So I was on Google looking for pics for a particular passenger car (SBRX 1517 to be exact) and I stumbled across a listing for the car on a www.google.sites.com. Turns out a rail historian enthusiast has built a listing of every piece of preserved rolling stock he knew of and where it currently is. This database is a great resource for the rail preservation industry. Others on here may have already seen it and been to it, but it's new to me. I have already learned the whereabouts of much equipment and found other equipment that I thought would have be cut up long ago alive and well.

The site is:
https://www.sites.google.com/site/railw ... y-railroad

Check it, its a great database.

Now if you are with a museum or tourist railroad, or even know of a piece at a county park, make sure its all listed. Lets all help and make this database complete as possible. I'll be submitting our complete roster to help fill in holes, will you do the same?

-Glenn

It's a good resource but can be better if we notify him of any updates/changes. I've done so and still need to send more on our equipment.

I'm always open to changes and updates. Feel free to drop me a line if you got something.

Regarding your entry;

???? Plymouth BL Gas Switcher Rochester & Genesee Valley RR Mus., Rush, NY Built 9/20, as Rochester & Genesee Valley 1

We have credible information that this unit was built in 1920 for the Despatch Shops in East Rochester NY. Despatch Shops was a corporate subsidiary of the NYCRR which built many freight cars for the NYCRR including many MDT reefer cars (MDT was another NYCRR subsidiary).

Apparently the NYCRR would "pick up" a string of new freight cars from Despatch shops and haul them west to Pennsylvania before the "NYCRR" took official delivery of them from "Despatch Shops" to avoid paying sales tax on them in New York State..... There is a photo of a string of brand new clean white MDT reefers passing through Bergen NY on the way to Pa.

Somewhere we have the "builders number" assigned to this unit when it was built by Plymouth. I seem to recall it as # 929, but I could be wrong.

It is a standard gauge Plymouth Model BL-2. It was built with a 4 cylinder Buda Model "FRH" gasoline engine of about 75 HP. It weighs about 6 tons....

As we understand the history of this unit it was sold/transferred to the Odenbach Shipyard in Greece NY (on the shore of Lake Ontario) during WWII. This shipyard built landing craft and barges for the war effort and was connected to the NYCRR "Hojack Line" just west of Charlotte NY.

It was recovered in a very derelict condition from that ship yard in the 1990's and restored to fully operational condition by the 2000's. I was the project foreman and chief financial supporter of this restoration. It was restored with it's original Buda gasoline engine, quite a rare piece of iron. We believe the Buda model "FRH" engine (it has a "builders" plate on the engine block) was a Buda company designation for custom engines built for the Fate Root Heath company (aka Plymouth Locomotive Company).

We do not know if this unit was ever assigned a "road number" by Despatch Shops. If it was we found no trace of that number under the rusting remains.

This is not and as far as I know never was a "Diesel" locomotive. The gasoline powered engine has a mechanical friction drive transmission which transfers power to the two axles via a chain/sprocket system.

When it was recovered it had the remains of a propane gas tank and propane "carburetor" installed much like those used on forklfts. We speculate (but do not know for certain) that this conversion was done to get around the Gasoline rationing during WWII. It was converted back to gasoline for fuel as part of the restoration effort.

In the original design the gas tank was in the cab about 2 feet in front of the operators face... The original gas tank is still in the cab but does not contain any fuel, a more safe location was chosen to discretely stow the fuel supply.

As of 2009 this was one of the oldest operational internal combustion railroad locomotives with it's original power plant in exsistance.

Let me know if I can provide any additional information, Kevin Klees.

Plymouth
969 9/16/1920 Std BL-2 Buda BTU 52hp B 6T G/Friction
Merchants Despatch Transportation Co, East Rochester, N Y
Despatch Shops, Inc, East Rochester, N Y
Odenbach Ship Yard, Rochester, N Y
Rochester & Gennessee Valley RR Museum, Rochester, N. Y
Display

Fort Steele, BC-Fort Steele Provincial Park
Vulcan Iron Works C/N 416 Steam Shovel (boiler & parts missing) 1901
Crow’s Nest Southern Ry
Perry Creek Placer Mining Co. Kimberley, BC 1902
Abandoned on Perry Creek 1920-2011
http://www.dualsportbc.com/forums/showt ... ide-Report
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMVK ... _Steele_BC
https://basininstitute.org/search/detai ... 3iGiTGWzcs

I got a suggestion-First it would be nice if they were indexed by location. If not possible right now, index everything with it's non abbreviated state name. For instance, If I want to look up stuff in Arkansas, I type AR. So that comes up 750 times on one page alone, because AR are everywhere. lol.

John T wrote;

Plymouth
969 9/16/1920 Std BL-2 Buda BTU 52hp B 6T G/Friction
Merchants Despatch Transportation Co, East Rochester, N Y
Despatch Shops, Inc, East Rochester, N Y
Odenbach Ship Yard, Rochester, N Y
Rochester & Gennessee Valley RR Museum, Rochester, N. Y
Display

My understanding of the history is that the Despatch Shops in East Rochester were begun before the age of reefer cars. By Chauncy Depew (a high level executive of the NYCRR, Depew NY is named for him).

Despatch shops built the freight cars and MDT purchased them. I do not believe that MDT ever "owned" the Plymouth in question. But I would be open to more information.

I think the lineage is;

1) Despatch Shops (original purchase from Plymouth) (no "road number" assigned)

2) Odenbach (purchased ? during WWII)

3) Abandoned on the Odenbach site circa 1960's or 1970's

4) Remains purchased by a scrapper as part of a deal to clean up the very large Odenbach site (late 1990's). In the trees near the Plymouth's presumed "grave" was the frame and axles of a Davenport. That loco was too far gone and was already stripped of most everything that could be carried by one person to a scrap yard. I recall maybe a stripped engine block, two axles, a frame and a few walls of the cab.

5) Donated gratis by said scrapper to the R&GVRR Museum (I was there when it was recovered, we had to jack it up out of the asphalt pavement it had been shoved onto at the end of it's useful life, it had trees growing up through it)

Restored by a team led by myself at the R&GVRR Museum circa late 2000's (first ran again in ~ 2007 ?)

According to the R&GVRR Museum it is "Stored Serviceable, but Not Available for Viewing, IE Not On Display)

Will,
You have a great list there. I left you some comments. Please contact me if you want more.

Ted Miles, Western Railway Museum