If its their Conrail Express liveried one (#801), I've got that down as an SW900 rather than an SW8.

Photo of it below at Massey, MD, back in Oct 2012 which I took whilst on vacation in the area....

I believe Santa Cruz, Big Trees and Pacific Railway would be somewhat interested in the CF7's.
They just recently purchased two more.

The yellow gon was the former spray car. We used it for quite awhile when I first got there in 06-08. After that they quit spraying when the vintage Civil War-era pump quit working. (ok not that old but close...)

There should be 5 other short gons, say 32ft I believe. Two on the Little Creek Division and 3 on the Cape Charles side, if the railroad didn't cut them up to help pay bills. The two in Little Creek were ex-Southern dated 1924 as stated. The coupler pockets are about to fall off... one knuckle shank is pointed down at about a 30 degree angle. I oiled the journals when I started working there. Dry as hell, unsure how long they were like that. We only used them on the barge loading lead, usually never over 5mph and traveled less than a mile with every barge loading/unloading.

I would hold off on begging for the equipment just yet, but maybe putting your name on a list might be a good idea.

You'll find pictures of the Fairfax River, mentioned earlier, at this web page:

http://hawkinsrails.net/preservation/esrm/esrm.htm

PC wouldn't have rebuilt any EL RS-3s, the rebuilds postdate the end of both railroads.

Yenko, I would like to hear your justification on why the CF7 and SW8 (or SW900 if I sourced it incorrectly.) are not worthy. Just because you don't appreciate something doesn't mean others feel the same.

My justifications for all of them?
-CF7s were one of the ultimate rebuilds, cutting down cab units to make them into hood units.

-SW8,SW900? The specific MDDE unit is the only surviving example of Conrail's short lived "Conrail's Express" livery and marketing. The only other unit to receive the paint, a U23B, was destroyed 20+ years ago. It was only in it's paint for a few weeks or months at that time.

-T6, sure, no PRR T6 has been preserved, and the PRR was pretty Alco-intensive until Alco's end. T6 bring the last type of switcher built by Alco.

-RS32, probably the only surviving unit of the Atlantic and Danville railroad.

-B23-7, at least 4023? The locomotive was the start of what is commonly recognized by Conrail's fans to be the first major GE order from that railroad. (Originally CR 1900.)

-RS3m, CONRAIL rebuilds, in order to make reliable switchers early on out of their large fleet of RS3s. Sure LV 211 is preserved in New York, but it is a Conrail rebuild after all, not a Lehigh Valley rebuild.

I feel justified in starting all of these are worthy to go to museums or societies, not that they will ultimately get there. Mind telling me your thoughts?

Where in my reply did you read that I do not appreciate these units?

Get your facts straight mister, the RS3M program began in 1972 of which I was a part of.

Yenko, saying "why would anybody" is pretty synonymous with "I do not like" in my book, and that of many others in the world. If I were to say something such as "Why would anybody like <Insert Person or Object here>", I would fully expect to have that same message telegraph to the meaning of "I don't like <Person or Object>" to any reader of that statement.

Yes, and if you were part of the program, I think you would realize Conrail's major involvement post April 1st 1976 with that program. Many E7/E8 units went to scrap in order to give their prime movers to the program. Those included both Penn Central and Erie Lackawanna E7/E8s.

"Your book" doesn't count....End of conversation.

Well, I should say that I mean no disrespect and should thank you for your interest in locomotive preservation whatever make or model it happens to be.

I doubt any E7 gave up its engines for RS3 repowerings by Penn Central or Conrail. I never heard of 12-567A's being used by them with these.

And I don't know how one is supposed to interpret "why would anyone want to preserve a CF7 or a SW8?" in any other way than that they're not worthwhile models for the preservation community.

And lastly, if these are former Lackawanna RS3's, they were rebuilt by Conrail upon their absorption of the Erie Lackawanna, not by EL competitor Penn Central. Penn Central didn't acquire 2nd hand RS3's in the used locomotive market. They already had a huge fleet from the various components of PC and selected candidates from that fleet when they started the RS3M program in 1972 (Just as Conrail selected from their own fleet of RS3's, now including EL examples, when they continued with RS3 repowers for the first couple of years).

The Conrail roster in the November 1977 issue of Trains only shows 41 RS3M's (20 NYC, 10 NH, 9 PRR, 1 just completed LV, and an inherited ex Erie RS3 that EL had rebuilt themselves with a similar program started near the end of the EL's life). No sign of three DL&W RS3's allegedly rebuilt by Penn Central, not Conrail.

PC began rebuilding RS3s with EMD engines at its Dewitt shops (East Syracuse, NY) prior to Conrail.
Units rebuilt at Dewitt had large sheet metal humps atop their hoods. IIRC, the program was transferred to Altoona after Conrail came into existence.

Erie Lackawanna rebuilt two of its RS3s prior to Conrail. EL raised the Alco hood up, putting new sheet metal below the doors.

Sounds interesting. Any photos of either unit out there?


Les

Why would anyone want to preserve an E7? Or a 4-4-0?