> business to save and resell what can be reused and
> cut up the rest.
>
> There are countless Alco RS's around here it
> seems, all in various states of decay, all making
> locals think of museums as junkyards that they
> have no interest in at all..

They don't NEED to be saved, any more than anything else NEEDS to be, but if someone wants to spend THEIR money on it, what's it to you?

ALCO630 Wrote:
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> When did G & W take over?

RailAmerica bought Wellsboro & Corning, and then G&W bought RA. I'd be surprised if G&W actually owns Tioga Central -- wasn't that a separate operation? -- but regardless of who owns the passenger train, G&W now controls the track.

I remember when Tioga Central ran on what is now the Owego & Harford, and have shots of the 62 before it was fully decorated after being repainted (it's ex-Washington Terminal). These are some of my oldest pictures. It would be nice if it survived, but there are lots of derelict locomotives lying around in various places that somebody "saved for preservation" but didn't have the actual wherewithall to preserve them. It's not as if there aren't RS-1s or RS-3s saved (and operating) elsewhere, so I'm not going to burst into hysterics if the TIOC fleet -- especially the ones that are in rough shape already -- is lost.

The issue is not that there aren't plenty of RS1s out there, the bigger question is "how many Washington Terminal locomotives" are extant. I, for one, would think that at least one of them should be preserved. And that brings up the question for the second time in this thread, how many ex-WT RS1s still exist?

EDM, do you have an up-to-date count you can share?