Video by the somewhat controversial "Escanaba & Lake Superior documentarian" Jason Asselin confirms the many internet reports of the scrapping of at least four Baldwin diesel switchers and RS12 road switchers at the Escanaba & Lake Superior shops in Wells, Michigan, as well as rail removal on some sections of the original E&LS line. Scrapping of the locos begins at around the four-minute mark:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mIY0vZZSXc

My impression is that the first two were the long-derelict and thoroughly picked-over cadaver VO shells, but the loss of at least two of the more complete ex-SAL/OP&E RS12 cadavers is more alarming.

The rumor/speculation online is that what's left of the RR is up for sale to one of the short-line holding companies, and "house cleaning" is being done to clear the property of unwanted assets prior to sale.

Frustrating in that from what I have heard, SMS Rail and several museums or organizations had made several attempts at trying to buy some of these over the years and were rebuffed by Larkin. So before anyone starts in with the "Well, someone should have made an offer years ago...", apparently people tried.

I've also heard that Larkin is not really involved with the railroad much anymore, possibly due to health issues.

I'm intrigued by one aspect of this situation.

Any railroad with common sense would not let their shops become a pile of junk locomotives. The handy excuse is always "parts," but the RR has, to my knowledge, not actually used their one supposedly operable Baldwin in revenue service in perhaps two or even three decades.

The only rationalization for this would be a common aspect of many short line operations: For accounting purposes, they do not literally own the locomotive(s) they run, but lease it/them from a different company on paper, be it Larry's Truck & Electric, a different locomotive company or even a "shell" company owned on paper by the RR's president (or his wife or whatever). All of this "clutter" is stuff owned by "another company" sitting on "leased" property (maybe).

The loco leasing aspect of at least part/some of the Baldwins' history has been an open secret all this time--remember "Castolite," the Michigan Northern, the Sharks leased to D&H, etc. So the question is, are these locos the RR now owns outright (owned all the time, owner hasn't paid track rent and now seized, etc.), or has time literally run out for all the Baldwins and/or the property they sit on?

There's other stuff to be concerned about (or was)--a 4-6-0, the Sharks, some allegedly premium passenger rolling stock "hidden in a warehouse," etc.

I always just figured that the reason they held onto everything was because the owner was a hoarder.

He also bought out all the remaining Baldwin service parts when Ecolaire closed up Baldwin-Hamilton in 1991, according to Henry Rentschler "... Now then, when the Baldwin-Hamilton Company was going out of business, in the summer of 1991, Escanaba & Lake Superior was the primary customer. John Larkin, personally, talked to me about available parts, issued purchase orders, and paid cash, promptly. What a way to close down our renewal parts operations! All of the parts he originally purchased were new and unused - pistons, liners, cylinder heads and everything in between. However, as we were winding down, we had a goodly supply of "used" parts that were prime candidates for rebuilding. Rather than see these "rare" hunks of steel go to waste I decided to give them to E & LS. Cylinder liners, in good shape on the exterior, could be easily honed and re-chromed, and give years of faithful service. Bed plates could be rebuilt, by welding the bores, machining, and scraping to finished dimensions. Fred Cave was still alive then and Mr. Larkin would ask him to come up for a visit, for a "working" vacation. They treated him like royalty, which he, of course, was with his intimate and detailed knowledge of the Baldwin Diesel engine (John Kirkland insisted on capitalizing the "D" in Diesel and I have always followed his meticulous advice) E & LS had a large fleet of Baldwins, operating, profitably, on a daily basis, so with Fred Cave's help they were rebuilt, and rebuilt again, with our parts, both new and available for reuse. We even gave away all of our applicable gaskets, rather than throw them into the trash. Larkin, and I talked briefly about the Shark Nose engines, but he was generally elusive. I don't know about the vandalism, but the frames and sides were badly rusted - that alone would be a major job to restore. Happy memories from exactly 19 years ago, at this same time of year. BH officially closed on September 1, 1991 and we refused to accept any orders, at all, at all, at all ! THE END."

No clue how much of that stuff is left, but I hope that doesn't get trashed either.

Currently E&LS is trying to fix the decades of neglect under John Larkin’s ownership. This involves scrapping part of the Baldwin fleet as well as pulling the Channing to Wells line, which was officially abandoned in 1994. They are very strapped for cash at the moment due to washouts and derailments due to deferred maintenance. E&LS hasn’t been to Green Bay to interchange with CN since early April due to washouts, so the interchange at Pembine is the only way things go in or out. The customer base is pissed because stuff isn’t getting delivered on time, and there is now a Wisconsin DOT hearing coming up soon regarding this issue. E&LS is quite literally Penn Central: Shortline edition.

E&LS 300 is the sole operating Baldwin and is considered “Larkin’s Baby”. 300 was used in revenue service as recently as last year because E&LS became so power short that they were forced to use it in regular freight service.

