https://www.facebook.com/Armco709

Video:
https://www.facebook.com/Armco709/video ... 916013779/

Lima Hamilton LS-1000 switcher ARMCO 709, built March 1950 and saved but long out of service at the Whitewater Valley Scenic RR in Indiana, is now operable after "decades" out of service.

Congrats to Whitewater Valley. I love seeing old diesels coming back to life just as much as steam. Especially since 709 is the last of its kind. BTW, it’s actually an A-3080. Lima-Hamilton never assigned model numbers, just specification numbers. I think “LS-1000” is a rail fan moniker.

That was indeed emphasized in the early and later spotter's guides, and necessity being the mother of invention, employees and fans will always come up with easier nomenclature--just like there technically isn't such a thing as a GE "B40-8" either.

This is slightly dated, but thought I would offer the update here.

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Whitewater Valley Railroad, Connersville, Indiana
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Following it's total mechanical restoration and successful break-in runs at the end of 2023, the final touches on the full cosmetic restoration of Armco 709 have been completed. The 1949 Lima-Hamilton LS-1000 will make its debut, in it's restored original Armco livery, this Wednesday, July 31, on a private charter. The general public is invited to celebrate its return to regular service this weekend, as it pulls the Valley Flyer trains to Metamora on Saturday and Sunday, August 3 and 4. After spending it's working life at the Armco Middletown and New Miami Works, 709 came to the railroad in 1987, thanks to a generous donation from the then Armco Corporation (now Cleveland Cliffs). The locomotive saw limited service on the Whitewater Valley until 1989, but it was determined it would need significant work before it could enter everyday operation. Restoration efforts were sporadic over the next decade, but began again in earnest in 2015. It joins it's fellow Lima-Hamilton product, the former Cincinnati Union Terminal 25, as the only two operational of the four remaining Lima-Hamilton switchers. Both locomotives will be in operation this coming weekend, with 709 on the Valley Flyer and 25 on the point of the Metamora Local in Metamora.











https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w81ExKh5pI

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This project is one that I started in 1996. I had it operable in 1998, but the project fell to the side while I was in North Carolina. Around 2009 the locomotive was damaged by copper thieves. After the new shop facility was realized, several members of the organization picked the project up, repaired the wiring damage, the lingering issues from 1998, and a few more that showed up over the years. What you see here is the result of many labor hours from a significant number of WVRR members over the last 10 years. It warms my heart to be able to see this locomotive in this condition, and that it is a result of a team effort within a volunteer organization.

Ryan Scott

Incredible!

It also amuses me to no end that not only do four of these still exist, but TWO of these things are operational today, while only ONE E7 exists in a museum.

The world is funny.

Ryan Scott-fantastic pictures! Do you have any shots of the cab's interior?

John - Those pictures were sent to me along with the press release from our Publicity leader, Rob Rogers. I will have to ask him who took those pictures so that I can give proper credit. I do not have a current photo of the cab, but will take some this weekend. It retains the 2nd throttle stand and independent brake control that came as ordered from Lima-Hamilton for Armco.

This link has a few additional pictures in it:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/pEatdhEv5aF9cLcD/

One of them has a little better view of the cab, as well as the top of the locomotive.

Ryan

I'm 95% certain that this was strategic:

EMD eagerly took not only their own obsolete power back, but those of OTHER builders, in trade-in towards newer power, in pursuit of market dominance. Pay me enough to set aside other work, and I'll go research the several sources I have on this (hints for the do-it-yourself guys: Kirkland and Churella.) I'm quite certain EMD E7s were a big casualty of this strategy.

But this raises what I consider to be an interesting question:

Where in heck are Whitewater Valley's guys finding (or MAKING) parts for Hamilton T69SA or T89SA engines? Or is this another case where the parts are easily available if you go raid marine scrapyards (or Cockerill of Belgium, if you bring me a Chimay or Duvel)?

Consider that 13 of 47 DDA40X units survive, but none of the 53 Baldwin DR-12-8-1500/2 "Centipedes" exist. Neither could be considered a success (the DDA40X was certainly more reliable), but the Centipede would be interesting as an example of how a steam locomotive builder misjudged the diesel market.

