Grassroots Railroad Sports?

slowbird said:

I want one of these. Locomotive with a party deck. (Some sort of SD40/SD45 mashup.)

That thing has fascinated people for years. It started life as a St. Louis Southwestern (better known as Cotton Belt) SD45T-2. That was the "Tunnel Motor" variant of an SD45-2, and was 2 feet longer than an SD45-2 to accomodate the larger cooling system. It was wrecked at some point and had the 3600hp V20 645 engine replaced with the 3000hp V16 645 out of an SD40. It also had the Tunnel Motor cooling system replaced with the regular cooling system. They plopped a hood off a Norfolk Southern SD40 on the back and, voila, you have a dance floor on the back. 

Most recent photo I found shows the #9402 sitting at NRE's Silvis yard looking pretty scruffy (Although not as rough as that Chessie Systems GP30 to the back left). NRE is cleaning out their Silvis and Dixmoor facilities currently and scrapping a lot of stuff. I'm not sure if #9402 will meet the torch or be fortunate enough to escape.

Adirondack #25 is being prepped for her move. They are lifting it off the trucks, installing dollies with 4 tandem axles under each end and trucking it on the road to Remsen, NY

In reply to NickD :

That ought to create some interesting moments on the interstate.

In reply to kazoospec :

Kinda wish I had taken tomorrow off. But I didn't know when they were actually doing the move. Watching a locomotive appear to motor up the highway would be pretty amusing.

Footage of the first stage of prepping it for the move yesterday 

Like overgrown children playing with an overgrown trainset, the boys at East Broad Top took advantage of the snowy conditions to shuffle narrow gauge Mikado #17 around with their diesel locomotive and pose it for some nice winter shots. According to Facebook, they were also offering heated caboose rides up and down the line to anyone in the area. I can't wait to see this place back in operation next year, for the first time in 11 years, because it seems like the new owners are genuinely enthused about the place.

In reply to NickD :

I'm kind of a delinquent sometimes.  If I were moving it, I'd figure out a way to power up the headlight just for giggles. 

I'm watching Combat Trains on the Smithsonian Channel. 10/10 would recommend.

So I thought the plan was to move ADIX #25 by road up to Remsen. Appears I was wrong. It was instead put on the dollies to be towed over the CSX mainline over to Mohawk, Adirondack & Northern's yard. It sounds like the plan is to put it back on its trucks there, have a mechanical assessments done by the MA&N's crew and then be dead-towed up to Remsen. 

New Haven-painted Genesis on the Hudson Line in yesterday's snow storm.

In reply to NickD :

slowbird said:

In reply to NickD :

Being an Alco, she definitely rolled coal like one back in the day.

PRR J1a 2-10-4 #6492 meets Santa Fe 5011-Class 2-10-4 #5012 on the PRR's Sandusky Branch. During the summer of 1956, PRR leased 12 of the big 5011s to help with a coal traffic boom. While PRR crews said the J1 was better for getting trains started, the 5011s taller drivers meant they were better at speed, with claims of handling trips 2.5 hours faster than the PRR engines.

A lot to take in in this shot of #5031 at the Columbus engine facilities. First, is the level of grunge on #5031. While ATSF kept their engines shiny, PRR engines were lucky to get washed after a major overhaul. The ATSF Texas-types got the same treatment. On the ready track to the right, the nose of a Fairbanks-Morse C-Liner is just visible. On the same track as #5031, but farther back is a PRR J1 about to be fueled. On the track to the left is a long string of oil cars. Since the ATSF engines were oil burners, and PRR had no oil-fired engines, the PRR parked a cut of oil cars for fueling the 5011s. And in the background to the far left is an ever-growing "dead line" of retired steam engines, soon to be cut up. In fact, the last three PRR J1s were at Columbus until some time in 1960 before being cut up. The story goes that the PRR intended to cut up two and donate one, but after the first engine derailed two or three times in the same spot, they were all torched on the spot.

ATSF #5034 eases through the facilities on the track to the left of the coal tower in the above photo. That dead line and the string of oil cars is visible as well. If the PRR had all those engines sitting cold, then why did they borrow the ATSF engines, rather than fire those up? Those PRR engines had either run out their last miles and needed an overhaul or had been parked since the Great Depression and would need major repairs to be operable again. Since the PRR was in the process of dieselizing, they weren't going to spend money on old steam engines, so they borrowed the Texas-types off the ATSF. The 5011s ran their last days on the PRR, being retired on return home in December of '56.

The #5034 is sporting lots of staining on the boiler jacket from hard water with insufficient treatment. She's backing towards the roundhouse, bell clanging, while a PRR F-unit watches.

Going for a sping

Since the 5011s were so long, longer than a J1, they didn't actually fit onto the Columbus turntable. The fix was a pair of rails with a 45 degree bend that extended rearwards. The tender would be almost entirely drained, then backed up onto these extensions and the engine could then be turned and pulled into the roundhouse. The 5011s were only put in the roundhouse when they needed major servicing, due to the logistics.

A J1 on the same turntable. Its a pity that none of the "War Babies" were saved.

A J1 and a 5011 face each other, parked alongside EMD F-units.

J1s and 5011s. At the same time that the PRR was borrowing the ATSF Texas engines, they also had leased 9 Reading T-1 Northerns on Lines East. In 1950, PRR had also borrowed 5 N&W Y6s to use between Columbus and Sandusky, five Bessemer & Lake Erie 2-10-4s for between Conway and Shire Oaks and 12 Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac engines (3 Berkshires, 9 Northerns) for the Susquehanna Division.

A better view of those ingenious extensions

#5014, doubleheading with a J1 on the lead, throws up a plume of black smoke. While oil engines typically have a cleaner exhaust, over time they will collect oil soot on their flues.  This insulates the flues making it a less efficient steamer.  The solution is for the fireman to add a few shovelfuls of sand to the fire while underway.  The draft will pull the sand through the flues, scouring them clean.  The sand will then be blown out the stack, along with really nasty black smoke that you do not want to stand under.

A J1 beats across the Weary Erie at AC Tower in Marion, Ohio. This must have been a fascinating, grimy, and noisy location.

Double-headed J1s beat their way out of Pennor Yard in Columbus with a coal train. So named because it was an interchange between Pennsylvania and Norfolk & Western, this was where the PRR got their coal to haul north to Sandusky. It was also one of seven yards that PRR was active in in Columbus.

Shortly after leaving Pennor, they will cross over the Cleveland Akron & Columbus RR and into Grogan Yard, which was PRR's main yard in Columbus and the classifying yard for all trains to Sandusky. In the photo below, the lead engine is just crossing the CA&C and entering Grogan Yard

And now into Grogan Yard

And now, what do we have here off to the right? That's one of Lima-Hamilton's big 2500hp center cab transfer models, which carried no official designation from Lima-Hamilton. They only built 22 of them and they all went to the PRR. The PRR used these and old I1 2-10-0 "Hippos" to move cuts of cars between their 7 yards in Columbus. While the N&W to PRR transfer had this very short and convenient connection, C&O coal cars destined for Sandusky came into the Grandview Yard on Columbus' Westside and had to be moved to Grogan Yard in preparation for the Sandusky trip. Also interesting is the 2 cabooses bracketing the big L-H diesel. The caboose closest to the photographer will be for the completed train, while the one on the other end of the locomotive is for when she runs light back to this yard for more work.