As posted on the Chesapeake & Ohio Yahoo group; the ALCO plant is being demolished. Quite abit is already demolished. Just thought some people on here would like to know.

The ALCO plant lasted longer than EMD Plant One in La Grange, and while it is sad to see the property being demolished, the greater loss was the knowledge base of the many former ALCO employees who have passed away in the years since the plant closing.

PC

I am sad to see it go, as it stands in one of the most historic sites in the US (transportation-wise, at least - canal and rr), but what is being torn down is just one portion of the plant. The rest is long, long gone...

Rob

Oh, but we have Muncie and new memories to look forward to.

Steve

Building 62 is in the process of being torn down. It is the largest of the buildings that remain. It is the main assembly hall for ALCO steam and diesel.

Very sad that on the 100th birthday of Georgia Northern 107 (ex-FEC 88) her birthplace is being demolished....but then, the Air Force base hospital in Maine where I was born was torn down many years ago...and I'm still a LONG way from being 100! :>)

At the risk of sounding silly, this exemplifies my assertion that historic preservation in general, and rail and marine preservation in particular, "get no respect. no respect at all!"

David Dewey's comments about the trouble raising $5 million for the Olympia, vs. the ease of a similar amount to pay overpaid athletes and business owners for a basketball franchise, are similarly blood-boiling for me.

At the risk of sounding like a heretic to some around here, it's the sort of nonsense that makes me wish we would retire, at least temporarily, Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA." You don't "feel proud to be an American" when you read the contrasting stories between the Olympia and the basketball team.

We're shutting down schools and libraries, while subsidizing the NASCAR Hall of Fame, which is not bringing in even half of its "projected" visitation. Who wants to see stuff relating to people who made a living driving around in circles over and over, all day......Golf seems thrilling in comparison.

As disgusted as I get about smart people doing dumb things, this makes me even less inclined to civility. Couldn't agree more about our national priorities.

dave

In reality, the steam erecting shop , Building 30, was torn down in the mid-50's, when Alco President Perry Egbert 'rationalized' the plant. Most of everything east of Erie Blvd. was demolished. Bldg 30 was also known as 'Big Diesel', where scores of 244-engined locomotives were constructed.

What remained (between Erie Blvd and the Mohawk River) was the birthplace of models ranging from the RS-11 to the Century series and finally, the last two T-6's.

Building 62, which served as a machine shop in steam days, was the erecting shop for the truncated version of the plant.

any pictures of the ALCO plant, then and now?