Eastern Railroad Discussion > Long stored Armco locomotive at Butler, Pa on the move.

B-84, a GP38-2 that has been at the Butler, Pa plant of ARMCO STEEL...now A-K Steel, it's entire life, and long out-of-service, probably for 10-15 years, is on the move. It was at the Bessemer & Lake Erie's, Calvin Yard in Butler, Pa this morning loaded on a flat car missing it's trucks, fuel tank, prime mover and the entire dynamic brake section. I would say the loco has been little photographed as this is it's first venture outside the steel mill complex since it was delivered, in the early 70's. And as such, was not in a position for fans to easily get photo's of, plus it has not been used for years now.

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From the rear.

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With all the prime mover equipment missing, does it still qualify as a locomotive?
Jim

Do you know where it is going? Was it in too bad of shape to pull it dead?

A friend of mine just pointed out something very significant about this locomotive that I knew but did not mention above. This unit is the ONE AND ONLY GP38-2 that was built without MU.

fireman74 Wrote:
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> Do you know where it is going? Was it in too bad
> of shape to pull it dead?

Without trucks, it wouldn't pull very far.
Sort of like the old bit of juvenile humor:
Q. What do you do with a dog with no legs?
A. You take it out for a drag!

Can you say "Razor Blades"...sold for scrap..?

SCREAMIN-EAGLE Wrote:
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> Can you say "Razor Blades"...sold for scrap..?


No you don't pay some one to put it on a flat car, if its scrap it would go in a Gon

EQUIPMENT EVENT L/E TRAIN EVENT ROAD SIGHT ETA
INIT NUMBER DESCRIPTION CITY ST DATE TIME CODE TYPE DATE TIME
ITTX 990989 PLACED ON STORAGE LOAD BUTLER PA 05/18 1559 CN S

It is still a locomotive, irregardless that it has no wheels, motor, generator, etc, etc. The only thing that has changed is that it currently cannot operate. It may never operate again but will still go down as a locomotive, no matter what shape it is in.

Who was the manufacturer? Aaron '07

Hi Aaron,

This is a GP38-2. All locos in the GP series were made by EMD. This would also be the builder on all of the SD-series locos.

Mark

Wouldn't be suprised if it ended up at Larry's Truck Electric in McDonald, Ohio to breed with the rest of the junk there.

Maybe it went to NS for the GP38 rebuilds there doing?

bill_whh Wrote:
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> EQUIPMENT EVENT L/E TRAIN EVENT ROAD SIGHT ETA
> INIT NUMBER DESCRIPTION CITY ST DATE TIME CODE
> TYPE DATE TIME
> ITTX 990989 PLACED ON STORAGE LOAD BUTLER PA
> 05/18 1559 CN S

Its heading Kansas City, MO.

Mark,

Thanks! I didn't know about GP/SD being EMD. Are there a lot of other manufacturer's of locomotives? I know of GE in Erie and my grandpop said Baldwin was in Philadelphia long ago. I'm trying to think what isn't a GP or SD? Alco, just thought of that. They were the ones that smoked like a steam engine so I've heard ha.
Aaron '07

Aaron,

No problem. I'm no expert on this, others here are much more knowledgable. Though I've loved trains my whole life, I've really just gotten into railfanning in the past 5 years or so. I'm 28, so I was not much older than you when I started. It takes a while to learn a lot of this stuff. Just keep asking questions and you'll get it.

Anyway, EMD and GE are the only two major builders left (for freight power).

RailPower Technologies builds the Green Goats (hybrid switchers) and gensets (using 2 or 3 smaller diesel engines to provide "just enough" power).

For passenger engines, someone will correct me if I'm wrong here, but I believe Alstom and Bombardier are the two major producers for US passenger systems. Siemens also has passenger products (though I'm not sure of locomotives), but I confess I'm not as good with passenger systems since Cleveland hasn't invested much in this lately.

What isn't a GP/SD? GE is actually the largest producer today. They build the Evolution Series engines (ES44AC/ES44DC). They also built the AC4400CW and AC6000CW (these units are also listed as CW44AC/CW60AC). Going back even more, GE built the C-series and B-series engines. The numbers on these last ones are dwindling, but there are still some B30-7 and CW40-8 units in service (many others as well).

Mark

Mark, what does EMD make to compete with GE? Sounds like in a few years the largest railroads will all have
the same locomotives or very little variety. The older power will be on regional and shortline roads. (I
got a bunch of neat stuff from Aberdeen & Rockfish, very friendly people.)

I hope someone follows up on where this Armco engine goes. Even if it's in pieces it is still part of history. Aaron '07

Aaron,

Starting with the break through F series locomotives in the 40's, EMD was long the dominant builder until the mid 90's or so, when GE began to pull even/surpass EMD in sales. EMD's current models competing with GE are the many variations of the SD70. Basically any model that starts with the initials GP or SD that you see running around today is an EMD product. "GP" for "general purpose" is the designation for a 4 axle unit, and "SD" is for "special duty" is the designation for a 6 axle unit. Originally SD types were rather rare, but over time, the SD model became preferred, especially by large railroads, to the point that EMD has not produced a 4 axle GP unit for a number of years. EMD models you are most likely to see are the GP40, GP38, SD50, SD60, SD80, SD90 models...along with EMD's landmark SD40 series, which although getting a bit long in the tooth now, set the standard freight power in the late 70's through the 80's. GP's are now usually found in yard and local work, with SD's handling over the road duty. EMD also made purpose built switch engines in the SW series, with the SW1500 family being the most common.

PittsburghMike Wrote:
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EMD was long the dominant builder until the mid 90's or so, when GE began to
> pull even/surpass EMD in sales.




GE pulled even in sales 1986... surpassed in early 87. EMD led again for the middle part of 88 due to SD60 sales, but by late 1989 GE led again and hasn't looked back.