EM-1 and a 4-8-2 at some sort of enthusiast event, on display dead. I seem to recall it may have taken place about 1961. Anyone remember where/when?

http://abpr2.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?february03/02-28-03/B+O_675.jpg
ryarger@rypn.org

> EM-1 and a 4-8-2 at some sort of enthusiast
> event, on display dead. I seem to recall it
> may have taken place about 1961. Anyone
> remember where/when?

*1961*?!? Whatever you're drinking up there, Bob, save some for me.

The EM-1 is showing with a three-digit number, which places it in its final year or two of service, when the EM-1s were renumbered to three digits to avoid diesel number conflicts. My recollection is that the last of the EM-1s were retired in the Lorain, Ohio area sometime around late 1957 or very early 1958, after pulling coal drags and ore trains to and from the Great Lakes.

There was a national NRHS convention in Baltimore in 1963 complete with displays, and I think another one in 1948 or thereabouts, but no way did an EM-1 appear. If I had to wager a wild guess, I'm going to ask whether there was an NRHS convention in Cleveland in the mid-1950s.

LNER4472-NOSPAM-@bcpl.net

Bob doesn't drink. Even water gives him heartburn. Somewhere, perhaps on ABPR, I think I did see more photos of a fan event, where dead B&O steamers were lined up for display in 1961. I don't know when B&O sent its steam to scrappers, but there was plenty of dead steam still around elsewhere in 1961, so it seems plausible. Places like Cheyenne and Galesburg were full of it, as were Canadian yards. There were even a couple of C&NW Hudsons remaining, set up to thaw ore.

> *1961*?!? Whatever you're drinking up there,
> Bob, save some for me.

> The EM-1 is showing with a three-digit
> number, which places it in its final year or
> two of service, when the EM-1s were
> renumbered to three digits to avoid diesel
> number conflicts. My recollection is that
> the last of the EM-1s were retired in the
> Lorain, Ohio area sometime around late 1957
> or very early 1958, after pulling coal drags
> and ore trains to and from the Great Lakes.

> There was a national NRHS convention in
> Baltimore in 1963 complete with displays,
> and I think another one in 1948 or
> thereabouts, but no way did an EM-1 appear.
> If I had to wager a wild guess, I'm going to
> ask whether there was an NRHS convention in
> Cleveland in the mid-1950s.


ryarger@rypn.org

> Somewhere, perhaps on ABPR, I
> think I did see more photos of a fan event,
> where dead B&O steamers were lined up
> for display in 1961. I don't know when
> B&O sent its steam to scrappers, but
> there was plenty of dead steam still around
> elsewhere in 1961, so it seems plausible.

In a conversation some years ago with a railfan and author from Fairmont, WV, he recalled his uncle describing the sound of the last EM-1 being towed dead out of town, at night, some time in 1961. Apparently it had been stored (hidden?) there until that time. Wish it had been towed to the B&O museum instead of wherever it went.

Todd

TKMSMullens@wmconnect.com