The Youngstown Steel Heritage Foundation is pleased to announce that an agreement has been reached with the Virginia Museum of Transportation to purchase former Erie Lackawanna SDP45 diesel locomotive No. 3639, currently painted as Conrail No. 6670, now located in Roanoke, Virginia.

YSH has initiated a fundraising drive with an initial goal of $20,000 to purchase and secure the locomotive. Additional fundraising will take place in 2019 to move the locomotive to the Marter Yard Railroad Museum, operated by the Mahoning Valley Railroad Heritage Association.

After arrival at Marter Yard, the SDP45 will remain in Conrail paint for a period of time before finally being repainted as Erie Lackawanna 3639.
“After years of watching this locomotive sit in the yard, now is our chance to provide it with a better future and bring it back to northeast Ohio, the former hub of the Erie Lackawanna Railway”, stated YSH President Rick Rowlands.

The locomotive is in generally good condition despite missing several major components including the main generator, traction motors and air compressor. An operational restoration is a long term goal of the project.

Extra 3639 North pays homage to the former “Extra 2200 South” locomotive newsmagazine and describes the goal of this effort, to move the 3639 about 300 miles due north from Roanoke to Youngstown.

http://www.extra3639north.org

I hope you get your goal and preserve this SD

Train Magazine put this in his News Wire

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2018/09/01-erie-lackawanna-sdp45-to-leave-virginia-for-ohio

Also on the Roundhouse.

I have been busy!

https://theroundhousepodcast.com/2018/09/01/extra3639north/

Congrats Rick. What stunning good news! Youngstown Steel Heritage may well be one of the most underrated museum efforts in the country.

I think this is 110% the 'right' and best outcome for this locomotive, and I'll be supporting it in any way I can.

Thanks for the kind words! The region between Pittsburgh and Cleveland was full of railroad activity from multiple different companies but really has not received the attention it deserves from a museum/preservation perspective. We are hoping to change that with our projects here in Youngstown.

Excellent. These particular SDP-45's were unique to EL. They didn't have steam generators; EL wanted the extra long frame to have a 5000 gal. fuel tank, allowing Chicago-Croxton (North Jersey) without refueling, saving time with intermodal trains such as UPS.

Phil Mulligan

So far about $4,000 raised. Not bad for just the beginning. Of that about $880 is from the online fundraiser. https://www.customink.com/fundraising/extra-3639-north

When we get to the point of working on the locomotive, I think one of the first things we will do is to convert the large empty steam generator compartment into a workshop with a small workbench and tool cabinets so that the tools needed to work on the locomotive are readily available. I also have an Onan RV generator that runs on propane that we may put in the air compressor compartment so that we have electrical power available. It will probably take a few trips to get all of the preparatory work done to the locomotive and I don't want to have to drive the hi-rail truck down each time if I can avoid it.

Not gonna lie, that shirt for the fundraiser is pretty nifty looking. Signing up for one as soon as I'm done with this post. I climbed around the big SD at the VMT in the mid 2000s, and as a EMD/2nd gen lover, I hope for nothing but the best for this locomotive.

After a week and a half we are at 35% of our $20,000 goal toward the purchase of the EL 3639/ Conrail 6670 SDP45. VMT is going to have the locomotive moved from its long time storage location in the NS yard to a location at the west end of the museum grounds so that we can begin work to prepare the locomotive for shipment.

The progress of the fundraising drive can be seen at our main fundraising site:
https://fundrazr.com/c1Onc2?ref=ab_d7WrF1