The Youngstown Steel Heritage Museum has acquired former Pennsylvania Railroad Ore Shunter Locomotive No. 3 from the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg, PA. The ore shunter was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1912 for the Whisky Island iron ore docks in Cleveland, OH, and was used to move hopper cars for loading by the four Hulett unloaders at the facility. No. 3 was built to operate on 42 ½” gauge track, gathering power from third and fourth rails located between the running rails. It has two retractable arms which would push against the corner pockets of the hopper cars to move them into position. No. 3 is joined in preservation by No.7 located at the Lake Shore Railway Museum in North East, PA.

In 2015 the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania declared No. 3 surplus to their collection and decided to deaccession the locomotive. Youngstown Steel Heritage Museum learned of its availability and indicated our interest in adding it to our collection. The Whisky Island ore docks played an important part in the steelmaking process by unloading lake freighters of iron ore heading to the steelmaking plants in the Mahoning and Shenango Valleys. YSHM intends to conserve No.3 and to restore it to operating condition for demonstration purposes.

Aditionally, the YSHM would like to thank the Friends of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania and J.R. May for their support in this effort, along with Mike Venezia, President, Venezia Enterprises, Inc. of Lancaster, PA for coordinating and executing the move. The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

The locomotive made its trip to Youngstown on May 24th and will be unloaded on the morning of May 25.

Allot older and different from the ones used in Philly.

A very cool addition to the collection. Now all you need is one of the Whiskey Island Huletts to go with it! I believe two of them still exist in kit form, rusting away in the weeds in a back corner of the Cleveland Bulk Terminal.

In my opinion that is the ugliest locomotive I have ever seen. I love it!

Congrats to the Y'town crowd for collecting another gem.

BLW/WH built a number of these for various ore and coal docks, as did Atlas Car, GE, and even Porter. They are basically a mine loco on steroids and with a cab. Some made by Atlas were IMHO the pinnacle in weirdness as they were diesel-electrics with the power plant mounted on the cab roof.

Critter hunting is always full of surprises.

Video of the unload and getting one of the pusher arms freed up.
https://youtu.be/mVWe5pSme0k

Rick, very nice piece. Good luck with it.

I also enjoy restoring those "less common" locomotives.

Cheers, Kevin.

it's in good hands now

Watching the fork lift operator maneuver in such a tight spot was quite impressive. Really only had inches, or less, to spare as he spun the thing around to the section of track.

Rick has a nice facility here. Worth stopping by if in the area.

J.R.

Clever design: putting the operator inside the headlight housing.

I wonder what shape the locomotive's internals are in; that is if they are all still there.

Hi,

Have plans for this loco been published or survived?

Doug vV

It is fully intact. Nothing got stripped from it after it was taken out of service.

The #3 is truly a time capsule, complete down to the broom each of the shunters had handy in the cab, or just outside the door. Plenty of ore stuck in all the nooks and crannies, and even the rear head light is unbroken. As odd as it is, a rope that kept the seat from rotating is still in place. The #3 deserved a new home to protect what ever stories it has to tell. At this point, we have found nothing missing.

As to any plans or drawings, a 1927 Baldwin catalog included the attached drawings which is fairly close to the #3 which was built in 1912. The catalog gauge shows 43-1/4” while the #3 is 42-1/2” gauge. Other than that, fairly close. We have much of the Baldwin documentation on it as well, although no drawings as of yet.

Great news JR!