According to the Facebook group Ahead of the Torch, PRR 5706 is to be scrapped, along with a SOU 1000 series and a CofG baggage:

https://m.facebook.com/groups/AOTTORCH/ ... oser=false

5706 ran for years on the Blue Mountain and Reading, before being sold and shipped to what will now most likely be her final resting place. She was painted in a Southern scheme (assumedly to match the rolling stock on site) and gutted from the inside out. She’s not much more than a shell at the moment, AFAIK.

Her sister, 5898, is still around, I believe in TN.

Non mobile link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/AOTTORC ... oser=false

I imagine we are going to see quite a few more E units scrapped in the next few years with the Iowa Pacific fallout.

Unless we position ourselves to acquire them for preservation.

This one was lost ages ago.

The current pics I've seen suggest the scrappers bashed an exploratory hole in the back of the loco, then balked when what was supposed to be sheet metal turned out to be sheet plastic/fiberglass and Bondo instead!

The engine room is an empty box. Traction motors are reportedly gone. I think the cab has been gutted. At best, if someone needs trucks, or if someone wants to chop off the cab and slap it against a building....... are the EMD porthole frames still there?

The REAL question we can learn from:
HOW IN #)*&!@%$! did a PRR EMD E8A, rebuilt with HEP by Amtrak in the 1970s, go from a mainline runner for a railroad that was (and still is, now) a star in private RR preservation to a gutted-out "wedding chapel" in Alabama? THIS is the part I've never understood/believed.

Further: Is anyone keeping an eye on its former Blue Mountain & Reading sister, 5898 in St. Louis?

The "gutting" was done either before or while the loco was used as a wedding chapel in a different Alabama location. Look up Don Early of Dora, Alabama. The equipment was later moved to its most recent location, near Irondale. It was used first as a BBQ restaurant, and later as an "escape room" attraction. Neither venture lasted very long. At one point the caboose was a coffee shop. Attached photos are from July 2020 (no information about the dish reception). If you map the site, it is a large shopping center parking lot...on a hill (look up Grants Mill Station). It would have been interesting to see the move up that grade! The entire complex has been for sale, and doesn't seem overly busy except for the Southeastern Salvage home improvement store, and Alabama Pickers antique/flea market. I have to assume it was decided the property would be more desirable WITHOUT a train in the parking lot...

PRR 5706 would be very useful as an interpretive exhibit, offering a ADA accessible path into the carbody where digital and physical exhibits (such as a sectioned 567B) could be viewed. For this unit, much of the work has been done in the past conversions. An exhibit like this would do well at Altoona and would help to anchor their equipment exhibits when the 1361 is operating elsewhere.

The same can be said for the Southern coach and its potential to serve as an interpretive center on vairous topics of passenger railroading.

When the BM&R restored the unit, it was reported that they were able to source many new-old-stock parts directly from EMD, including porthole frames and many other parts. Farr grilles are also considered a rare item, and these ones look to be in good shape.

What is the contact information (no facebook links please) for the property owner or the crew that is currently working on site?

More photos...these from 2018.

From the looks of the engine, in these photos anyway, one would think it would have a great place at, for example Altoona's RR Museum*. The problem isn't acquisition so much as moving and finally maintaining the piece once it's on property.
It's amazing how rapidly old RR equipment deteriorates in even moderate weather extremes.

*EXAMPLE, not suggestion.

'Here it is in better days:
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/55409/

According to YouTube and RRPicturearchives, she still runs (but is missing some paint).

So sad to think that these could've been doing what the Dale Earnhardt Fs are today.

Does anyone know why the R&N got rid of them originally?

If my memory still serves me, both 5706 and 5898 were privately owned and leased to the BM&R. I believe the original owner sold them when the original lease ran out, and I do not know how they ended up where they are in 2021.

5706 was owned by the Blue Mountain and Reading. When the decision was made not to keep the units both were put up for sale. 5898 was owned privately and was sold to the current owner of the locomotive. No interest in 5706 and it was sold for scrap.
I don't remember the reason for selling them.

5898 seems to be doing better: https://railpictures.net/photo/756878/

It appears the owner or at least the person with the job of scrapping the E8 has reached out on AOTT in order to garner interest the cars and E8 before they go to waste https://m.facebook.com/groups/AOTTORCH/ ... 637790790/

Good luck to any interested groups