Nuke Train Preservation?

robertjohndavis · **Joined:** Mon Aug 23, 2004 8:10 am **Posts:** 2499

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_wa_radioactive_hanford_train.html

What locos are at Hanford? Anyone know? Prototypes for the old TYCO glow in the dark HO models?

Rob

robertjohndavis · **Joined:** Mon Aug 23, 2004 8:10 am **Posts:** 2499

Looks like a pair of ALCo's... either RS-1's or S1/2/3/4's.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/07/20/1270070/plans-for-hanford-rail-cars-gain.html

Rob

Trainlawyer · **Posted:** Tue Jul 20, 2010 10:24 pm

I rather suspect that they are "Army surplus" MRS-1s which were transferred to the Atomic Energy Commission. Do not forget the two at Oak Ridge which were painted in Southern's passenger colors so as not to attract attention.
GME

Mike Swanson · **Posted:** Wed Jul 21, 2010 6:23 am

They're both plain bearing Alco RS1s purchased new for the Hanford Reservation in 1948.

robertjohndavis · **Joined:** Mon Aug 23, 2004 8:10 am **Posts:** 2499

Apparently painting them to hide them wasn't a concern!

robertmacdowell · **Posted:** Wed Jul 21, 2010 4:11 pm

Actually that's serious business. There's a treasure trove of history there. Although... in their haste to tear down the B reactor auxiliary buildings, they have probably mowed down any opportunity to create a "sense of place".

They are also contemplating preservation of the central-site building where the plutonium was first refined.

Oh, the interpretation opportunities you'd have... inform them they've been vetted by the War Department for Top Secret clearance... implore them of the importance of not talking to friends, family, anyone about what happens here, because if the Germans get this first, God help us all... here's your ID and dosimeter... and drag them around in a 1938 transit bus (or whatever they used).

bbunge · **Posted:** Wed Jul 21, 2010 4:49 pm

If you are in the area and interested in this stuff, the little Hanford museum in Richland is very interesting, has some pretty neat stuff and is very nice for the obvious low budget operation that it is. They have a working mechanical hand that workers used to assemble and work the metals that you can practice with. The bookstore is very impressive as well. But, whatever you do, if it isn't open, ask them to open up the almost complete mobile home/trailer that represents how worker families lived - in the middle of a pretty brutal desert - before housing was built.

p51 · **Posted:** Wed Jul 21, 2010 10:02 pm

robertmacdowell wrote:

Oh, the interpretation opportunities you'd have... inform them they've been vetted by the War Department for Top Secret clearance... implore them of the importance of not talking to friends, family, anyone about what happens here, because if the Germans get this first, God help us all... here's your ID and dosimeter... and drag them around in a 1938 transit bus (or whatever they used).

Man, that would be great!
I have GOT to get over the mountains and see the place sometime. When I was on active duty at Ft Lewis, we often pulled gunnery exercises to Yakima Firing Center. I tried to get a Humvee down to what I now know as the old MLW roadbed off the main near the massive bridge across the Columbia. You couldn’t follow the roadbed because several small bridges were gone.
The problem here is twofold. First, there’s the radiation issue, which most people don’t understand and get scared of. Then there’s the location. If you’ve ever been in the area, you know what I mean. It’s not on the way to almost anywhere.
It’s a shame we NEVER seem to learn as a nation that preservation includes modern stuff as well because everything old was new at one point. Almost every American preservation effort is tied to one dogged person if you go back far enough…