it seems Notre Dame is or has moved to full Natural Gas, that makes the railroad obselete.
Probably the switch done due to new EPA rules. Reports saying there hasnt been any activity at the coal transload near the NJI&I roundhouse. It seems coal is or about done at Notre Dame.

http://green.nd.edu/strategy/energy/abo ... eneration/

From what I've heard, the boilers at NDU can burn either coal or natural gas and the university uses whatever is cheapest at the time.

Les

I put this note out in this thread back in November of 2013, over 16 months ago, and have heard nothing back. Then when checking the internet yesterday, I found this photo:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/msdwilkie ... otostream/

Atlanta, Stone Mountain & Lithonia Railroad #6 sure looks like one of the other Porter standard gauge 65-tonners, the first photo of a sister engine to ND&W 5332 that I have seen. When Mr. Wilkie took this photo back in May of 1958 in Seattle, Washington, the engine was described as "on way to Alaska". Where did it go, and is it still in existence? Anyone have any info?

Thanks.

Les

We've been working on ND&W #5332 at Hoosier Valley, mostly trying to solve the wiring problem riddle. It was a dismal day today at HVRM with temps in the 40's and a cold rain much of the day. One bright spot however, was the move, under her own power, of the Porter out of the Shop! First photo shows her sitting outside the Shop before engineer Joe Kingsbury moved her back in, while the second shot shows her backing from the East Annex into the original Shop section. More to do, but getting there!

Les

Les,

Here is what I have on that Porter:

7423 7/1942 B-B Std Cum HBIS600(2) 400hp DE65
U.S. Army Ordnance Depot #7022, Red River Ord. Depot,
U S Navy 65-00324. Gulfport, Miss
B M Weiss (D)
Atlanta,Stone Mountain & Lithonia #6 "C W DAHLGREN"
Pan American Engineering (D), Dallas, Tex

I will ask my Alaska buddy what he knows.

What happened to the two Notre Dame American cranes? I have this on one of them.

AH&D 1884 25 ton 11-42 D
Daniel Construction Co.
Bendix Corp. South Bend, IN
Notre Dame University (Notre Dame & Western RR)
(reported here late 2013)

John -

I don't know if the second crane is still at Notre Dame or not. I guess I could ask around about it and get back to you, but perhaps someone else might be able to come up with the answer sooner.

Les

John -

I talked to the HVRM member that lives in South Bend and he tells me that the crane (and the last remaining hopper car) are no longer on the Notre Dame property and believes them to have been scrapped.

Les

As one Porter owner to another, a big CONGRATULATIONS to the Hoosier Valley RR Museum on getting their Porter diesel to function !!! I could tell you a story about one that doesn't, after a fortune was spent on purchase, trucking, and repairs, too. Your guys didn't even have a schematic.

VIVA ND&W #5332 !!!

Funny how that totally clicks with my suspicions earlier in this thread:

someone is asking a question on another forum...

dinwitty -

HVRM has both bells that were on the Porter when it was in service on the Notre Dame & Western in South Bend. The first photo below shows the hood mounted bell that was apparently what was furnished by the folks at Porter when the unit was built. The second photo is a close up of the Illinois Central stamped number (1115) on the top of the steam locomotive bell that the folks at Notre Dame added to the unit. The steam locomotive bell was not stolen. Please put that rumor to rest!

Les

I'll forward your response, very cool. It looks like it has a steam whistle on it as well, or an air whistle?

It's a steam whistle supposedly off of a Baltimore & Ohio locomotive, but there are no markings on it as far as I could tell, earmarking it to a particular engine. The ND&W ran it off of the air line of course.

Les

I was doing a bit of on-line research on our 65 ton center cab Porter (s/n 7391, built in 1942) and discovered a couple of interesting things. First of all, the markers that adorn the top four corners of the cab were apparently not an added feature, but came from the Porter plant! I have found a couple of other photos taken of this type diesel when new with markers in the same location as on ND&W #5332, and also a photo of one of the narrow gauge units with the four markers out on the corner ends of the two hoods! These units were mostly built for the U.S. Army or Navy and when resold to other parties, these markers probably were redundant and removed. Fortunately, this didn't happen with the Notre Dame unit, and Brother Borromeo probably was responsible for their preservation.

Secondly, is the Baltimore & Ohio steam whistle. This is obviously an added piece of "jewelry", but what surprised me is the smaller whistle that can be seen in the photo of Atlanta, Stone Mountain & Lithonia number 6 seen previously in this thread, as it sits in 1958 before supposedly being shipped to Alaska. That is a "peanut" whistle, and from other photos of these units when new, I can't see any signs of roof mounted horns. Could these units have been furnished to the Army and/or Navy (or other original customers) with some type of air line whistle, instead of horns? Did Porter do this? Did other locomotive builders? Obviously the one on the Porter was not "gutsy" enough and the unit received the B&O whistle.

Learning something new every day!


Les

Haven't had a report on Hoosier Valley's ex-ND&W Porter diesel in a bit, so thought I'd include a bit of info. Members of the HVRM crew HAVE been working on ND&W # 5332 at times. Here are some recent photos of progress.

Badly patches of rust have been cut out and new pieces welded in and the unit has also had old paint and surface rust removed as shown in the first photo of Joe Kingsbury working at it. Rich Warner has been doing much of the welding patches. As this work progresses, the unit has been getting primer paint applied and the second photo shows Kevin Kennedy one afternoon showing off the primer he had applied in the morning.

Another update coming.

Les