The thread about the recently rescued Reading ALCO FA1 cab has germinated a question of my own - Pielet had a contract to cut up everything traded into EMD. ALCO received plenty of older ALCO's and FM units as trade in's. Was anybody able to get pictures of some of the trade in being parted out or simply reduced to furnace fodder?

I have a picture in my collection of a few locomotives being cut up on the ALCO property. I'm guessing this was not normal procedure. I'm also guessing it was probably carried out by a contractor and not ALCO personel. I do know at least one loco (plant switcher #4) traveled as far as Buffalo to be scrapped.

Did ALCO have holding tracks where locomotive trades where locomotives were parted out? I know they used traded trucks and some electrical components from some engines.
As far as Pielet goes, I remember a picture in Extra 2200 South, back in the late 60's, of the remaining AT&SF PA's being sent off in a long string. E-L PA's and Trainmasters went in the same manner.

No photos, but I recall that when the AT&SF PAs went there they cut the stainless steel sides off and piled them up. The sides sat around for quite some time. I used to walk in about a mile to check on the Commonwealth Edison 0-6-0 (No.7?), (which finally got cut up during a steel strike or some such), but also saw a lot of odd units. Baby face Baldwins (including Rock Island's "Christine"), FAs, all sorts of weird stuff. There was a P-R Seashore (Baldwin?) road switcher with shop tools piled where the engine had been removed from (true confessions now that the statute of limitations has run out: I carried air motors and hammers out of there, a long hike loaded down with iron, but I got some of tnem running).
(name withheld so my spotless reputation won't be sullied)...

EMD regularly photographed the trade-in units, particularly the historically significant ones, in the back yard of the plant before they were sent over for scrapping. In the case of a few units the photographer accompanied the General Manager into the Pielet Brothers scrapyard to take pictures with the locomotives while they were being cut up. Some of these photos were published in the company newspaper. Seaboard 3000, the first passenger unit with 567 engines, was one photographed in the scrap yard.

PC

Isn't the CB&Q E5 at IRM number 9911-A Silver Pilot the only or one of the few units to actually make it out of Pielet Brothers alive?

Greetings:
To the best of my knowledge, the E-5 at IRM was the only one.
In the IRM accession files, there is a fair amount of correspondence between Herbert N.W.Hansen, President of IRM at the time, who bought the locomotive, the CB&Q (which had to approve the deal), EMD and Pielet Bros.
I am not sure if it ever actually went to McCook.
I think that the only reason the deal was possible was due to Herb also buying the
"Nebraska Zephyr" train set, I forget which came first.
The E-5 arrived at IRM and almost immediately was running due to the efforts of the late Glen Monhart.
J.David

There were some photos of locos being scrapped @ Pielet for sale on ebay several months ago.

One of the regulars on this board documented in 'Railfan & Railroad' that the Alco DL-200's (Black Mariahs) were scrapped out in Ohio.

The most recent Jim Shaughnessy volume (which is a b&w tome) has a photo showing a number of SP RSD-5's residing in a scrap yard.

DPK

David,

Thanks for the clarification. Still a nice thing that it made it "out"

Was Comm Ed 7 at the scrap yard or adjacent?

Weren't there a couple of PRR/PC/CR GP9s that were officially traded in to EMD but which ended up in service on the Providence & Wooster instead?

Seems I remember those being remarked as "escapees."

Being more cynical than J David, I have always felt the reason that only Herb Hanson was able to get EMD to a allow a locomotive out of the scrap yard, was that he was a member of the Board (maybe Chairman?) of the West Suburban Mass Transit District, which was responsible for buying commuter equipment, including locomotives, for the CB&Q commuter service. I suspect EMD was more inclined to listen to him than to the average railfan.

BTW a second candidate is the E-A unit at the B&O RR Museum. Apparently the B&O technically traded in the 51 to EMD along with the rest of the early E's, but then EMD disabled it by removing the main generators and gave it back to the railroad for their Museum.

The EMD Sales Department philosophy was to avoid any possibibility of losing the sale of a new product because of competition from an old EMD product, including in situations that crossed product lines.

Consequently they scrapped locomotives not so much from concern that an old E-unit might keep them from selling a new passenger locomotive, but that the two 567 engines from that E-unit, if allowed to get away, might do them out of the sale of a pair of new engines in the marine or industrial market.

There was a proposal put on the table at the 1947 management meeting (the 25th Anniversary of the company) to establish a company museum. It was not adopted.

PC

Interesting to compare that philosophy to Ed Streigel's. I really wish somebody else in the railroad scrap business had been aware of what was passing through their yards. A centipede, a U.S. railroad Trainmaster, an E-L PA1...and the steam story could have been grander, if only a representative of something unique had been shoved into the corner of the yard.
Naturally, they are not in the business of preserving sentiment.

Rich,

At least a few EL TrainMasters passed through Striegels' gates...noting that they were a consistent buyer of FM's.

Appears that Ed was well aware of the proposition that a loco purchased for x dollars could return x dollars plus profit just in the sale of, let's say, the engine.

I have to believe that had one walked into Striegel (or Luria Brothers, for that matter) with an open checkbook, one could left as the proud owner of an FM or BLW-or in the case of Luria, a NYC Hudson or Niagara of ones' choice.

Unfortunately, the mindset of just getting the cash together and buying the thing was the exception rather than the rule-at least until more recent times.*

DPK

*Of course, Jim Bradley was a notable exception-accumulating a collection of NH heavyweights on a postal workers' salary-with a DL109 in his sights. Alas...

I mentioned this before, but you'll find several such very nice photos in "Trackside With Mr. Alco, George W. Hockaday" by Morning Sun. Mr. Hockaday must have been a perfectionist, since his models as well as his photography are beautiful.