Note that I have no financial interest in this auction, only a historical one.
The former American Car & Foundry rail car plant in Milton, Pa. is being shuttered and liquidated by new owner Greenbrier Rail Car. In its last decades the plant primarily produced and repaired tank cars. It had reopened after a previous closure during the shale oil and fracking boom, but has now been shuttered for good.
A three-day plant auction, live and online, is scheduled for July 28-30th. Information at:
https://bid.yellowtagauctions.com/cgi-b ... ellowtag55
On-site viewing, for any intrepid browsers, will be on July 22-24.
The lots in this massive auction range from three nicely refurbished GE 45-ton locomotives with siderod drive (and a Trackmobile with one bad tie rod) to massive lathes and presses, from random tools and gauges (many vintage enough to be still in well-worn wooden cases) to new railroad car parts (brake shoes, hand grabs, brake wheels, handbrake ratchet mechanisms, etc.), from welders aplenty to a push broom, from drink mix to the cranes and forklifts you will need to get this stuff out!
Two of the three locomotive lots (all July 30th) are thorough enough to include serial numbers. All are in potentially the best condition of any GE 45-tonners extant, recently refurbished with Cummins engines and interior and exterior cosmetic work.
The online catalogs are up now; online bidding starts Tuesday the 14th.
Bad news: 5.5% sales tax, 18% buyer's premium. Then you have to figure out how to get it out and home.
Good news: I haven't found a lot yet with anything more than a $25 starting bid.
A warning that many, MANY items are categorized incorrectly for some reason; several lots of center plates for trucks got categorized as "Restaurant & Bar Equipment," as were welding tables.
I have posted this just in case there might be either a commercial outfit friendly to preservation causes that can find something useful here (Strasburg?) or a rail preservation entity that can find "the answer to their prayers" in here. (Maybe a loco to trade with an industry for the locally historic one they're using?)
One thing I have not located yet among the thousands of lots: the replica of "ACF's First Tank Car," a short vintage flat car with wooden vats atop it that sat outside the main office entrance for decades. I don't know if it's being promised locally. There is a local rail museum operated by the Central Pa. Chapter NRHS across the river and to the north at White Deer, which received the donation of a tank car and ex-PRR boxcar from the plant in the late 1980s. I have no idea if they're up for getting one of the locos or that tank car replica.