The situation regarding the Baldwin locomotives is a lot simpler than you think. Larkin is the “I'm not selling because I'll fix it up one day” type just on a grand scale AKA a hoarder. There is a LOT of historic equipment that has been stored away on the property including the J. Neils Lumber shay #6 which has not been seen for several decades. The 4-6-0 you refer to is E&LS No. 14 which was sold to the Arcade and Attica before Larkin and his father came into the picture. everything including the sharks are owned by Larkin/E&LS and is not a case of defaulting on a storage lease. Irronically, Larkin came into ownership of the D&H sharks after one of the previous owners (don’t recall if it was Castolite) defaulted on the storage lease agreement with E&LS who had them taken as collateral.

To put it bluntly, the situation at E&LS is what happens when years of deferred maintenance and “I'll get to it someday” come to a head without proper organization. If you or an or an entity want something, then make a move now. I understand that E&LS has been hard to deal with in the past, but they need the money and time is of essence.


P.S

It’s worth noting that John Larkin and his father, Wade Larkin, made the decision to purchase the E&LS in 1978 after riding an NRHS excursion on the railroad earlier in the decade. Just to give you an idea as to why all this stuff has been held onto for so long.

It's always best to remember that one man's "hoard" is another's "parts/strategic reserve." That applies whether it's a couple AMC Gremlins/Pacers in the backyard (I once saw seventeen of them on one property in Pennsylvania!), a line of damaged passenger cars at Beech Grove, a hundred diesels on an isolated siding in the Arizona desert, or an airport full of parked airliners outside of Tucson.

The important questions are whether the neighbors (if any) and/or authorities are complaining about the "junkyard," or whether parts are actually being pulled to keep other cars/locos/planes in operation. We'd love to be sympathetic, but the reality is that the E&LS hasn't kept but one Baldwin diesel in very sporadic service for decades now. Supposedly the Sharks need 608 engine parts (allegedly crankshafts) and everything else onsite is a 606. I truly WANT to be sympathetic to the guy--especially since misbehaving "railfans" caused the standoff between the RR/Larkin and "preservation"--but if it's true he rebuffed any efforts to work with SMS or other would-be saviors that have done a better job than he has over the decades with limited resources, well......... I hope and pray there is a line of work trucks with southern New Jersey plates and a couple Penske/U-Haul trucks lined up by the dumpsters in Wells right now.......

So now it's OUR fault?????

According to Larkin himself, when interviewed by Trains, he has a crankshaft set up for the 1216. "The last time the late Fred Cave (former Baldwin Locomotive manager and mechanic) was here, we shot a 608A bedplate and put the crank in the bedplate with the proper tensioning so that at some point it may become economically feasible to rebuild an RF16." The 1205 has a cracked block that had happened during it's Monongahela ownership and was an issue back in the D&H days. The D&H veterans said they had to keep welding it up periodically and then it would crack again.

You can't have it both ways. Either you don't like people stealing materials/artifacts/rare antiquities or you do. Even though the parts are being scrapped via dumpster and would be fully recoverable from dumpster diving as intact parts, that's STILL stealing! Without an actual bill of sale, the parts were obtained illegally. There's still a chain of ownership for anyhing that goes into a dumpster.

Where did I say anything about "stealing"????? When you ASSUME, you make an "A**" out of U and ME......

Deals can be, and have been, negotiated with scrappers at the dumpster stage of disposal. I've done it twice on behalf of other parties. Once in your very "backyard," as a matter of fact--all four B&O six-wheel trucks from the scrapping of Paul's Model RR Shop over in New Oxford, Pa.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/AOTTORC ... 0400543085
"John Schumann
June 26
Recently, the Escanaba & Lake Superior RR scrapped 6 of their Baldwin RS12s. There are still 3 Baldwins on the scrap line-RS12 207, DS-44-660 101, and DS-44-1000 201. The Sharks and RS12 300 are not on the scrap line.
I wanted to provide some info on 101, 201, and 207. ELS has temporarily paused scrapping these units to see if anyone wants to preserve them. This came about from an effort to save 201 for display back in Calumet, MI. The group working on 201 had some big names, but the effort fell through when the non-profit entity that was going to display abruptly pulled out.
Regardless, 101, 201, and 207 are for sale for the scrap price that was bid on them (no adder above scrap). Purchaser can store the unit in Wells MI (their enginehouse area) until they arrange movement. ELS cannot afford to donate anything at this time, so don't ask. Also ELS personnel are swamped right now, and don't need to be barraged with hand wringers and tire kickers.
101 is original ELS; 201 came from Calumet & Hecla, and neither have worked off of the UP since built. 207 was originally Seaboard Coast Line, I believe, but came from Oregon, California & Eastern. These 3 were amongst the last Baldwins to operate on ELS and are basically intact.
I'm putting this out there in the longshot case that someone is interested in preservation I'm not putting it out there for a bunch of discussion of financial state of ELS or how hard it is to preserve anything, why bother, etc. This is Ahead of the Torch, let's talk preservation. Other pages can deal with opinions.
Edit: SMS Rail knows all about these units, and was helpful in getting them a stay of execution. However, SMS is a business with financial considerations, and probably will not be the savior of these."