Nostalgia & History > What is it? Subtitle: Poor man's scanning

Hey all:

First, Happy Thanksgiving!  Hope all is well with you and yours out in TO land.

Second, my brother, uncle and I had a semi-virtual slide show last night.  I showed slides in person with one brother in attendance, and we "Zoomed" in my uncle, with my laptop camera pointed at the screen.  We've done this a couple of times over this lovely year - it works out pretty well.

Anywho, we were showing my uncle's slides from late 1979, and this photo popped up.  It was taken in Dec 1979 in Harrisburg, PA.  It seems like an FM B-unit, but the history, at-photo-time disposition, and current disposition (assumed scrapped of course) is a mystery.  Since I still don't have a slide scanner, a cell phone picture of the screen will have to suffice - hence the "poor man's scanner" subtitle.  It actually came out fairly decently - certainly not for archival purposes, but for TO posting it does fine.

Hope somebody knows - pretty interesting loco!

Rob Benkovitz
West Palm Beach, FL

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One of three PRR Erie Built B unit carbodies converted into a mobile rail welding plant. These eventually donated their trucks to the two PA1 carbodies brought back to the United States by Doyle McCormack for restoration.

-Tim

This is a fascinating story that I was never aware of. Check out the link below.
https://churcher.crcml.org/circle/SmithsFallsRailWeldingPlant.html

This ex FM unit was used by CPR as power for a welded rail train, along with three others. All now scrapped of course.
Thanks for posting this, always something new on T/O

Brian N.

Interesting photo and responses.
ALLEN

Thanks for the post and link.  That CP rail plant was unique. Here is my shot of RAMX 9460 looking a little worse for wear and still sitting at Rutherford,PA. on 3/2/85.

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Thanks for all the answers - definitely an interesting history!