The above captioned locomotives are for sale on Barnhardt's website. Anybody know why Suzy-Q is selling? Another victim of liability crunch?

NYSW 2400 for sale on DF Barnhardt
superheater@rrmail.com

> The above captioned locomotives are for sale
> on Barnhardt's website. Anybody know why
> Suzy-Q is selling? Another victim of
> liability crunch?

Not really liability. In fact, they excursions coming up this weekend. The units aren't in the best of shape and they bought a power car last year from the Adirondack to provide HEP for their 2 ex NS coaches.

Joshua


My NYSW Pictorial

> The above captioned locomotives are for sale
> on Barnhardt's website. Anybody know why
> Suzy-Q is selling? Another victim of
> liability crunch?

It would be interesting to get the official word from the Susie-Q. With the 2-8-2 and "her train" off the roster and the E's for sale, whatever plans Mr. Rich has are obviously scaled back. It seems the focus is going to be on actual passenger services on the Syracuse line rather than tourist trains.

There have been plenty of rumors, but scarce info I consider reliable.

Rob



trains@robertjohndavis.com

I don't know all of the details, but liability insurance is a biggie. Remember that Walter took the company private in 1997. Much of the money came from NS and CSX who wanted to make sure the NYS&W did not remain as a competitor to the NYC metro area. Last year they insisted that the NYS&W require the same level of liability insurance for passenger trains that NS and CSX have. Result: no one can afford to run excursions.

There is one loophole in this. When Walter bought the former DL&W Utica and Syracuse branches from Conrail he immediately sold them to the counties they run through. The NYS&W leases them back for a nominal fee. Hence, excursions are possible on these lines where they are not on the line in New Jersey which is owned outright by the company. In fact, there will be trains this weekend in conjunction with the Marathon Maple Festival, a big local event.

As far as the E units, the 142 and the LIRR cars, you will notice that the NS cars and a few other cars were retained for company use. As was mentioned before the E units came worn out and are fuel hogs as well. The LIRR cars were cattle cars and junk. The 142 is really too small an engine for what the NYS&W was trying to do with it. The 142 and the LIRR cars were sold to the NYS&W T&HS which is using them off-line. If the 142 is used sparingly and with small trains it should be ok.

Hello

I can add to Joshua's thoughts on the two 2400's. According to a friend of mine who has worked for the NYS&W they are "tired" engines. Apparently they were also used on stone trains a few years ago, which my friend says didn't help matters.

That being said, as the Susquehanna re-evaluates its passenger operations these engines probably just don't fit into the new picture.

Never having looked at the engines myself I can't say how good/bad they are, but the price isn't too off if they're in decent shape, considering what the Conrail engines fetched several years ago.

Dave Crosby

bing@epix.net

are they running?

bnsfbarker@aol.com

> are they running?

The Conrail E's? Well, yes, at least 2 of the 3 are.........

As I recall, Bennett Levin scooped up all three from CSX and NS, and two of them are now running restored somewhat as PRR 5711 and 5809, their original numbers. (I say "somewhat" because the locos are now an amalgam of old and new, with ditch lights, retaining 567's but having HEP instead of steam generators, etc.--most of this conversion having been done by Amtrak before Conrail got them.)

Levin retains former Erie 833/Conrail 4022 as well; as I recall it hasn't had HEP added and would require some modification to make her Amtrak compatible now; as well, it hasn't been decided (or at least announced) what paint job it will get.


LNER4472-NOSPAM-@bcpl.net

In what could be a record for longest gap in posts on one subject:

The 2400 and 2402 have been reported by two Railpace Newsmagazine columnists as having arrived at Larry's Truck & Electric at McDonald, Ohio on Nov. 13th, joining "at least five other E's owned by LTE".