In 1946, the Carnegie Ilinois Steel Corp. (US Steel) purchased four Alco S2 switchers for the Ohio Works in Youngstown, OH. These Alcos replaced a fleet of 0-6-0 switchers then in use at the plant. The Ohio Works had the blast furnaces and steelmaking furnaces to convert iron ore into steel and roll it into semifinished shapes such as blooms and slabs. Those shapes were then moved 3.5 miles by rail over the US Steel owned Youngstown & Northern Railroad to the McDonald Works where the finishing mills were located.

The four Alcos, 70-73 worked at the plant until the Ohio Works was shut down in 1980. In 1981 a group of investors reopened a portion of the McDonald Works operating two of the rolling mills, and included in the deal were Alcos 70 and 73. The 73 was operable and became the plant switcher, while the 70 was retained solely as a parts source for the 73. 73 was renumbered 777, painted in a yellow,orange and red scheme and housed inside the mill building when not being used. 70 was parked on a siding in between two buildings and largely forgotten about.

McDonald Stopped using the 777 several years ago and instead bought a trackmobile, which is much easier on the sharp curves inside the plant. But because the company's founder was a railfan, nobody had the heart to get rid of the 777 o it was simply left to sit on her siding.

I have known several of the principals at McDonald Steel for years; one of their board members is also on Youngstown Steel Heritage's board. So a couple of weeks ago when I stopped in to discuss storing our 80 tonner on their trackage until it can be loaded out, the subject of their Alcos came up. I had no idea that they were interested in getting rid of them, and I wasn't really interested in them at any rate because we don't have anywhere to put big locomotives at our museum. But over the next couple of days I just kept thinking about those Alcos, and slowly a plan developed to justify saving them.

So, as of today Youngstown Steel Heritage has taken ownership of both of these locomotives, with plans to preserve both. 777 will be going with the 80 tonner, (G&W 20) to the Lake Shore Railway Museum for temporary exhibit, and the 70 will be stabilized, repainted and left on its siding until we figure out what to do with it. 70 will never run again but may make a nice static display somewhere, but the 777 will be running again within a few weeks. It will forever retain its McDonald Steel paint scheme and will be dedicated to David Houck, founder and fist president.

It is interesting to note that these two Alcos have never left the property of the Youngstown Works since their original delivery from Alco. They are also the largest existing artifacts from the Ohio Works, which has been totally demolished.

More photos are in a flickr album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/33523379@ ... 975843163/

By the way, this is the same property that LTEX has a couple hundred diesel locomotives stored at.

Well done and congratulations. I remember reading somewhere about the 777 awhile back and was wondering what would happen to it. Glad to see both have a new home.

I just found these photos of the two Alcos taken on the same day in 1982.

We are borrowing the set of unitized batteries out of the B39-8 at the Lake Shore Railway Museum to replace the failed batteries in the 777. Brought one battery back yesterday. At 1,700 lbs. each it was a healthy load for my F250.

Tuesday will be a day long work session on the 777 as we start to clean it up and check its condition. Probably a couple of weeks away from trying to start the locomotive, if everything checks out.

Went to fill the cooling system with water yesterday. Had to repair freeze damage first. Cracked shutoff valve to cab heater, cracked elbow in branch line to heater, cracked Kim Hotstart. Got all of those fixed or isolated then water started coming out of two holes in the bottom of the radiator header. I think I can temporarily patch both holes enough to get it filled and running, but the header will have to eventually come out to be rebuilt.

Rick, can you borrow a radiator core from the 70? If that unit won't be a potential runner, a leaky rad won't matter. Might be just as easy as trying to plug holes.

Congratulations on this acquisition!

Steve Hunter

I'm not sure that the bottom manifold on 70 is any better. It may be, since it has not operated since 1982 and has about 20 fewer years of use. Changing it out will take about three days. If the patches hold and I can get it running initially, I'll then change out the manifolds for the permanent repair. I hate to spend all that time doing the repair now only to find a much larger problem that would sideline the locomotive.

Finally, after much prep work we got McDonald Steel 777 to turn over and start up today! The engine sounds great, there were no major catastrophies, just a list of small repairs that can only be found when a locomotive is running (air leaks, water leaks etc.)

I was able to get the locomotive to move in reverse, but for some reason it will not move forward. Since it has a remote control setup, I am not sure if the problem is in the R/C unit or in the control cabinet. The air throttle and other modifications made to accommodate the FEMCO remote makes things a bit harder to puzzle out.

Overall, it was a very good day, and time to celebrate the return of another Alco to operation after a decade long slumber!

Congratulations on preserving the old ALCO. A job well done.

Not an Alco mechanic, but I'd start with the physical reverser, is it throwing over? are the contacts clean? I've had several locomotives (both GE and EMD products) have problems with dirty contacts in the reverser at work recently.

Rick,
Congrats on the save! Does this engine have the drum style reverser such as on the S-1? If so, is air pressure getting to the drum to move it? Can you rotate the drum by hand? The air operated mechanism may be sticky, leaky, sluggish. mld

Turns out it was just a contactor not making good contact. Finally got it out of the building and ran it up and down a couple hundred feet of track before putting it away for the day. I have to dig out the flangeways on the tight curve leading to the main track in the plant, and then I have about a mile of relatively straight track to test her out on.

I haven't run a locomotive since I left CSX, and its good to be back in the right hand seat again!

I know the feeling, I haven't cracked a latch since last time I saw a QJ, 9 years ago, and I believe I'll save it until #6 is ready... CONGRATULATIONS, it's great to know that at least your little corner of the world is not going down the flusher, like most of the rest of the world is.

Congratulations Again, & WORK SAFE !!!

YouTube Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKBbvk-DCEM

I noted the engine died twice before it started the third time and kept running. By design, there is a push button on the end of the throttle which when pushed in overrides the low oil pressure shutdown relay. Pushed in, it will keep the engine running until oil pressure builds up. I read the operator's manual and knew about it. Bought an S-3 in southeast Iowa, replaced the frozen locomotive batteries with six heavy auto/truck batteries, started it on the first attempt using a welder . The surprised people who operated it were used to jumping it with a welder as the batteries were too weak for a third start. Didn't seem like a good time to tell them what I had done.
Alex Huff