Apparently RMDI of Pittston, Pa is clearing house a bit.

Montour 77 was cut today, the next in line is former PNER SW1 601, nee-CNJ 1012. Also in line are BM&R/RBMN NW2 1000, AMTK/ATSF CF7 581, MILW (faux WM) F7 *# not known, PNER NW2 87, and others.

If anyone has $25k sitting around, perhaps one of the pups could be liberated.

-Micah

Thats a shame, I always assumed the R&N still owned it. Wasn't the WM impostor owned by steamtown?

Sigh... It's a shame F7's are still being cut for scrap.

The CNJ unit would look good painted up and parked in place of the CNJ F3's in Jim Thorpe. An F unit could really jazz up many smaller museums painted in a local scheme.

I suppose the costs to move make such acquisitions difficult.

I'd have loved to see this thread on RYPN 3 months earlier, and even imagine on all rail related sites (everyone gets together and uniformly provides a place for such sales /links?).

Did RMDI attempt to find buyers for these items or is it simply word of mouth?

/Mitch

This group sounds like a nice basis for a museum, not the scrapper....

Someway, somehow, yes that F7 (or was it an FP7?) was owned by the Steamtown Foundation at one time, as well as 'Lackawanna 637' (another faux DL&W F unit).

I'd hoped to someday see the 1012 in a night photo session with the 113. I'd be willing to say they were contemporaries.

This was word of mouth to me, and if I'd had the resources at hand, I'd have made an offer on the 1012 many moons ago.

-Micah

Get used to watching equipment be cut up. There isn't enough money or labor to maintain all the stuff that is already in collections around the country, and in this business climate any equipment that has scrap value and no chance of restoration is likely to get the torch in order to produce some cash.

PC

And as the rules to move equipment today by rail has gotten tougher if not impossible, the cost to move equipment of this size by over the road hauler makes more of it food for the scrappers. Sad but true.

Later!
Mr. Ed

Moral of the story is put your slush fund together NOW, and send out polite inquiries about anything that fits into holes in your collections. For those that are prepared, this is an opportunity, not a tragedy.

dave

As to the CNJ SW-1, I was made aware of the issue about 10 days ago and made some local inquiries as to an effort to find it a home. Other groups were aware of it as I understand it, but for what ever reason it just didn't entice people to come forward. With the right people on board, there was at least a concept to get it moved to a safe haven and as I understand it the owner was very willing to help out. If someone has cash and wants to step up to the plate, and if it has not yet been cut up, let me know.
J.R.

Why are there so many of these last minute "gonna be scrapped tomorrow unless somebody trucks it out today" stories lately? The existence and location of most historic locomotives and rolling stock is certainly no secret, these days. But it seems that there's never any interest until the torches are lit. RMDI, Larry's Truck, and the others are not museums, they're dealers and scrappers who own these locomotives because they intend to turn them into money someday. They can do this by selling them intact, parting them out, or simply scrapping them.

And then we have folks like the guy who owns the Grafton & Upton, who chewed up a couple of nice Alco switchers recently without ever letting anybody know they were available. (Since they were turned into money through the scrapping process, I'll assume that he might have been open to turning them into money by selling them intact.) Did any preservationists who were horrified by that event ever contact the railroad beforehand to inquire if they were going to be for sale at some point?

Walt Lankenau

This is a loco that was on the radar of all anthracite road fans - there was no secret about its existence, but I guess since no one made an attempt to do anything with it the past 20 years, time has run out. Sad.

Makes saves like Scott K's LV SW-1 even more poingant.

Yes the F-7 is MILW, former 97A

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locoPi ... x?id=41236

Folks,

I know the kinda-sorta-owner of this ex-Milwaukee FP7. (Well, the old joke was, when asked if he actually did own it, "Are you offering to buy it or give me another [bleep]ing bill?")

He tells me that if he actually gets paid what's promised (well into five figures--I'm not disclosing personal business finances here, but for that figure you could have gotten a good operating GP30 or refurbished GP9 or CF7 not too long ago), he just might come out barely ahead, not adjusted for inflation, what he has personally spent (in dollars, sweat, and favors owed) since almost "accidentally" acquiring this loco perhaps a decade ago from the sorry remnants of the Steamtown Foundation detritus that was stashed at Tobyhanna. The plan was to send it to West Virginia to effectively supplement or substitute for the power now running on the West Va. Central, but between the obstacles of Conrail/NS/CSX/etc. and its deteriorating condition, that never happened. He's had no feasible offers in years that I know of. I stopped sending "dreamers" to him years ago.

A decrepit pile of parts and scrap that hasn't found a way to be saved in nearly two decades is worth tens of thousands to a private owner and scrapper. That private owner may have medical bills, or lost his job, or be seriously underemployed with bills to pay. Not every loco owner is a millionaire former commodities broker or bullion speculator.

I'm more than a little peeved at the turn of events--I'd much rather this be the wedding chapel in Alabama and an Amtrak-compatible E8 with HEP still be available for operation instead--but I can't say I blame the guy, nor am I entirely surprised.

I had contacted the owner 4 months prior to the G&U unit being scrapped. He was amenable to a sale for scrap value. I asked him to contact me if/when scrapping was on the horizon and he said he would. I had the cash available to complete the sale.

KV:
I'm a business owner. If there is something I want, I don't wait for someone to call me back. I even avoid leaving voice mails. If I waited for someone to get back to me I'd be out of business.

4 months is a long time. If I was the owner, I would have just gone ahead and cut it up as well. He may have lost your contact information or just didn't feel like chasing you down. I find that pestering works quite well. That means calls on a regular basis, maybe regular visits, showing an interest.

If something is worth saving, you have to fight for it, especially with scrap as high as it is.

Besides, scrap 4 months ago was lower than it is today.
J.R.