Eastern Railroad Discussion > The last Alco S5 gets some paint

On a photo outing today one of the stops was Bellevue, Ohio. Of interest near the Mad River shops was the 864, a rare (only 7 built) former Boston and Maine S5 that spent it's last running days at North Star Steel. It has spent many years at Bellevue in its worn out NSS paint, but recently has received a new coat of Alco Demonstrator green and yellow and will be lettered as such. It's not currently operational, but with some work it can be.

Roger Durfee
Akron, OH

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Superior catch - She looks great.
Bob

Sweet looking old girl!

Looks nice !

I have heard that when the B&M got these six cylinder 251's that they were saving money on water treatment and in very short order the rim under the top of the liner seal on the block cavitated causing them some big money. They tried to go back on Alco, but when Alco discovered they had neglected the water treatment B&M was on its own.

That story was repeated to me many times by Alco people whenver I was working on or maintaining 251's ...... "just make sure you are using water trreatment or you'll end up like the B&M".

Is this the B&M Alco switcher that Orion Newall-Vuillemot of Woodstock Conn. is interested in acquiring for restoration ?  About eight years ago he bought and restored B&M 72449 ,an outside braced wooden boxcar that is now at the Danbury Railway Museum on display .A few years later he acquired SPV 1001 and NH 5111 from RMNE-Essex and had them transported via rail to Danbury . 2023 saw the SPV 1001 go to  the Naugatuck Railroad where it operated on trains around Christmas time in revenue service.  Orion is about 22 years old and is a very impressive person and humble from what I've seen.   As I said the B&M 864 is in  my brain as a unit Orion was interested ,could be wrong though. The 864 looks good with the new paint , thanks for sharing the shot with us.

train1275 Wrote:
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> Looks nice !
>
> I have heard that when the B&M got these six
> cylinder 251's that they were saving money on
> water treatment and in very short order the rim
> under the top of the liner seal on the block
> cavitated causing them some big money. They tried
> to go back on Alco, but when Alco discovered they
> had neglected the water treatment B&M was on its
> own.

 Interesting....after 2 years the B&M removed the 251A and replaced it with a 251B, which I believe increased the HP from 800 to 900. 

Roger Durfee
Akron, OH