Sterling Rail shows 8 engines up for sale... I'm presuming 7 shovelnoses and 1 of the Alco road-switchers. That said, a question comes up, but did all of the shovelnoses get the Cummins rebuild? I thought they only did 6 of the 11 their roster shows, on account of Coast Equipment Co. who was doing the rebuilds closing shop?

http://www.sterlingrail.com/classifieds ... p?id=27613

Unless one of the Colorado NG's were to pick these up, seems like there'd be a really small market for these engines.

EBT???

Just imagine the sight of a DL535 trio with a sizeable coal drag on the EBT!

Would one of these fit whatever size or weight limits there are at East Broad Top? Just curious if one would be operable there.

Other than one that was stripped for rebuilding and scrapped when the rebuilder went out of business, they all were rebuilt. Coast Engine & Equipment rebuilt the 90 and 98 before going out of business, then Global Locomotive rebuilt the 91 and 99 before I believe they also closed (Ran by the former president of Coast Engine), and finally Sygnet Rail Technologies rebuilt the 92-97.

#100 was stripped by Sygnet in preparation for rebuilding, but then they went bankrupt. She ended up getting scrapped after sitting for a few years. I assume initially that the White Pass & Yukon hoped to locate another rebuilder to finish her up, before general dissatisfaction with the rebuilds killed any desire to add another to the roster.

That last bit is pure speculation on my part on why she got scrapped and why they've now replaced this fleet. But common sense says they're not replacing a fleet that on average is only 10 years old (Mechanically and electrically these were brand new locomotives after being rebuilt) unless they ended up extremely disappointing after a few years of service.

Edit: My speculation was very much incorrect. Fleet reduction by use of a more powerful locomotive rather than issues with the quality and reliability of their rebuilt GE's was the motivating factor. viewtopic.php?p=330966#p330966

I'm sure that they envisioned getting a locomotive back that they could reliably and economically run for another 50 years, instead of power that in several cases didn't even see a decade of service before getting stored. So something really went sour with these to be replaced so quickly.

Going to be a tough sell I suspect, since any potential operator is going to suspect that there's a very good reason why these got parked so soon and are now being disposed of, and are going to leery of getting involved with their issues.

I just hope the WP&Y sees fit to stuff and mount one for display when all is said and done. Very iconic locomotive for them, so it would be a shame to one day not have one around for people to see.

More marketable and likely maintainable are the remaining Alco powered locomotives. I could see United States Gypsum buying the #114 for instance. And obviously the Durango & Silverton already bought several of the older 251 powered MLW's.

"Would one of these fit whatever size or weight limits there are at East Broad Top? Just curious if one would be operable there."


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Pantograph, that would be my question, plus would EBT want to introduce decidedly ahistoric power? When you go to the FEBT site you are greeted with the tagline "the railroad where time stands still".I'm not sure that works if you have re-engined shovel noses built for Alaska.

I ran all of them. Most of the issues were computer related and were sorted out. They were neat engines, sad to see them go. You'll want to install air conditioners, guaranteed.

EBT does not need or want WP&YR diesels. EBT is unique and needs to stay that way.
The small diesels they have now are part of latter days history and fit in OK. They will do for work trains, shop/yard switching etc. Perhaps for light traffic days could haul passenger train rather than waste expensive coal or turn away visitors.

WPYR diesels will fit in at Colorado narrow gauge RR's as they are more tourist oriented as opposed to historic compared to EBT which is stuck in the past. And, belongs there! It is in a class of its own. One of a kind. AMEN!

Darn right, well said.
Once you start diluting that the EBT is, it's no longer what made it special to start with.

Didn't we already start "diluting" the EBT with new-build coaches with wheelchair access?

The fact is that at some point you're just plain going to wear out the already-worn-out-once steam locomotives and other rolling stock already there. So unless you're "fundraising" to bring that EBT coach home from the Tweetsie and build replacement 2-8-2's, I'm remaining open-minded.

No, because those new coaches look like what they had before. It's little different from rebuilding a coach they used back then.
A WP&Y diesel, on the other hand, looks and operates like nothing they ever had.

At least the diesels from WPY are historic and unique looking. Painted up in EBT colors wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen, and if that helps generate additional revenue for EBT to maintain their steam power, track and shop etc then why not.

I'd imagine in the long term the EBT might see more "new build" passenger cars, but like the D&S, CTSR, Cass, they have enough locomotives to cycle through them and always be working on 1-2 while 1-2 others are running.
As long as the new build cars look like the old cars and funding is there to do it, it seems like a great idea.

How wide are the traction motors on these things? Loading gauge?

(ducks for cover... :-)

A bit too big for the Isle of Man as well............