A frequent story I've heard over the years being from Akron was that Erie ALCo switcher #520, which was still painted in Erie colors well into the 1970s, was hidden in the small engine house at the Akron McCoy St. yard whenever the local employees got wind of any officials in the area, so it wouldn't be taken away for repainting. There are numerous photos of it posted on various railroad photo sites.

https://www.facebook.com/gvtrailco/post ... udMBQvuNSl
"Genesee Valley Transportation Co., Inc.
1h ·
NKP/DL190 sits at Clearing Yard waiting to be put on the eastbound Norfolk Southern train for the final leg of its journey home to Scranton. Looks like she may take the Nickel Plate Road across Ohio and into Buffalo.
#pacomeshome Journey to Scranton
Photo by Charlie Newton for GVT Rail System, All Rights Reserved.
This update is for informational purposes only. Please refrain from entering railroad property during this historic journey. Safety first!"

At least it doesn’t look like they put it over the hump. Yet. ;>)

Any news? Has she left Chicago?

A day ago they posted some old photos of PAs and some text, note the asterisk line:
"Genesee Valley Transportation Co., Inc.
1d ·
Memory Lane Photos courtesy of The Nickel Plate Road Historical & Technical Society, Inc. !
Older PA photos from Chicago and more.
*NKP/DL190 awaits the final leg from Clearing."

jayrod was joking about it going over the hump, but bad things happen in yards sometimes so I hope it moves soon.

Maybe Jayrod meant that comment as a joke, but here's an example: Better than 30 years ago, the superintendent of the BN Denver Division was killed in a hi rail accident. His personal car and all his belongings were carefully packed up and loaded onto a TTX flat, which was placarded "Do Not Hump". You guessed it. Naturally our very most brain damaged switchman got ahold of it, and kicked it into one of the classification tracks we have in a mile and a half long bowel type yard. It sailed away, and as you probably also guessed by now, there was a pretty good cut already standing in the middle of that track when that flatcar smashed into it. The boss man's widow was not pleased...

I have personally witnessed passenger cars heavily placarded "DO NOT HUMP" pushed over the hump, BUT while still coupled to the cut and locomotives so they could spot it and uncouple it on a side track so nothing else would be slammed into it. In three cases, I was standing in the hump tower, breathing down the necks of the personnel in charge to assure that this was what happened.

So, NOT a joke.

I think I've mentioned this before. I was with Jerry Jacobson when he bought his first passenger coach in late 1979, a former Algoma Central heavyweight open window car, from the Boyne City Railroad in Boyne City, MI. We made a 24 hour marathon round-trip there and back from the Akron area for him to pay for it, inspect it and get it ready to be moved to Ohio, probably Jackson, where his 0-6-0 (JISCO #3/BLW #26) was being restored to operating. Nice car, clean, bare concrete floor, walkover seats.

Well, he inspected the car, and took off the steam heat fittings to take home for safe keeping. A week or two goes by, and I called him to talk one evening, and he tells me the tale of woe about the car. It had disappeared from Conrail's memory to somewhere. He called around to every yard in the Great Lakes area trying to locate it. Finally, he gets hold of the third trick yardmaster in Elkart who knows about it. He says, "Oh, she's sick". "What do you mean sick?", said Jerry. Turns out it didn't get humped but they kicked six cars of coiled steel into it, crushing a vestibule and bending the frame. I'm guessing he got some kind of settlement from CR for it. I know that Bill Fuhring from Mad River bought it for parts and it sat on a siding in Bellevue for a number of years in the 1980s.

So, yeah, don't trust the carrier to take care of your historic passenger equipment.

My hump post was a little tongue in cheek as I’ve heard from various people that you should try to avoid routing through Chicago if you can when shipping your equipment. It seems that for various reasons the probability of bad things happening is higher going that way.

I believe that the PA was originally painted Nickle silver where the white is now.

RE: brain-dead switching moves, sometimes the railroad's own equipment is the target. We had someone kick a bunch of loads onto CN's Geometry Test Train, even after being told it was in that track and was occupied. Quite the rude awakening for the test crew, fortunately there was no permanent damage.

Having spent several year of my career in first level terminal supervisory positions - it is akin to herding cats. Getting employees to do as instructed requires very specifically worded instructions so that multiple interpretations cannot be derived from the instruction via 'malicious compliance'.

It can be a educational experience in 'Saying what you mean and meaning what you say!'

When it was a Santa Fe unit the silver portion was actually stainless steel, and I would bet the D&H left it that way with blue paint instead of red. However, when it was wrecked in Mexico the stainless steel was scavenged, and McCormack didn't need stainless for his NKP replica. I wonder what GVT has planned, if they want to restore it to its D&H appearance will they replace the stainless?

THe late Dave Shore was engine messenger on Frisco 1630. IRM's Russian Decapod. She was built to Russian 5' 0" gauge but because of the Bolshevic Revolution, could not be exported to Russia. She was rebuilt to US 4' 8 1/2" gauge. The drivers and cylinders remained Russian gauge and extra-wide driver tires put the flanges at US gauge.

On the move, she was placarded "no self-guarding frogs." The engine would frequently go Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, each time coming back down on the rails.

Nobody reads placards or waybills.

Phil Mulligan

Do you think most T&E crews even know what self-guarding frog means? Grant you it was like 50 years ago when that move happened, but most of the guys I worked with 15 years ago probably thought a frog belonged in a swamp, let alone knew what a self-guarded one was.