"The passenger cars and two diesels were scrapped over the course of the last week. All that is left as of today were the frames and trucks of the RS3 and U25B."

Any photos posted of the Diesel remains? And now the two historically important electrics? What a terrible commentary on preservation of the New York Central.
My heart goes out to the grieving Danbury preservationists. They have tried their best to get the units out intact. I don't suppose there could be a positive resolution at this point?

Since it had to be removed anyway, for scrapping, the RS3 machinery and body above the underframe could have been used to create a unique ground-level display unlike any other in US museums, potentially even accessible to handicapped (wheelchair) visitors. This could have been set up indoors or outdoors.

If you can't save all of it, why not try saving part of it?

PC

The way I understand the situation, there wasn't much left of the sheet metal on the RS3; you might as well take measurements off an existing unit and fabricate the above-the-frame display as a replica. A fake 244 would be easier to accommodate weight-wise in a typical museum, too.

Because the scrapper said they would scrap the locomotives for free on the condition they get everything. Other scrappers wanted to charge them to scrap it.

It seems NYC equipment has not fared well.

As to the electrics, two S-motors, 113 and 115, are in museums, 113 at MOT in Kirkwood MO (along with NYC L-2d Mohawk 2933) and 115 has been assimilated by IRM in Union IL.

L-3a Mohawk 3001 is at the National NYC Museum in Elkhart IN. It was sold to the T&P to replace a 2-10-4, found its way to the Museum of the American Railroad, then known as the Age of Steam Museum, in Dallas. They traded it to the Elkhart museum for GG1 4906 (AMTK 906, ex PRR 4903) The NYC Museum subsequently acquired NJT GG1 4882, which is painted for Penn Central.

Interestingly, the RR Museum of PA is owned by the Commonwealth of PA, while the National NYC Museum is owned by the City of Elkhart.

Phil Mulligan

PROGRESS!!!!!

Maybe NOT the hopeless cause some of us keep telling ourselves it is--but DONATIONS ARE STILL NEEDED:

https://www.danburyrail.org/dec28

If some bent metalwork is the only casualty here, and that S and T motor make it to Danbury? Then there's a good outcome to this whole mess. Where as I understand it one of the major hurdles was getting permission just to move them from where they had been sitting? At bare minimum this is movement in the right direction. I'll at least save the champagne until they're across the state line though...

My Congratulations to all involved in making this progress! Hopefully, the next steps of disassembly in preparation for the remaining transportation will go well.

A difficult trip begins with one step. A good first step here!

With all the posts about the 2 locomotives, I have seen scant mention of the 2 passenger cars that were also lost due to this situation. These were the 2 ex-D&RGW, ex-D&H center-kitchen diners built by Pullman-Standard in 1950. These were very, very unusual cars, with the only other car built to a similar plan being the lone diner built for the Pere Marquette by P-S in 1946. RIP.

On a Bipolar, the motor shaft is the axle so there are no gears.

The MILW EP-2's are also bipolars. Lionel modelled all three (S-motors, T-motors and EP-2 motors) in their classic prewar Tinplate years, both Standard gauge (2 1/8" gauge) and 0 gauge (1 1/4" gauge).

It was weird in GCT listening to them go about their duties silently (DC power, no gear noise) compared to the buzzing, humming and grinding of PRR's B1 motors a few blocks away.

Phil Mulligan

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews ... to-museum/
The S-1 needs both headlights, hopefully there are many photos of them.

Isn't there also an S Motor in St. Louis? If it still has its headlights, measure off of those and then design replacements...

Yes.

There's also another at IRM.

One would hope that maybe some of these things will be returned once these two locomotives are rescued and restoration progress is hopefully happening, but time will tell.

Gonna address some of the comments on this thread.

The gas pipeline. It's not 30 feet underground, it's more like 30 *inches* underground. Someone must have mis-spoken about the depth somewhere. This is a high pressure gas pipeline that not only feeds the power plant, but is also part of the natural gas transmission network. Any damage to the pipeline would endanger the ability of the plant to generate power (especially during winter peak generation season) and the ability for area gas customers to generate power, heat, etc. It's generally considered critical infrastructure. The movement of 115-140 tons of old locomotives + transport vehicles and equipment/dunnage is 100% risk and 0% benefit to the pipeline owners. Getting lawyers involved would not have resolved a single thing.