I once read that they got the remainder of Armco's parts supply. Hopefully they also were able to get anything that was left when Ecolaire closed the spare parts business in 1991.

I'm not aware of any significant marine use for the Hamilton T69SA or T89SA. But given Hamilton's focus before the Lima acquisition, it wouldn't shock me if there was some component compatibility with their marine diesels.



22,000 miles per month on average and lifetime totals per unit of over 2 million miles will make any locomotive age quicker than their contemporaries.

Seems far fetched to call them failures. The double diesel concept failed (lack of flexibility, rise of run-through power agreements, and the faulty from the start idea that maintenance costs would plummet if two locomotives were condensed into one), but the Centennials were winners from an operating standpoint.

They made a lot of money for the Union Pacific, had high reliability, and can hardly be faulted that they accumulated mileage so quickly since they were so valuable to the operating department. For instance, Rob Leachman once said that they had the highest return on investment of any power that UP had ever owned up to that time.

That's no failure.

A "failure" of a locomotive model is one that, for whatever reason ("hangar queen," lack of parts, etc.) you get rid of or rebuild as soon as you can get away with doing so. Notable failures of locomotive models would include the Baldwin Centipede, the Amtrak HHP-8, the EMD SD90MAC, the Alco DL-109, and the Amtrak SDP40F.

The UP Centennials occupy a niche: Good enough to get your money's worth out of, but not good enough to repeat as a concept, so wring your money's worth out of them while they are decent. the UP gas-turbines were less successful, being retired prematurely because of their high fuel costs.

At the other extreme: EMD SD40-2s in their THIRD rebuilds.........

I have to take exception to the previous post which states that the Alco DL-109 locomotives were a failure. They seemed to do quite well, keeping the New Haven fluid during World War Two. They were dual service units, used in both passenger AND freight service. The War Production Board limited the production of these units, which is why there were only 74 A units and 4 B units built.

The main reason that DL-109 production was not resumed after the war was because Alco offered a newer model, the PA-1. Many of the users of the DL-109 later bought PA units. Also note that EMD did not continue production of the FT after the war, instead marketing the F2. There were no EMD passenger units built during the war, due to WPB's restrictions.

The WPB favoring EMD during the war gave them a head start in product development, of course. Alco and Baldwin were limited to building switchers, and not really allowed to develop road units, while EMD was able to debug it's product line. Lima and F-M came along with their locomotive lines after the war.

That's an easy mystery to solve! They were low hanging fruit for a museum. Look at all the locomotives that made it into preservation because they were last owned by a shortline or industrial railroad. Simply, the E7's largely didn't survive to see a career in a secondary market.

Oh yeah. It makes total sense when you look at it all through the lens of reality, but it DOES seem quite absurd if you're not familiar with how it all came to be.

I would think amusement needs an element of surprise; but this shouldn't be at all surprising. The E-7 did not have an alternate secondary use at the end of its economic service life, and it was quickly superseded by the E-8.

Even though around 500 of each model were built if Wikipedia is to be believed; the E-7 was largely old and gone when some E-8's found new uses in freight and transit agency commuter service.

Perceived historical significance plays very little role in the survival of any machinery unless the owner (N&W, 611, UP Steam, the Reading T-1's) is willing to pay the opportunity cost of missing out on scrap value.

Alternate, secondary commercial use is the best predictor of survival of any type or model. That's why all those Niagaras went to the scrapper and why so many older nondescript engines survived.

Maybe the wonder isn't that only one was saved; but that one was saved at all. People may have thought that the PRR's collection was incomplete because of the omission of a decapod, any of the duplexes or the J-1's; but they didn't see fit to save any F units, Sharks, Centipedes, Alcos or RT transfer engines. Somehow old steam engines were relics to be revered; old diesels were assets to be depreciated, scrapped or traded in.

Now that the RS-3's are "special"; the D-L found a place for them to earn their keep. All though privately owned, they drew people to Scranton. I was kind of hooping the D-L might have used their stable of RS-3's to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Alco's founding in two years and I have to wonder how much the decision was based upon the loss of Don Colangelo's encyclopedic knowledge of older Alcos to retirement.