Chessie B30-7 Repainted, To Be Preserved @ Lake Shore Museum

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Mon Mar 20, 2017 10:14 am

UPDATE: Lake Shore Railway Museum has officially confirmed it will be receiving former Chessie System/C&O GE B30-7 8272:

Quote:

CSX #5554 is restored as C&O #8272 and donated to Lake Shore Railway Historical Society

NORTH EAST, PENN. -- Lake Shore Railway Historical Society is pleased to announce it has received a donation of a restored Chesapeake & Ohio "Chessie Cat"-era locomotive, C&O #8272, courtesy of CSX Transportation, Inc.

The 1980 Erie-built General Electric B30-7 locomotive, CSX #5554 (retired in 2009), received cosmetic restoration and has been returned to its 'as-delivered' C&O “Chessie Cat” paint scheme by the talented craftspeople of the CSX railroad shops in Huntington, W.V. CSX has donated the renamed C&O locomotive #8272 to Lake Shore Railway Historical Society where it will become part of the museum's educational programming and display. At Lake Shore Railway Museum, operated by the Lake Shore Historical Society volunteers, C&O #8272 will join seven (7) other General Electric locomotives in the "Locomotives that Dad & Grandpa Built Collection."

Ray Grabowski, Jr., president of Lake Shore Railway Historical Society, said "It is amazing what the dedicated professionals at CSX’s Huntington shops have accomplished. On behalf of Lake Shore Railway Historical Society and our entire community, I want to thank everyone at CSX for this incredible gift, especially the skilled craft workers who contributed to make the donation happen."

CSX has strong ties to northwestern Pennsylvania where its predecessor railroads began operating more than 160 years ago. Today, CSX operates its former Conrail mainline between Buffalo, N.Y., and Cleveland, Ohio, past the Erie General Electric Transportation locomotive assembly plant where locomotive C&O #8272 was built. That same CSX mainline also passes the Lake Shore Railway Museum in the town of North East, Penn. CSX and its predecessor railroad companies have been long time customers of General Electric locomotive products.

General Electric Transportation of Erie, PA, and B&O Railroad Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, assisted the restoration of C&O #8272 by contributing historic paint records, logo/lettering information and paint chips. Plans to move C&O #8272 to Lake Shore Railway Museum have not yet been finalized.

Cjbdiesel · **Joined:** Wed Apr 24, 2013 10:17 pm **Posts:** 96

Riiiight..... Thanks.....

- Christian B.

Rainier Rails · **Posted:** Mon Mar 20, 2017 11:37 am

Huh???

b. barry · **Posted:** Mon Mar 20, 2017 11:49 am

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/610401/

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Mon Mar 20, 2017 12:07 pm

PICTURE TAKEN ON RAILROAD PROPERTY!!!

DELETE DELETE DELETE lest someone get in trouble and the donation is nixed!!!!!

</sarcasm>

daylight4449 · **Posted:** Mon Mar 20, 2017 12:24 pm

Hold on, the C&O engine is out in public now! You mean to tell me that with all the indications that this dash seven (which is rather worthless to CSX) is headed into preservation, that simply talking about it in public could nix the deal? I seriously doubt that there isn't some sort of binding agreement if CSX went and did all that cosmetic work on a beat-up old dash-7.

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Mon Mar 20, 2017 1:20 pm

As stupid as it sounds, that's exactly what some people apparently told this forum's moderators last week, and also suggested elsewhere such as on Facebook to get posts and photos (also obviously taken on company property) removed.

I can certainly understand a "don't count iron horses before they arrive at the interchange switch" approach by museum management (or more likely just a "not in the proper position to speak on the matter" response by one individual), or maybe even a paranoid approach given that a new CEO with a top-down micromanagement style is literally stepping into office at the same time, but..........

wilkinsd · **Posted:** Mon Mar 20, 2017 2:24 pm

Are we even allowed to talk about this? I see lots of speculation, which also isn't allowed here, unless when it is.

Continued "moderation" of posts dealing with this subject, when the photos are forever irrevocably out on the internet (where nothing dies) only proves my complaints about this forum and how it is "managed" by the.

I'm sure this will generate some sternly worded warning from one moderator, and whining from another moderator about how he gets called not-nice names, and gets ill every time he logs on.

Jeff Terry · **Joined:** Mon Aug 23, 2004 12:18 am **Posts:** 279

wilkinsd wrote:

Are we even allowed to talk about this? I see lots of speculation, which also isn't allowed here, unless when it is.

Continued "moderation" of posts dealing with this subject, when the photos are forever irrevocably out on the internet (where nothing dies) only proves my complaints about this forum and how it is "managed" by the.

I'm sure this will generate some sternly worded warning from one moderator, and whining from another moderator about how he gets called not-nice names, and gets ill every time he logs on.

I'm not going to do either one. But I have to wonder why we're starting problems just for the sake of starting problems?

Otto Vondrak · **Posted:** Mon Mar 20, 2017 5:14 pm

All I know is I searched "C&O 8272" in Google to see what discussion was out there, found three threads on rypn.org that apparently don't exist. It was a well-kept secret for a few months, but since Trains has already reported on it in January and I'm about to place a story in my magazine about it, I think it's fair game now.

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/20 ... short-line

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/20 ... t-virginia

Moderating a private forum is never an easy task (ask me how I know) and managing possible donations are delicate tightrope walks at best (ask me how I know), but cat's outta the bag. Let it go.

