North East, PA. April 20, 2015 — The first diesel-electric locomotive owned by the Genesee & Wyoming Railroad, predecessor of current multi-national railroad holding company Genesee & Wyoming, Inc., is acquired by Lake Shore Railway Historical Society.

Youngstown Steel Heritage Foundation, a Youngstown, Ohio, 501(c)3 non-profit, has transferred ownership of their GE 80 ton locomotive to Lake Shore Railway Historical Society. The 1944 Erie, PA, built locomotive will be joining Lake Shore’s six other General Electric locomotives at Lake Shore Railway Museum in North East, PA, ten miles from the Erie, PA, General Electric Locomotive Assembly Plant.

This GE 80 ton centercab locomotive was the first diesel-electric locomotive owned by the New York State shortline Genesee & Wyoming Railroad and was given the number 20. Genesee & Wyoming now is a multi-national railroad holding company with 120 railroads, 7,700 employees and more than 2,500 customers, according to its web page, http://www.gwrr.com/about_us .

In 1962, Genesee & Wyoming sold this locomotive to Cleveland, Ohio, construction contractor Hunkin-Conkey. Hunkin-Conkey moved the locomotive from Restof, NY, to Warren, PA, for use with the building of Kinzua Dam on the Allegheny River. The locomotive remained stored in Warren after the construction of Kinzua pending the start of a tourist railroad that never materialized. In 1982, a locomotive broker sold the locomotive to a steel mill near Youngstown, Ohio. The locomotive, eventually sold and moved to McDonald Steel, was gifted to Youngstown Steel Heritage Foundation in 2008.

The locomotive will be moved to North East, PA, this summer.

Picture at https://www.facebook.com/lakeshorerailw ... 28/?type=1

The unit was offered for sale on RYPN; here's the for-sale ad: GE 80 Tonner Available

I'm glad to see it is being saved.

This is actually pretty exciting.

I'm glad the Lake Shore group embraces the fact that railroad history didn't stop in the 70s, and that things like this matter (and will matter in the future).

You know what's going to happen once this is put on display...
Scores of railfans will walk up, see that it's G&W # 1 and immediately ask, "Hey, where's the orange paint?"

Good point!

It was my decision to trade the 80 tonner to Lake Shore, and it was certainly the right thing to do! We acquired this locomotive about 4 or 5 years ago, but its connection to the steel industry in the Mahoning Valley being tenuous decided to try to find a new home for it. Had it been just a run of the mill 80 tonner then we probably would have scrapped it, but due to its significance we were reluctant to do so.

The locomotive contributes to Lake Shore's mission in two ways other than the G&W connection. First, as a locomotive that was used in the construction of nearby Kinzua Dam, and secondly as a representative of the standard center cab locomotives built by GE in Erie. Lake Shore's collection of GE locomotives is impressive, and consists of the following:

25 Ton boxcab
25 ton end cab
132 ton centercab (built for Ford, it is the predecessor of the standard GE line of center and end cab locomotives)
U25B
Dash8-32B
Little Joe Electric
and now an 80 tonner.

There are a few gaps in that collection which I am sure Lake Shore would like to fill if they could. GE was so prolific of a builder that they could probably fill every track at the museum with locomotives before they would cover the gamut of what GE built, or built via partnership with others.

I'm now working on getting it loaded onto a flatcar and shipped to North East.

And, it WILL be restored to 1944 G&W paint and lettering.
*Almost* the same as current G&W family dress but not exactly.

[rayg]

Oh....

It was never G&W #1, rather, G&W #20. (G&W #1 was a 1891 0-6-0T Baldwin.)



[rayg]

Thank you to Scotty Chaos and John Stewart for preserving the story and imagery of the G&W.

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from Scotty's webpage:

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/Scotty ... chive.html

A photograph by Nick Hovey, showing the locomotive being lifted onto a flatcar for movement to the Lake Shore Railroad Museum: Genesee & Wyoming #20 at McDonald Steel on June 30, 2016

That is me in the cab of the Alco getting ready to shove the flatcar under the 80 tonner.

I will be creating a separate post describing the loco loading process once we are done and the car has been accepted for pickup.