Nostalgia & History > Pilbara Railway Historical Society - ex SP&S S-2

Also sent down under during the construction era was this ex-SP&S unit. This one worked on Hamersley Iron I believe.

As an aside, I had a bit of a dig at Ed Austin who is the SP&S guru. A few years ago he released his excellent book on SP&S diesels (Morning Sun) and in the appendix he noted most everything about what became of the SP&S locos. In so doing he noted virtually every scrap dealer that murdered each and every ex-SP&S unit but gave absolutely no attention to this unit's disposition and continued existence. Given that the S-2 is ancient by diesel standards, I would have thought it worthy of note. Nonetheless, I love that book.

Hamersley Iron affectionately dubbed this loco "Mabel". While naming locos was an abundant practice in the UK and Australia at the time, ... "MABEL"????? C'mon!!!! How degrading? Maybe that was why Ed left it out of his book.

Rick



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/10 02:18 by rschonfelder.

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Here is a final closer shot of the cab and while I was at it I thought I might throw in some interesting bits seen around the place. I thought some might like to see the ALCO prime mover. I am not sure of which unit it came out of but it will be a C630 or M630 I guess. There was bits of a BHP Mt. Newman JV hanging around so it could have come out of there. Most of the Pilbara units were built under license at Goodwin Alco who was the Australian licensee for Alco and then MLW.

God, I miss Alco's!!! Especially on the BCR [sniff!]

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Shade structure by Chrome Crankshaft .... ?

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One item of interest, as mentioned by John Benson in the previous thread, this museum was once quite active. They had a steam locomotive sent out from England - its' name was Pendenis Castle - and it was used for steam excursions on HI's line. Can you imagine a private company whose railway is basically a conveyor belt actually allowing this? One thing that happened with the demise of the museum, that locomotive was returned to England. Wouldn't it be nice to see some of these rarities return to the USA?

Please watch for my next thread where I will show something that above all of these items, deserves to be returned. I wonder how we might go about trying to do this? It does not reside in the Pilbara Railway Historical Society but rather is part of BHP-Billiton's roster.

Rick

Yeah, that old ALCo does seem to be a "Mabel". It's either that or "Bond, James Bond, agent 007".

Con

rick-

good to see my $75.00AUD lettering job has held up! nothing worse than an unlettered engine. i went to the library in karatha, hunted down a copy of Railways of the Pilbara, and made a xerox copy of the photo of 002. then i took it to a sign shop and had them make the lettering. scott fitzgerald helped me hang it.

john
Mr. Slides®

www.mr-slides.com

John

Which signs do you mean? In the front corner of the numberboards? That was a great effort by you.

Rick

rschonfelder Wrote:
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> John
>
> Which signs do you mean? In the front corner of
> the numberboards? That was a great effort by you.
>
>
> Rick

The lettering on the cab:

"Hamersley Iron

002

Mabel"

Ff you look on the other side of the unit it does not have any lettering. Every year I visited I hoped the museum would letter the unit--dropped a few hints about that too.

John

It had a license to kill.