-otto-

wilkinsd · **Posted:** Mon Mar 20, 2017 5:16 pm

Jeff Terry wrote:

wilkinsd wrote:

Are we even allowed to talk about this? I see lots of speculation, which also isn't allowed here, unless when it is.

Continued "moderation" of posts dealing with this subject, when the photos are forever irrevocably out on the internet (where nothing dies) only proves my complaints about this forum and how it is "managed" by the.

I'm sure this will generate some sternly worded warning from one moderator, and whining from another moderator about how he gets called not-nice names, and gets ill every time he logs on.

I'm not going to do either one. But I have to wonder why we're starting problems just for the sake of starting problems?

1. Moderators have taken an overly-aggressive approach in deleting threads about a newsworthy item.

2. No reasonable explanation has been given for the overly-agressive deleting.

3. Deleting it from RYPN does not send the event down the memory hole. It happened. A locomotive may have been painted in an as-delivered scheme and may have been preserved. Photos are all over the internet, Trains had it as a news item. As someone posted here, there are linkable photos of it. Thus, the actions of the moderators on this board are perplexing and troubling.

4. It's part of a pattern of inconsistent, haphazard, and just stupid moderating by those in charge at RYPN, helping leading to the general decline of the forum as a place for quality discussion. As Otto pointed out, it hasn't been a secret for a while, yet the moderators here act like it's plans for the Manhattan Project.

5. We aren't starting anything. The moderator(s) who decided to delete an obvious newsworthy item started the trouble by taking such an aggressive, pro-censorship approach.

PMC · **Joined:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:55 pm **Posts:** 2295

wilkinsd wrote:

4. It's part of a pattern of inconsistent, haphazard, and just stupid moderating by those in charge at RYPN, helping leading to the general decline of the forum as a place for quality discussion.

Respectfully, I don't necessarily agree with you, but even if it were true, I still think the moderators here are better than any other railroad oriented board. But I prefer a bit heavier moderation, so just MHO. The current case might not be the best example, but I do know there are times when it is better to keep your mouth shut and not count your chickens until they have hatched. There was another case a few months back involving a class I saving (literally) a heavyweight office car where I thought it might have been better not to speculate on the reason given for saving it. Class I's are publicly owned by individuals and groups who aren't railfans, who are all about maximizing profits and for whom the idea of giving away scrap metal is a sign of poor leadership. Literally.

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Mon Mar 20, 2017 5:51 pm

For the record:

I started one of the two deleted threads on the B30-7 in question, based on a photo shared on Facebook by a member of a FB group centered around the CSX Huntington, WV shops. The photo in question was obviously taken inside a loco shop, presumably/allegedly by an employee.

After a day or so of online debate as to whether it was appropriate for a lower employee to "leak" the news prior to official comment from either CSX superiors or the reported recipient (especially amid the turmoil and near-paranoia surrounding Hunter Harrison's assuming control at CSX's invitation), and also some serious speculation that such premature leak could nix the donation, the original poster deleted his photo. Out of respect to the OP and because there was still no official comment, I also deleted my post here since it then linked to no photo or evidence.

Now we have a photo by a "Trains correspondent" and RailPictures.com moderator, plainly taken on railroad property, which Trains published on its website prior to comment by either CSX or the supposed eventual recipient, the Lake Shore Railway Museum. If anything happens to scuttle the donation now, we get to blame them.

There is, after all, a well-known (among rail historians) "Trains Jinx" out there.......

wilkinsd · **Posted:** Mon Mar 20, 2017 5:54 pm

PMC wrote:

wilkinsd wrote:

4. It's part of a pattern of inconsistent, haphazard, and just stupid moderating by those in charge at RYPN, helping leading to the general decline of the forum as a place for quality discussion.

Respectfully, I don't necessarily agree with you, but even if it were true, I still think the moderators here are better than any other railroad oriented board. But I prefer a bit heavier moderation, so just MHO. The current case might not be the best example, but I do know there are times when it is better to keep your mouth shut and not count your chickens until they have hatched. There was another case a few months back involving a class I saving (literally) a heavyweight office car where I thought it might have been better not to speculate on the reason given for saving it. Class I's are publicly owned by individuals and groups who aren't railfans, who are all about maximizing profits and for whom the idea of giving away scrap metal is a sign of poor leadership. Literally.

You should read above, this was news in Trains in JANUARY and the offending threads here were deleted in the last week or so, in MARCH. The cat was out of the bag on a website that has greater reach than this one.

Heavier moderation is fine, as long as the expectations are known and the heavy moderation is consistent. This escapade is just the latest example where the moderation here is heavy, but with unclear expectations and inconsistency.

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Mon Mar 20, 2017 5:58 pm

PMC wrote:

There was another case a few months back involving a class I saving (literally) a heavyweight office car where I thought it might have been better not to speculate on the reason given for saving it.

Having been privy to some back-channel discussions about this car before its rescue, I can say that, in this case, keeping mouths shut and just nodding approval is the smartest move, at least for the time being. I'm led to believe that had the wrong words been uttered in the wrong place at the wrong time, there might have been (and may still be) more of a toll than just a car being scrapped.

Chessie B30-7 Repainted, To Be Preserved @ Lake Shore Museum

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