Since someone doesn't seem to like my resurrecting the old Ohio Central FP9 thread, let me start up a new one:

I've located four of the five PRR E8A's Amtrak converted from steam boiler to HEP for Amtrak service. We all know about those four:

5706 now the Alabama wedding chapel minus innards
5711 Juniata Terminal
5809 Juniata Terminal
5898 at St. Louis, Iron Mt. & Southern

This leaves PRR 5710A, PC 4280, later Amtrak 288 and 496, c/n 16779. It was a HEP-equipped E8. It seems to have vanished, as far as online rosters and the like can account. Has it been scrapped (my educated guess), or is it lurking about somewhere?

The lesson from my research seems to be "Don't take the Juniata Terminal duo for granted...."

496 was scrapped at New Haven CT in early 1986. It had been used as an "organ donor", supplying the 12-cylinder 567 engines (probably had 645 assemblies in them) for AMTK's two RS-3m low-nose switchers built at New Haven a few years earlier. The two old 12-244s that came out of the Alcos were simply dropped into 496's carbody and the unit was cut up about 400 feet from the NH shops near the New Haven station. The wheelsets were simply idler axles without traction motors; no brake rigging, either.

RMNE purchased from the scrapper another AMTK E that was there at the time, AMTK 417 (UP 912A). Some parts from 496 were salvaged for eventual use in 417's "restoration" as "NYC 4096" in late 1986. "NYC 4096" was later sold by RMNE to Ed Bowers and is now at Danbury, CT.

A few of those AMTK "HEP Es" were leased and used in the start-up days of Metro-North, running on Danbury-Grand Central trains-- full diesel operation right into the terminal! They were the lead unit, as the trailing FL9 was used to provide for the steam heated coaches.

Howard P.

And is the StLIMt&S operating these days and if so, is it running with the 5898?

Les

According to their website, it is their source of power for all trains:

http://slimrr.com/

Here's a very short YouTube clip of #5898 in operation in Missouri last June. Quite a ragtag train she's pulling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2CjHr9D-W4

Thanks for the info guys. Actually Dave, I don't think the train looks too ragtag at all. But the 5898 herslf sure does!

BTW, the first two passenger cars are, I believe, former Illinois Central electric commuter cars from Chicago. They are trailers rather than motor cars. The very first group of trailers was ordered by the IC before the motor cars came and actually operated behind IC steam power for a while. Does anyone know if the two cars shown are from that first group, and thus from the IC steam commuter era?

Les

I'd say that's a pretty darn good recreation of a Penn Central Era passenger train!

Oh wait.... something tells me that's not what's supposed to be interpreted here.

Can't help with the group, but the IC trailers can be distinguished from the motors, even if the electrical equipment has been removed from the motors, in that the trailers have steps and traps at the blind end, while the motors do not.

There are model railroaders out there actually doing the Penn Central, and for me I go..-slap head- as a railfan its kinda a sad time, as 2 great lines merged. The result was a backwoods logging concept gone mainline, eeeking out your drivels the best you could. But its the truth..."And thats the way it was"

So its okay to lashup a New Haven F unit with a NYC Shark pulling some Pennsy coaches

Art - Thanks, but that's not the question. I know that these two cars were trailers. What I am not sure of is whether they ran behind steam power, before the motor cars were received. Most of the trailers came with the motor cars, except for the very first group which were apparently modified when steam was removed from service and they then ran with the motor cars.

Les

5764 is under restoration at the Monticello Railway muesum.
DBH

I believe that IC 1301-1345 were built with air doors and were hauled behind steam briefly before electrification was completed, with all later trailers having electric doors. The cars at SLIMS are 1345 and 1365 (though I believe that their numbers were swapped at some point) so one of them is likely the only surviving air-door IC suburban car.

Thanks Frank! Not many of these 1920's IC Electric commuter cars have been saved so if one of the trailers that ran behind steam is actually there at StLIMt&S, that's a pretty rare bird.

Les

I believe it's the only one. One motor car from the IC electrification has been preserved, at IRM in operational condition, and five trailers: two at SLIMS, two at Nevada Northern, and one paired with IRM's motor car. According to http://icrr.net/passenger4.htm a sixth trailer, 1435, is in existence as a residence in Kevil, KY but I have no idea how much of it is still recognizable. Of the five or six surviving trailers, the one at SLIMS is the only one that would have run behind steam engines.