There's an ex-C&O SD18 and an ex-Erie GP7/exx-Conrail GP8 that are at a grain plant in Nebraska that are supposedly being retired soon and those in the preservation world are trying to make their existence know and get them preserved. Looking at the photos, they're, uh, rough to put it gently. The GP8 is still in Conrail paint and appears to have been off the rails at one point and had the pilot busted off and replaced with thinner plate that was subsequently also mangled. But even more fascinating is this photo of it with a big industrial air compressor mounted on a bracket off the front of it that uses both ratchet straps and some really "excellent quality" timbers. Devil's advocate, it could be that it was taking to long to pump up the brakes on cuts of cars and so they decided to add another compressor to speed the process. But realistically, both units probably had weak air compressors and this was a cheaper or easier fix. Newer photos show the GP8 without the "auxiliary compressor", so the situation must have been rectified. How do they get away with this? It's an insular operation for the plant, with a locked derail on the switch connecting it to BNSF, and there are no grade crossings, so it does not fall under FRA jurisdiction.
The SD18 is in nicer shape, and it is noteworthy in that it rides on Alco Tri-Mount trucks. C&O traded a bunch of Alco RSD-5s in on the SD18s and had EMD reuse the Alco trucks underneath them.
