The latest Rutland RR Historical Society "Newsliner," reports that the Green Mtn. Ry has reacquired former D&H Alco S-4 #3050. The GMRC had originally purchased the 3050 from the D&H in 1969, and eventually sold her to Bombardier in Barre, VT in 1988 where she was renumbered. The GMRC will reportedly give the S-4 back her old D&H number.

This got me thinking. I was recently given a pristine copy of Shaugnessy's "The Rutland Road" by a very good friend who knew I was hunting for one. (Thanks, Steve!) In the book, several Rutland RS-3 were sold to the Louisville & Nashville in the early 1960's.

Does anyone know if any survived?

I think they were all traded in on Century 420s (or maybe on U-25s) about 1965-67. RMNE sure would have liked to have one-- if there was one loose out there, we probably would already have it!

L&N also picked up the L&NE FA-1 fleet, ran them for a few years, and traded them in, too.

HP

Steve,

Looking for the "unkown" piece fo the Rutland and the L&NE is a passion of mine.

The best online accounting of Rut equipment are the roster pages of Jim Dufour's Remembering the Rutland site: http://users.rcn.com/jimdu4/

Current info, in short, the only known Rutland locomotives relatively intact are RS-1's.

400: Arkansas & Missouri - was for sale last year
401: On display at the Saginaw Michigan Railway Museum
402: On display at the Coopersville & Marne in Michigan
405: Green Mountain Railroad

There is some controversy about whether #404 still exists at Champion International Paper in Deferiet, NY. I have not been able to get up there yet. Scotty Chaos, how about you?

The RS-3's are all believed to be traded in by the L&N, but as we all know, that doesn't mean one didn't escape. So far, no one has found that to be true.

All evidence points to the 70-tonner being cut up as well.

I won't go into the Rutland rolling stock list. A lot of derlict pieces have been preserved and/or restored the past 10 years, while only a handful have been cut up, so it has been pretty positive.


And what about the LNE? Well, one 0-6-0 and one S-2 are well known, but apparently the railfan rumour mill about the RS-2's going down on a ship were not ture, and some would up in Mexico. Now there's a hunt to go on...

Rob

Stupid question, but maybe RMNE would be willing to work a trade with Saginaw? I know Saginaw has an ex-GT GP-9, but potentially a suitable unit of either C&O or GT heritage (or piece of equipment) could be worked out to return one of these ex-Rutland queens "home"?

Nah ---- me and my crazy ideas again...

TJ Gaffney

no, I havent been there personally yet, I might be able to make it up that way this summer though.

I will pop a note on the NY forum about it and see if anyone can score a photo.

Scot

Thanks, Howard --et al,

I knew it was a longshot, but I had to ask.

I must admit I like TJ's idea though... :-)

Quite a bit of Rutland rolling stock left, though some has succumbed in recent years, due to lack of interest. My understanding of the 404 was that the paper mill sent it to Selkirk for some repairs back in the late-1980s. Of course few of the mechanics and electricians there had ever seen such a beast and told the mill management it was unfixable, thus it was dispatched to Naparano, where it remained for a while and was actually made operable for a time for switching scrap. There was a very brief, halfhearted discussion in Vermont about trying to save it for display, which died about as soon as it started. I never heard its fate after that, but suspect it was butchered in New Jersey. I'd be happy to hear otherwise.

Presently in dispute is the Bennington Branch of the Rutland, which went down to Chatham, NY before 1953. The remaining four mile stub from North Bennington to Bennington is now mostly overgrown, but still intact. A trails group wants it badly, and will probably get it, though Vermont Rail Systems (which holds the lease from the state) has shown no interest in cooperating with the trails people. It has two restored depots at either end, is reasonably scenic,and could make a cute Strasburg-like tourist operation if developed.

Attempts to interest people in saving the branch (probably with motorcar operation at first) drew zilch interest from Rutland enthusiasts on a couple of Rutland internet discussion groups, which pretty much parallels my experience with other fairly simple, inexpensive preservation projects in Vermont. Everybody was too busy taking pictures and building models to try to save the real thing...

sorry, but it looks very likely that RS1 #404 is no longer with us.
She was spotted at Naporano 15 years ago, and no one has seen her since..
99% chance she has been scrapped.

I must have got old information on her for my NY alco list.
sadly, I will remove her from the list.


http://64.78.30.219/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12807

Scot