Looks like fan-favorite (at least as far as the people I know) ex-TP&W C-424 Morristown & Erie 19 has been preserved.

http://www.dailyrecord.com/story/news/l ... 100094596/

Saved an ALCO! How great is that? Thanks, Chuck Jensen.

Excellent news.

Nice to see something different saved - especially from a long standing shortline.

Be interested to see what happens with #18 now.

IRM interested in it (as a TP&W unit)?

Len

They may be waiting for a while... A quick search of pictures shows that 18 was in service as recent as April 2nd.

Tri-State Railway Historical Society
5 hrs ·
Great news coming out of Illinois Railway Museum: Following our acquisition of M&E 19, IRM is looking to do the same for its counterpart, M&E 18. It will be right at home, as both engines spent their first 19 years running on the TP&W in Illinois. We wish them good luck, and hope to see both of them saved!
Here's the announcement by Harold Krewer: "This just in: Tonight the Illinois Railway Museum board gave permission to officially start fundraising to buy and bring Alco C424 Morristown & Erie 18 (formerly TP&W 800) home to Illinois!
It will be a tall task, as we'll need to collect about $65,000 by this fall to buy her, transport her back to IRM and pay for her track space at the Museum, but we already have some good ideas for encouraging donations.
There will be more specifics in the next week or so, but I'm warning you now, get those checkbooks ready!!!
Here is what we hope she'll eventually look like at IRM. A George Hockaday photo, circa 1964, location unknown."

From what i've heard lots of interested parties in the #18. Good both Alcos will be enjoying retirement

Yeah but do those "lots of interested parties" have the money to buy it and move it?

I have been watching the fundraising for #18 (TP&W 800) on the IRM website. It indicates that a metal recycler already has a bid in on the locomotive:

I hope IRM can somehow pull this off. Their diesel restorations are among the best out there. I can look at their CB&Q 504 every day and I just never get tired of it.

Is a $50k bid by a scrapper plausible? My understanding is that $14k or so is more typical for a unit (but I have no firsthand knowledge).

Its who pays the most,a scrap dealer doesn't mean scrap

According to IRMs site, the scrap dealer intends to scrap it...and by the looks of their Total Raise amount, dated July 2017, they have less than $11,000 raised. Unless they can redirect some operating income to pay for this puppy, I don't think they're going to get all the $$$ by October.

One for sure I know has a grant, I don't know what the status of that is however.

I noticed IRM's fundraising page for M&E 18 was updated today. Total is $13,000 now.

Yep, I check this page obsessively. :-)

http://www.irm.org/savethe800/

Update on the OTHER one, #18:

https://www.irm.org/in-the-news/milestone-tpw800/

The problem with Alco Centuries is that they still have (usually) a serviceable 251 in there, and there's been a secondary market for those as power plants for offshore oil rigs and similar generators. That's the 'scrapper' competition. I don't necessarily know the reason why the 251's are in favor over a 645 or even a 567, but apparently they are. I know there have been several Centuries scrapped out to get the engine + generator and it depends how hot the oil drilling market is.

I am an Alco person. I have debated the EMD verse the Alco with so many people that it just gets old. The 251 engine is a very well built diesel engine that can set there and run full horsepower all day long, an EMD can not. I know this will bring a firestorm, but I could care less.

Several years ago, I stopped in at a shop of the American Commercial Barge Lines. At that time they had around 77 towboats and a third of them were powered by Alco 251 engines and one was powered by a Sulzer engine. The Alcos powered ALL the high horsepower boats. These were towboats rated at over 6,000 horsepower, the Alcos were running 6,5000 horsepower or more. This is 2 diesel engines per towboat.

I recently purchased some parts and tools that came from a towboat, that was repowered with Cat engines. The towboat was rated at 6,500 horsepower with two 12V251F Alco engines, each rated at 3,250 horsepower. Try that with an EMD. It was one of 5 that were built new in 1978 with Alco engines. Sadly, many think they need to replace the Alcos with Cats, not working out for most.


At the ACBL shop, a man was rebuilding 32 cylinder heads for an Alco powered towboat coming in. They were having a problem with wear on the ground surface of the valve face. They were worn to an almost 90 degree angle. He ask me what I thought. My reply was, since they were the intake valves, was that they had a filtration problem or the valves were too soft. I recommended that the contact an Alco supplier that I knew and ask about Stellite valves. They later purchased 200 of these valves and solved the problem. The valves were softer than the seat.


These valves were really worn bad and I ask him how the engines were even running. He told me that the towboat was still making full power with a heavy tow when it came in. He went on to tell me how tough the Alco 251 was. He also told me that, if these had been an EMD engine, the boat would have been tied up along the riverbank dead and he would have had to go to the towboat to change out power assemblies, not just heads.

A lot of Alco locomotives were scrapped, not only for their 251 engines, but for the GE 752E8 traction motors that were converted to drill motors. This is changing, as the oil industry is going to AC motors instead of DC.