Unconfirmed but reliable reports indicate that the long-stored Alco FA body of former Western Maryland FA1 303 (minus diesel engine, later a Long Island RR cab control car) is being prepped for trucking from its storage location near Westernport to a new owner and location in the U.S. Southwest..... Run and get your pictures while you can!

Photo by RyPN contributor "YeOldeEnjine".....

Does the rumor mill suggest the 303 to be re-engined or used a s a parts supply?
It's amazing how many FA's were saved from absolute destruction at the close of LIRR push-pull operations, only to be left outdoors as "abandoned" hulks.
I know of only three which are getting TLC in restoration at this time.

From personal knowledge, unless some wildly-crazed preservation/tourist proposal is underway in secret, it's not coming to Arizona. The only contender there, the Grand Canyon Railway, is planning to retire and sell off its MLW FPA-4's. The Verde Canyon RR loves its FP7s, but not yet enough to rebuild them completely as seemingly seriously needed.

The only rail operation that makes any sense is the Santa Fe Southern/George R.R. Martin operation in New Mexico, as either a loco rebuild or a cab-control unit. They have money. Anyone know if Martin is a closet WM fan?

Edit: Well, hey, I didn't consider Colorado, Utah, Nevada, or Southern California yet..................

For a number of years No. 303 has sat by a closed truck repair shop located by the intersection of Route 36 and Old Reynolds Route SW, somewhat south of Barton, MD. If it hasn't been moved down to the interchange in Westernport, anyone wishing to photograph it will find it still sitting by the old truck shop, along with several other unsold Georges Creek Railway locomotives and cars. You can also easily view the location in Google Earth.

Not as of today:

Did WMSR inquire about it, even though it would take a lot to make it operable? Beats me why someone would take it to the SW, FAs were uncommon there, unless it is just a matter of having a place to store it.

My casual understanding of the circumstances:

You ever seen those next-door neighbors that acknowledge each others' existence but haven't really spoken in years?

I strongly suspect further that 1) reactivating this shell of an FA2 to operable condition as a locomotive, even re-engined with something more readily available like an EMD 645, would be beyond either the logistical capabilities or the talent of the WMSR shop forces, and 2) the supposed future user/operator supposedly in the "Southwest" has a reasonable use and need for a push-pull operation with a cab control unit, whereas WMSR doesn't appear to.

Perhaps an idle ALCO 244 prime mover is waiting for a new home? LIRR did some heavy modifications to the FA's even after they entered push-pull service. Restoring the locomotives other than cosmetically will take some dedication and skill. One can only hope.

You can be quite sure that fixing up an FA to once again function would be well within the capabilities of JC McHugh. I would love to see this engine at WMSR, no doubt others would as well. It's "just a matter of money and politics".

If it's going to the Southwest, you could put an EMD 567 in it and make it a Frisco or Rock Island FA-1m. I'm being sarcastic, of course. MoPac and MKT also had some FAs, so they were present, if not common, in the southwest.

I've been informed by someone alleging to be the truck driver that "next stop is Kansas City......" And he says he's been allowed to say that by his clients.

So................. Mid-America Car, maybe?

LIRR 607 was involved in a severe grade crossing accident and received heavy damage. That she exists at all at this date is amazing. Obviously, some cosmetic repairs have already been completed. This should be interesting. I hope she doesn't become a dentist's office or BBQ stand!

OK, so here's what I know.....

This was Gerald's rescue locomotive, the ex-LIRR power unit that 'was' Western Marylands FA. It was towed to the West Virginia Central, and restoration to a cab control unit was done under John Smith's work on the West Virginia Central. He turned the wheels, got the brakes and MU working, and it was a fairly useful and photogenic cab unit for a while. Remember Long Island had that wierd 600V HEP system, it had to be converted from that to standard MU. You'll find a lot of photos of it used in MU on West Virginia Central trains around Elkins, and it looked pretty good.

Check this out:
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/795310/

It got sent back to Georges Creek and parked at Barton or Westernport where it's been for some time, and the paint has significantly deteriorated. But it's already been used as a cab control MU unit for years. I don't remember traction motors or any internals at all in it.

So because it's gone through that process, it's got some value to somebody that wants to go to the expense of proper MU cabling as a cab control unit that's 'legal' to be grandfathered, has crew protection, etc. And if you wanted to put HEP in it like a baggage car, well, another possibility. But I'd be more than skeptical about fitting it back as a locomotive - LIRR kinda killed that.

I just came back from the HRA conference at Essex and saw Dave Conrad's work on the 3025 2-8-2, when I last saw it it was under the burned wreckage of the Knox & Kane enginehouse at East Kane and being sold for scrap. Hope this gets similar talent and dedication, don't diss it too much, and no, I don't know where it's headed.

"It got sent back to Georges Creek and parked at Barton or Westernport where it's been for some time"

It took a lawsuit in federal court to force the return to Georges Creek. Matter of public record that the D&GV kept it years past the lease termination. JS made the statement to many of his employees that "if it is on my railroad, there's not much anyone can do to force you to return it."

WM 303 was purchased by Railway Service Contractors, who has a shop in Belton, Missouri. It is being rebuilt with a HEP generator for a client whose name I do not know. It will be used on a tourist operation at a location I do not know.

It was not easy to let it go. I purchased it from the B&O Museum in August 2000. Since then I had accumulated a 12-244, several crates of electrical cabinet components harvested from the two MRS-1s and two Alco S4s scrapped at Cass in October 2010. The only major components I was lacking is four GT752s.

When the paper mill closed in May 2019, everything changed. The departure of 303 from Maryland is part of the collateral damage from that closing.

The sun still rises in the east and sets in the west.