The land around the locomotives before they were shifted 200 feet to "safety" can't support moving anything as big and heavy as the S and T motors. The ROW into the power plant is gone (nor would they allow anything like that to happen anyway - again - 100% risk / 0% benefit to the power plant). The bridge across Normanskill Creek is gone. The track these things were on had not been used in the 50 years since the power plant stopped burning coal - so moving anything on those tracks would have resulted in these units ending up on the ground and possibly on their side. Ground's too soft around the engines anyway. The side-booms are made for this sorta thing - but they're meant to clean up derailments - not gently move 100+ yr old locomotives without scratching them - thus the damage from the move. This was a last-ditch desperate and expensive measure as the clock was ticking.

The RS-3, U25B and passenger rolling stock were all far beyond saving. Even if they could be "saved" the costs to move them would have in to the millions for the entire collection to be relocated for 'preservation' - and then what? Sit in the elements for another 10, 20, 30 years while a bunch of volunteers mull what to do with them?

So far the museum has sunk $110,000 into this project to move these things 200 feet. They're looking at another $125,000 for the crane to disassemble what they can (*if* they can) and place onto heavy transport equipment. Then the costs to hire a heavy hauler with specialized over the road equipment, along with the cost to secure permits, escort vehicles, etc... transport it to Danbury. Then another crane to lift everything off the transport equipment and back onto the rails in Danbury.

Realistically, all told, this project is going is going to cost *at least* $500,000 assuming everything goes according to plan. Picking up and moving big heavy things isn't cheap. Every day a piece of heavy transport equipment and/or driver sits idle waiting for the OK to move costs money. No one is volunteering their time or equipment for this endeavor. Until recently, I worked for a nuclear power plant that had four new 24,000 to 345,000 volt transformers replaced - and the cost to transport these things 7 miles from a deep water port to the plant to their final installation was into the millions. The transformers themselves weighed about 375,000 lbs dry without appurtenances or oil - and there were no issues of geography or soft soil. Everything was best case scenario.

The Danbury Railway Museum, according to it's last filed IRS 990 form from 2019 (their tax return to to speak) has ~$660,000 in cash and savings... likely more by now - so let's ballpark $700,000'ish. The museum president did say in another article that using their cash/savings to fund this would deplete most of it - leaving little left to fund projects at the museum and draining their rainy day fund. So do they NEED donations to do this? No. They have the money. The donations would replenish their savings account.

If things go wrong during this project - the costs to remediate anything will skyrocket. I'm not exactly sure why the museum is ready to bankrupt itself to save these things.

The clock is ticking. These things need to be removed from the property ASAP. At some point the Port of Albany and the project contractors will run out of patience and scrap these things themselves. They still need a transport company and a plan to get these things down to Danbury. This all takes time and a LOT of money.

The time to save these things was 30 yrs ago before the power plant got tired of dealing with the local NRHS chapter who left them parked on their property - so they got pushed beyond the fenceline so the new gas plant could be developed and that was that. Over time they deteriorated under the elements, thieves and vandals. Prior to that, there was a chance a much less costly hospital move to a place such as Danbury was possible before these things deteriorated.

Shame really. I hope they can get those things to Danbury. Be interesting to see how this all pans out.

30” is a game changer though seems awful shallow to me. If that’s the case, is it safe to assume that the equipment was shoved to that place prior to the construction of the pipeline? If so, I can see the pipeline owner’s point. Pipeline construction should have been the “last call” to get that stuff outa there.

But…. The main pipeline appears to cross the river over two miles south of the power plant’s gas terminal station or whatever you call them. The plant’s feed appears to tap into that main pipeline roughly where it ducts under I87. The tracks that serviced the power plant are still in place over the plant’s feed pipe, though within the plant’s fenced area. So still seems a little BS-ish to me so far as the pipeline thingy goes.

That said, still, what a mess.