I just stumbled across a youtube video showing MRS1s 2044 and 2058 being scrapped with an excavator. I knew these units were once a part of the Hagerstown Railroad Museum. How did they get from being in the "Preserved" list to the "Scrapped" list?

A true cynic might say "Hagerstown Roundhouse Museum--enough said."

As I recall, these two units were salvaged from military surplus from the nearby Letterkenny Army Depot up near Shippensburg, Pa, just to the north. Memory says they were "saved" already in seriously-disused condition.

Without casting insults at the well-intentioned folks at Hagerstown, they attempted, and failed at, preservation of a massive roundhouse there. Due to circumstances mostly beyond their control, they had an impossible objective. The MRS1's had no place to run even if they had been operable, no place to be sheltered, and the last time I saw them they were thoroughly disreputable-looking.

This could well have been yet another sad case of the scrap metal value of the locos briefly outweighing any possible utility or parts value contained therein.

What I heard was they were sold with the condition they not be scrapped, but wound up anyway. Although the 244s went to the DL.

Shortly after the scrapping took place, I was told by a member of the HRM that the locomotives had been sold and the buyer had the intention of selling them to the contract operator of the railway at Letterkenny Army Depot in Chambersburg, PA, which would have returned them to home rails. The contract operator, however, would not return phone calls so the buyer scrapped the locomotives to recover the cost of the purchase.

That is a bummer. From what I was told ten years ago during a visit, at least one of them was in operating condition. I don't think there is much going on in Hagerstown these days, they used to sponsor excursions using MARC equipment from time to time. I don't think they've done that in some time.

A RailPictures photo of the HRM equipment line-up in 2005; also in the "fleet" are/were three demotorized/dehumped RDC's and what I think was a PRR baggage car:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 069&nseq=0

Now also in the collection, after transfer from North Carolina Transportation Museum: WM Baldwin VO1000 132:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 779&nseq=1

Tom: The HRM is out of the excursion train business. They used MARC equipment to carry passengers and some of their trips did very poorly. Current CSX policy is that no excursion trains will go where MARC doesn't already run, so that eliminates the possibility of any rare mileage trips. The process to organize such a trip today is incredibly expensive and complicated, so we're unlikely to ever see such trips in this area again.

That kind of made me feel ill seeing that video... Especially when they tore through the electrical cabinet...

Can someone please provide a link to this video? A search of Youtube has yielded nothing.

Thanks

Howard

There were plenty of reusable parts that could have been salvaged. I bet the engine & generator had low hours on it too.

How appropriate. Those photos were taken by the same person who bought/scrapped them.

That was one pornographic video. Quite sickening for any operator of 244-powered units to see....

With some advance notice, I'd bet any number of Eastern museums/railroads would have had trucks there to load out salvageble spare parts, and I'd also bet that the parting-out of the things would have brought more dollars than simply hacking them to death.

What was the real story here? Did HRM actually own the units? Did they sell them because the locos were simply surplus? Or did they have any fatal, "beyond-economical-repair" defects? Why scrap rather than "offer" them on the various swap sites? (I'm sure that tried-and-true "no plain bearings" phrase entered the dynamic here....)

Howard P.
Sobering Sight, CT

I've been told by someone who supposedly inspected the locos years ago that "they left water in them one winter, and they froze up." I presume that this means cracked engine blocks or the like.

The guy who put up the video said they worked but were just old.