LAKE SHORE RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
North East, PA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 15, 2013

North East, PA. May 15, 2013 —Norfolk Southern Railway has donated to Lake Shore
Railway Historical Society of North East, PA, an Erie-built General Electric diesel-electric
locomotive.

The locomotive, a “Dash 8-32B” model is a 1989 product of Erie’s General Electric
Transportation locomotive assembly plant. It is the first “Dash-8” locomotive anywhere
to be preserved at a museum. The 3,200 horsepower locomotive is one of just 49 ever
built, of which 45 were purchased by Norfolk Southern. The locomotive, Norfolk
Southern #3563, is currently in Roanoke, VA, and is being serviced and prepared for
delivery. Delivery of the locomotive to the Lake Shore Railway Museum in North East is expected in June.

“We thank Norfolk Southern for the significant gift and for endorsing Lake Shore Railway
Historical Society’s mission to preserve the transportation history of Erie’s General
Electric” said Lake Shore Railway Historical Society President, Ray Grabowski, Jr. “This
is the first GE Dash 8 locomotive to be preserved at a museum anywhere – most are
still in regular railroad service. This gift is an honor and we are proud to be able to share
it with our community and visiting guests from all of North America!”

The non-profit, all volunteer Lake Shore Railway Historical Society has operated the Lake
Shore Railway Museum in North East, PA, since 1970. Four other historic General Electric
locomotives now call the North East museum home. The museum is just 10 miles away
from the Erie/Lawrence Park, PA, General Electric locomotive plant. A “recognition &
homecoming ceremony” will occur at the Lake Shore Railway Museum when the locomotive arrives in North East.

Contact:
LAKE SHORE RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY • 31 Wall Street, North East, Pennsylvania
RAY GRABOWSKI, JR. lsrhs31@live.com


photograph compliments of Kermit Geary, Jr.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 85&nseq=10


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Does this make the first as built Norfolk Southern locomotive be donated to a museum? I know there have been a few Geeps that have been donated previously but they've had some sort of connection to Southern or Norfolk and Western.

Great news! Northeast has the potential of becoming the GE locomotive museum, which would set itself apart from other small rail museums. Could they someday be the home of the first preserved GE widecab?

BOTH follow-up posts are very very good (Thank you!).

More research is needed to see if this locomotive is the first "built for NS" locomotive donation. If it is, that would 'add' to the 'value' of the donation in our opinion.

RE: Lake Shore becoming a GE place... well, yes, in our eyes (and our Mission Statement) it IS that already. We just have to prove it to everyone else. And, we are ACTIVELY working in that direction!

(Please note-- we are not anti- the other locomotive builders, they just are not our focus, and we do have a (working) small Plymouth, a (working) small Whitcomb, and the only operational fireless Heisler... but they all have relevance to the local area.)

rayg

Where are you going to put that Dash 8? Last time I was there I noticed a lack of track space. Seems like every available foot was covered with passenger cars of some sort. Would love to see instead of a line of heavyweights a line of GE motive power starting with a 25 tonner working their way up in size and HP to the Dash 8.

And with the GE plant right down the track, could we see a demonstrator on site from time to time??

Congratulations on your acquisition and best of luck with the preservation efforts. It is nice to see some important late model equipment being preserved!

I find this simply facinating. Up until now, one could argue the only modern diesels in some museum collections were some Dash-2 units. Its good to see that something modern will be represented in a museum collection, but this is a sign of the times; power from the late 1900s (I'll wager 1970-1990) is going to start being cascaded out of the Class 1 railroads and onto Class 2 railroads and some well-off shortlines. The ones you can't grab now might come up again later, but I wouldn't bank on it...

I've seen trends recently of various museums and errata situations of moving/trading etc historical equipment closer to their "home" location.

But like any other museum their mission is preservation/save it now before its gone period so pick up a variety of equipment.

Sounds like a clue what may be happening to these engines, time progresses and they may be dissappearing. NS is recognizing the importance (even tho its diesel).

Erie built, hey, made in the USA, getting rarer, you won't find a Made in China imprint on it.

Congratulations on this, as this is really incredible news! I can't but help to be curious about the details of what led to this donation. Is this a serviceable locomotive?

I wish it really was an "Erie-Built" as in the FM's GE built under contract.

Steve

It is not serviceable. This particular unit has been OOS since 2011. NS has removed the prime mover from it.