The fact that a group such as the Strasburg has a "top ten" boneheaded list is amazing to think...would make an interesting conversation piece over a group dinner...

Hm...reply got eaten.

B&O EM-1 7600 was sitting in Benwood Junction ready for some bigwigs and a museum crew to pick her up when an overzealous yardmaster, misunderstanding the reason for the official visit, ordered the locomotive scrapped. There's newsreel footage of the distraught-looking yard crew taking a torch to the side rods they had just finished polishing. Weird, but it actually makes my stomach turn.

Depending on who you get the story from, B&LE #643 was "this close" to going to Steamtown in the 1990's.

Is said EM-1 newsreel footage viewable on-line?

We had a few near-hits in New England, Connecticut, to be precise: NH 2-8-2 3016, offered by NH in 1958 to numerous lineside towns, two trolley museums, and the Danbury Fair after starring in "It Happened To Jane" with Ernie Kovacs, Doris Day and Jack Lemmon-- everyone said no. Danbury Fair changed their minds a few weeks later, but 3016 was already sold and off the property in a Modena, Pa. scrapyard.

About 20 years later, funds had been raised/pledged to preserve a New Haven "Jet" EP-5 passenger electric. The Connecticut railway location that originally was to be the home for it said no dice- "too modern for our theme". Scrambles to find a home at one of the trolley museums were for naught and no more Jet.

Howard P.

The problem with far too many of these stories is, like most "urban legends" of this ilk, you can't "prove a negative." So many of these stories have been traded and retold so many times, with minor specific details cropping up several times, that I strongly suggest that unless they are related by first-hand principals or people who were there, you have to take them with a grain of salt, or several.

In the case of the hopper car story related above, I was the one that had arranged the donation, and drove like a maniac through the plant gates when I passed by and saw the scrapper at work on the wrong end of the siding............

New England narrow gauge fans will have heard the sad story of SR&RL 2-6-2 24, which was acquired for preservation by a group of railfans (I'm sorry I don't know their names) back in 1936. No sooner had they purchased the engine then they realized they couldn't afford to move or store it anywhere, so they turned around and sold it for scrap the following year.

-Philip Marshall

Hi Guys;

There was an "urban railfan legend" of the last New York Central Hudson that was stashed away in a round house until I think 1959, It was ordered to be scraped by a NYC vice president, since there was already the 999 in Chicago, a Mohawk in Saint Louis, and it was worth $$$ in scrap.

There was also a story floating around the the Strasburg tried the get the Last PRR steam locomotive in service, the B6sb number 5244 0-6-0 leased to Union Transport in New Jersey, while it was siting in Philadelphia before it was scraped in 1959. Anyone know the stories about these locomotives?

starting trouble since 1959 - David Notarius, UK - someplace

David: The 5244 was supposed to have been taken note of in 1960, retired and her number plate and builders plate removed for preservation. They hung in the Philidelphia headquarters for decades, until the Penn Central went under and they were auctioned along with everything else. The most apocryphal story I've heard was the alledged three PRR J1's which sat in Altoona until 1960. Two were hauled off as scrap and the third was destined for the Northumberland collection. It derailed three times in the yard and was cut up as a wasted of time and money. True or not? Who can say with any reliability?

What we know as factual is, every NYC Niagara, a superlative design, was not even given a shot as survival. According to Stauffer, they easily out performed first generation Diesels, but the steam servicing killed them.

Then there is the group desiring to rebuild the lost T1 Duplex. Have they searched in every quarry?

I think we preservationists thrive on reports of what might have been, and what we can't reverse..

During my 10 years working at the Museum of Transportation I also heard the story about Dr. Roberts, the PRR rep, and a dead cat. The PRR had already given MOT the first P-5 electric loco so there was a relationship there. But I also saw that the museum turned down an offer of a Milwaukee Road streamlined 4-4-2. The reason was that they already had a CNW 4-4-2, which was the first steam loco in the collection. The plan was to get an example of each wheel arrangement instead of everything they could get, so the Milwaukee Road one went to scrap. Sad, but space was very tight on the site at the time too.

One of the saddest I've read was that Timken 1111, also known as 'Four Aces,' was apprently being discussed for preservation by Timken and to be moved to their Ohio HQ, but Northern Pacific (which had her on their roster as # 2626), scrapped her without checking on the status of this.

I heard last year that Norfolk Southern was holding for preservation the first Southern Railway and N&W SD40s. I wonder if they still are holding them or can we now add them to this list?

If the EM-1 footage is online, Channel 7 in Wheeling (WTRF) would be the place to look. For a long while, they also had the lone film clip of the OR&W's last run, but that has indeed made it to YouTube. The EM-1 piece might also be on their channel somewhere.

One story I'd have loved to verify came from Dad, who was in Pearl Harbor with his ship in late 1944 or early 1945. He had liberty, so he and his shipmates went on a narrow gauge train ride to the cane fields. As they pulled out of the station, the conductor came by and Dad remarked that the cars looked awfully familiar. The conductor assured him that he'd probably never heard of the little town the cars came from...Bellaire, Ohio. Now, the conductor had no reason to pull that name out of nowhere, and Dad may have stretched a story or two in his time, but he wouldn't have made that up.

The conductor told him the railroad (and he didn't remember which it was) had bought used OR&W equipment. I had one local historian swear to (and at) me that everything, did I hear him EVERYTHING, had been scrapped on site at the Bellaire end. However, there are pictures extant (I think in Ed Cass' Hidden Treasures) that show locomotives, stripped of their builders' plates and other jewelry, on southbound barges passing under the B&O bridge.

The tsunami that hit Hawaii...was it after the Alaska earthquake in 1964, or earlier?...destroyed at least one stretch of narrow gauge on one island and threw several old narrow-gauge locomotives back into the jungle. I can't remember the details of where they were. Walt Gray once told me that there were no plates on them, but he didn't know whether they'd been removed after they were marooned and were beyond economic recovery.

The NS has held certain locomotives for specific railroad museums in the past, though I believe that was on a "as requested" basis. TVRM requested the NS 2879 (formerly TA&G No. 80 "John A. Chambliss" for their collection. It is not beyond possibility that other locomotives may be stored on behalf of other organizations. I believe that TVRM also had a request for one of the Chattanooga Traction Company SW series switchers that replaced the steeplejack electric locomotives inherited from the interurban line.

Here's another one for you crazy katz! The Virginian railway saved a number of locomotives after they converted to all diesel & electric operations in 1957, as reserved locomotives. The included 2-6-6-6's 2-8-4's and various other wheel arrangements. The Virginian had planned to save some for a museum, but all except for an 0-8-0 where sent to the scrappers after the N&W took over in 1959. Can anyone from Roanoke fill in the rest of the story?

I'll Jump in on this one

Colorado and Southern 71 (narrow gauge 2-8-0) nearly operated on the Georgetown Loop back in the 1980's. The Locomotive made it to Silver Plume, but Central City protested the engines move, and blocked the Tender from leaving town. Eventually, it was moved back to Central city where it currently sits on display. It did operate in Central city in the late 1980's.