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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 1:33 am 
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Location: Rochelle Illinois
Alexander D. Mitchell IV wrote:
Not worth it to get either just for that one loco--it takes up one page in each book. The info is basically identical in both books; the latter is basically an updated edition of the former (1995 versus 1973), with slightly more and better photos than the former. Out of 480 pages in the latter, 14 are devoted to Whitcomb as opposed to 13 out of 460 in the SDSG.

Yeah, I was a little shocked when I saw the Amazon price for what had been a $29.95 book, considering I "stole" one from a library surplus sale for 50 cents. It's been republished by another publisher in hardcover large format color for around $70:
http://www.mcmillanpublications.com/pro ... rs-marre-1
http://www.goldenspike.us/?page=shop/fl ... t_id=24395

Tomorrow I'm ordering the cheaper of the two books. I'm curious to see what they said about Whitcomb.

Gotta chase down every lead.

Steve

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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 9:20 pm 
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I believe this photo inside the Whitcomb factory is of the construction of a locomotive for an Argentina order post WW II.

Ooops, I think not. It doesn't look like the one below.

Unidentified locomotive.

Steve

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Last edited by machinehead61 on Tue Jan 08, 2013 9:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 9:28 pm 
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Image

Another photo with caption.

The Baldwin Magazine posted earlier also includes a photo and caption refering to this order.

Image

Steve

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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 7:43 pm 
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This is what bothers me about people who only think about making money.

This person has a photo I've never seen before and is important to my research.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/U-S-Army-760th- ... 7675.l2557

I didn't find it until after it was sold and now it's gone.

I don't need the original but now I have no way of even getting a scan.

I hope the seller is happy - these rare never published photos should be donated to museums, not sold to private collectors who will bury it in a filing cabinet, never to be shared.

I doubt the seller had a clue that the locomotive is a Whitcomb - and probably didn't care.

Steve

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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 8:25 pm 

Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2009 5:31 pm
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Steve;

Did you try contacting the seller and ask to obtain a print? From his eBay description it sounds like all he offered for sale in this auction was a printed photo from the original negative.

Doesn't hurt to ask...

Tim W.


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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 9:27 pm 
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Location: Rochelle Illinois
YeOldeEnjine wrote:
Steve;

Did you try contacting the seller and ask to obtain a print? From his eBay description it sounds like all he offered for sale in this auction was a printed photo from the original negative.

Doesn't hurt to ask...

Tim W.

Tim you are exactly correct. I jumped the gun.

After I posted my frustration here I went back and noticed the note at the bottom that you saw.

I contacted him and he is going to scan the photo with its Signal Corps caption and send it to me.

When he mentioned Signal Corps that gave me a new direction to search. The National Archives has Signal Corps photos. I never tried searching anything other than Whitcomb thru the Army Transportation Museum. Last night I tried searching "760th Diesel" in google and it turned up the ebay photo. Now I have to go back to the Army Transportation Museum and have them search the 760th Diesel Battalion and also Signal Corps photos. Also the National Archives and both 760th and Signal Corps.

Eventually I might try museums in Egypt relevant to WW II if they can speak English. Whitcombs ended up in Egypt and also Lebanon apparently.

This website has reference to the 760th but nothing else:

http://www.griffincunningham.net/Griffi ... r_II_Units

Quote:
760th Railway Diesel Shop Battalion ** I own a 2nd anniversary booklet that includes rosters


I will contact this website also.

Steve

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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 9:39 pm 
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Speaking of Egypt and WW II:

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories ... museum.htm

I will attempt to contact them and see if they have any Whitcomb locomotive photos from WW II.

Steve

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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 11:00 pm 
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I also found this from my google search of "760th diesel":

http://books.google.com/books?id=AyEDAA ... el&f=false

Popular Science wrote about the Africa locomotive experience in this February 1945 issue.

Steve

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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Sat Jan 12, 2013 3:36 am 
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It appears I have discovered the major source of disinformation about Whitcomb and Baldwin dating back to at least 1973:

Image

I just recieved my copy today of The Second Diesel Spotter's Guide by Jerry Pinkepank and looking in it I found this:

Image

This has been repeated all over the internet and is probably the basis for the Wikipedia article being named "The Whitcomb Locomotive Works" instead of "The Whitcomb Locomotive Company"

Author Jerry Pinkepank gave acknowledgements to Kenneth L. Douglas and Dave Hamley for the information on the industrial locomotives. No source, no citation exists anywhere in the book for the Whitcomb information which is clearly in error.

Where they came up with their disinformation may never be known.

I suspect that when Baldwin was in financial trouble in 1935 and applied for court protection ( Baldwin requested an injunction against Whitcomb's suit in their Pennsylvania Federal Court case against the Chicago Circuit Court where Whitcomb's suit was filed, which was denied. Baldwin claimed since their corporation was under protection from creditors in the Pennsylvania Federal Court that it protected them from any lawsuit. ) Baldwin may have come out of that procedure reorganized into seperate divisions. I won't know that until I request the Baldwin court records from the National Archives this Spring.

At least Wikipedia is now correct even if the link still calls it "Works":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitcomb_Locomotive_Works

Steve

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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Sat Jan 12, 2013 5:33 am 
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This page is from the Baldwin petition for an injunction against William Whitcombs suit on the grounds that Baldwin had filed for bankruptcy protection on February 25, 1935 in Pennsylvania Federal Court, case #18519.

I hope to discover if Baldwin had bought the Milwaukee Locomotive Company in 1932 and listed it as an asset in the bankruptcy and see if Baldwin was reorganized into divisions (any difference between "division" and "subsidiary" ?).

Steve

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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 3:49 pm 
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The gentleman from ebay came through and was kind enough to include the caption that was taped on the back. I've forwarded these to the Army Transportation museum and our own museum in Rochelle.

Image

Image

I suspect that the S.C. behind the photographer's name is for Signal Corps.

I have no clue what the locomotive behind the Whitcomb is - perhaps a captured German unit.

It does resemble this:

http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/ ... 2913.shtml

Image

Steve

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Last edited by machinehead61 on Mon Jan 14, 2013 4:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 4:05 pm 
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I would say that this is the German diesel locomotive behind the Whitcomb:

http://www.armorama.com/modules.php?op= ... _id=126077

Image

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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Sat Jan 19, 2013 7:42 pm 
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The Flagg Township Museum Board voted and has approved to fund a Whitcomb locomotive display to coincide with the Rochelle Railroad Days which I suspect will be scheduled in early June.

http://www.rochellerailroadpark.org/rrdays.html


Image

The website hasn't been updated yet for 2013.

The museum talked about making a permanent display also.

No word about funding for my book. Will see if I can get it proposed.

Steve

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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 2:05 pm 
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From a fascinating website comes this photo of a pair of diesel locomotives which I'm not sure if they are Whitcombs or not:

http://www.ccpld.org/coalmining/stripmi ... tos05.html

Image

The size of the mining equipment is incredible:

Image

Image

Steve

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 Post subject: Re: From Rochelle IL and doing Whitcomb Locomotive Research
PostPosted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 2:11 pm 
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Some more of the industrial railroads serving the coal strip mine:

Image

Steve

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