The 100th Anniversary of the founding of Electro-Motive is next year, 2022. Do any of your organizations plan to support any publications, activities or events to recognize this anniversary?

PC

Perhaps Steam Town could have a wake.

GM50 + 50 = 6063...

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=5287692

The Reading museum has the first production GP-30 so I'm hoping those guys can do something.

Now if we can just get CSX to fulfill their promise of years ago to send it to the B&O Museum as-is, and not put it through the just-announced rebuild program that will finish totally altering it... They had also supposedly set-aside SD50 8595, but it ended up at Larry's.

I'm actually thinking that an organized effort needs to be done for two of those GP40-2s.

GP50 is of more special interest to GM-EMD fans than B&O fans (or the Museum) proper. The 'better' engine for B&O family relevance would be 1977 (now 6062) which was the B&O 150th commemorative, I believe in Chessie paint no less.

I'm presuming there is no interest at Progress/"Electro-Motive Diesel" or whatever they renamed it to regarding 50-year-old EMD 'history'. That means that all concerned should probably start putting a strategy to at least restore (perhaps as an operating "heritage unit" a la 4935), and later acquire and place the locomotive (as GM50) if (probably "when") the B&O museum doesn't want 'two', probably starting yesterday...

GM50 and 1977 were really consecutively numbered 4163 and 4164 when purchased and specially painted. Both reverted back to their original numbers, and GM50 was repainted in Chessie colors in the early 1980s. 1977 was never designated for donation to the museum. GM50, 8595, and 4447 (6341) - the last GP40-2 bought new by Chessie - were all so designated and stenciled when repainted into the "Yellow Nose 2/Bright Future" CSX paint scheme. Those stencils were lost in subsequent repaints, as was probably the institutional memory of the promise to donate them by CSX management. GM50/6063 has hung on with CSX a lot longer than many newer Geeps there, and it would be a shame to lose it now.

To be a bit more clear, I'm proposing:

Put together organizations to preserve and improve BOTH ex-GM50 and ex-1977.

Establish credible funding and support, and then credible liaison with the right CSX people (it shouldn't be hard at this point with the 'right' preservation people!) to get the two locomotives cleaned up 'in service' (as 6062 and 6063 cab numbers if necessary; easily 'patched' and the numberboards changed out!) to be in a non-darkening version of the gold for GM50 and (ideally) Chessie colors for 1977.

Get the necessary paperwork together, and make and apply the necessary stenciling in a way that shows through overpaint, that the locomotives (BOTH) are to be held pending retirement, and clear conditions for their donation or 'right of first refusal' sale put in place. (There is no problem, I think, with these being 'legally binding' as they can if necessary have comparatively short timeframes, the organizations respectively having campaigned to get the acquisition, preparation, transportation and final initial location worked out.

This would include a fair price for 'meat on the hoof' in the generator, TMs, various electronic controls and cab displays, spares, etc. if the locomotives are to be kept in 'runnable' condition.

Frankly I find both those units far more historically meaningful than the 'last GP40-2 B&O ordered' ... but I'll extend the same planning invitation to an organization that disagrees with that, and we can try for three. If push comes to shove -- how about we get volunteers to acquire and pre-field-strip a comparable GP-40-2 chassis ready for the 'rebuilding process' with none of the overhead and labor to get it ready, and trade that for the GM50 if things fall through -- and ideally another one for 1977.

Thanks for your replies. This was posted, in part, to gauge whether some suggested support activities relating to the upcoming anniversary would be worth the effort. I know of videos, articles, and books related to the anniversary now being developed, so there would seem to be a developing opportunity to make use of free publicity generated by others.

PC

The new issue of Trains Magazine announces that Kalmbach Media's "EMD at 100" video developed for them by Richard Luckin will be available shortly. This is a tour of 100 years of EMC/EMD history with more than a dozen people from the preservation, publishing, railroad and locomotive building industries providing narration for individual segments of the story. The narrators include three former and four current EMD employees. The presentation style is quite similar to Aviation and Military history documentaries where the designers, builders, and veterans take part in telling the story.

PC

In that vein then IRM at Union might be a good home for it as they don't have a GP40-2 yet plus are "local" to EMD's long time home of LaGrange, IL.

I only suggest IRM in case the B&O museum finds it hard to justify preserving 2 or 3 GP40-2's as part of their collection.

And yes, I know donations are needed to help make this happen. So anyone else interested enough to chip in?

Apparently just today EMD/Progress finalized sale of more of LaGrange to Bridge Industrial for redevelopment.

Somebody wrote, "Perhaps Steam Town could have a wake."

Actually ex-DL&W 426 is a pre-SC 600 HP switcher that was built for EMC at Erie in February 1935. It had an 8-cylinder Winton 201-A but was reengined with a 567.

Delaware-Lackawanna now has it and it is at Steamtown in DL&W paint.

DL&W 425 and 426 are EMC's first switchers.

Phil Mulligan

There are 87 acres being offered. What used to be the Fabrication Building and the 1940s Parts Department Building.

https://www.colliers.com/en/properties/ ... usa1086160

PC

Too bad one of THE "go-to" people at CSX, that has experience with "special" stuff like this, is no longer there to facilitate such things.

National Museum of Transportation in Kirkwood MO seems to have the definitive EMC collection, including:

B&O 50 (1935) Box Cab Passenger unit. 1800 HP 2xV12-201A diesels
Sabine River and Northern 408 (1937) NC shifter 900 HP V12-201A diesel
CB&Q 9908 (1939) Shovel Nose diesel from General Pershing Zephyr. One 12-567 diesel
GM 103 (1939) "The Diesel That Did It" The first FT unit.

Also, the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago has CB&Q 9900 Pioneer Zephyr (1934) power car and train. That was the first one.

In addition, B&O Museum in Baltimore has EMC 51 (1937), the first streamlined production model diesel.

Phil Mulligan