> There was so much metal debris buried at the
> site, I wonder if a metal detector would
> have been usefull for fine detail locating -
> it might have been overwhelmed by the amount
> of buried stuff.
I seem to recall an old story about the Sacramento Shops that they used worn out locomotives as riprap against the river. Seems that, as a possible toxic site, part of the yard behind the unit shop was excavated and while they didn't find complete locomotives, they did find discarded boilers from the boiler shops. I wonder what happened to the discoveries, possibly a future exhibit?


ironbartom@aol.com

> Looking at Robert J. Church's book "The 4300 4-8-2's" Many of Espee's finest ended their days at: Luria Bros. South San Francisco, Oakland, and Richmond, Luria Bros., National Metals, and Purdy Co. at Los Angeles. Many were cut up at Bayshore, Brooklyn, El Paso, and Sacramento Shops. I personally remember lines of five or six cab forwards with rods off or pistons cut going toward L.A. Harbor down Alameda Street. Also GS and MT class engines.

edwinsinclair@hotmail.com

National Metal & Steel was located on Terminal Island. They were cutting up Amtrak cars in the early 80's as well as World War II US Navy cruisers.

Also quite a few B&O steamers met their maker (literally) at the Mt. Clare Shops where they had been built. Most of this area is now the property of the B&O Railroad Museum. Perhaps arrangements could be made to go through with a metal detector.

B&O Railroad Museum
kevingillespie@usa.net

I overheard of a few possible steam locomotive junkpits in Spencer, and one possibly for the ET in Tennessee, but who knows. Could just be myth and legend.

Spencer Shops
cookiemonster@rrmail.com

ITM has found many examples of the original strap iron rail along our right of way. We have also found examples of early "tear drop" rail. A few years back, the NYC museum in Elkhart was planning a dig at the site of the roundhouse. I don't know if it ever happened, but a lot of the old steam guys said they remember wrapping tools and such in oilrags before they got buried in the old inspection pits.

Mike

Indiana Transportation Museum
masticke@indiana.edu

> I pulled out "Iron Horses of the Santa Fe Trail" by E.D. Worley just for fun. Looks like Luria Bros., George T. Cook Co., Erman-Howell Divn., Hyman-Michaels Co., Purdy Co., Briggs & Turivas Inc., and Merchants Steel & Supply were the main scrapping contractors that Santa Fe dealt with for most of the 4-8-4, 2-10-4, 4-6-4, 4-8-2, and 2-10-2 types. Some were cut up at Topeka, Albuquerque, and even Calwa (Fresno, Ca.). I'm sure there were many other locations as well. It would be interesting to know how many (total number nationwide) steam engines were put to the torch by Luria Bros. alone.


edwinsinclair@hotmail.com

In the early 1950's I lived along the PRR Trenton Cutoff near Plymouth Meeting PA. For a several month period one year westbound freights had LIRR 2-8-0's, 4-6-0's, steam switchers and NH everything steam sandwiched between freight cars. Always assumed they were headed to Modena PA just south of Coatesville. Modena has a HUGE yard there and many similar locos were seen there waiting to be cut up. Reading steam was scrapped there in large numbers. Most of the camelbacks were scrapped there.They also cut up L&NE locos and later in the 1970's after all the steam was gone I saw a lot of PRR passenger cars there. In the 1950's you could get bells, front number plates and headlights there for a nominal price if you got there before they torched it off and dropped it on the ground. A friend in Conshohocken has piles of the stuff. Wouldn't want to guess what's in the ground there.......
Dave S.

MT14L@aol.com

The SR&RL was mainly scrapped at the RR's shops in Phillips, then the rest was scrapped at the connection with the Maine Central in Farmington. SR&RL #24 was saved, only to be scrapped a couple years later, just hours before Linwood Moody came around to buy it. Many cars were bought locally, to be saved by Edaville or even in recent years bought by the Sandy River RR group in Phillips.

The Monson's equipment was most likely all scrapped at the transfer yard with the Bangor & Aroostook, at Monson Jct. Only the locomotives inexplicably survived to be bought by Ellis Atwood for Edaville.

The Kennebec Central sat around for 5 years or so before being scrapped. The passenger cars sat in the old yard at Randolph for even longer, before being destroyed in a flood. One car drifted away never to be seen again.

The Bridgton & Harrison had a scrapping party in the late '30s to pay off their debts, in the yard at Bridgton. When they shut down the remainder of the equipment was moved to the junction with the MEC awaiting Ellis Atwood's purchase. Some it was scrapped anyway.

The WW&F sat around for 4 years before being scrapped. Most of the scrapping took place in Wiscasset yard, while much of the equipment elsewhere sat in place until rotting away or being apprehended as farmer's sheds. The site of the Wiscasset yard is now a ball field (with the turntable pit under right field), but explorations beyond the fence reveal an old locomotive tank (much rotted), and we discovered the pits to the roundhouse a few weeks back.

WW&F Railway Museum
jcpatten@lincoln.midcoast.com

Luntz Brothers in Warren, OH scrapped some steam power. I have photos of B&O EM-1s in Deforest Junction on their way up the B&O Lake Main to the Luntz yard. And if anyone is wondering where the first PRR K4, 1737 met its fate, it was at Luntz. At the time a fan noticed her on the way to the yard and managed to acquire the left side main rod bearing stamped LSMR 1737, and right now it is preserved by a rail organization in the area.

I never did find any steam related artifacts, although I did find and save a very old knuckle type coupler, pre AAR and pre Sharon.

As for Luntz I was very interested in what arrived in gons from CSXT when they cleaned out a shope complex. I remember seeing carloads of machinery, welders, lathes, milling machines, etc.in apparently good condition heading to Luntz.

Tod Engine Foundation
rick@todengine.org

National metals in the Long Beach harbor cut up quite a few steamers as late as the 60s. I saw a line of the SP 3800s sitting in the national metals yard during that time. The numbers and road name had been painted out but the engines heritage and class were obvious. National also was busy cutting up many navy cruisers during the 70s, another sad sight.

Robert@trainorders.com

James,

If you guys ever get around to digging the old roundhouse area up and seeing what is lost in the weeds please post your findings. Is there any chance that you could post a few pictures of the old site and the rusting tank on the WW&F website? Over on the SV, we recently discovered the site of the old Austin engine house, and a friend and I are going to take a metal detector and see whats there, hopefully we'll find some good stuff.

Thanks, Taylor

thrush@smt-net.com

> If you guys ever get around to digging the
> old roundhouse area up and seeing what is
> lost in the weeds please post your findings.

I'm hoping to get permission at some point to go out behind the ball fence and clear away all the underbrush so that we can see the physical layout of it all. I wouldn't dare go digging too much because the kids could still get out there and disturb things.

I'd also like to get permission to get that loco tank back to the Museum. We think it's the tank to #1 because it doesn't have a coal bunker.

WW&F Railway Museum
jcpatten@lincoln.midcoast.com

The Northern Pacific scrapped several steamers at the South Tacoma Shops.
Most of the old complex is just open field now.


crisolite@aol.com