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Diesel Days features rare Fairbanks-Morse
The Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum in Rush, N.Y., celebrated its annual Diesel Days on August 15 and 16. One of the featured locomotives was former U.S. Army No. 1843, a beefy Fairbanks-Morse H12-44. Part of a fl eet of units built for the Army in 1953, No. 1843 spent most of its career working the nearby Seneca Army Depot in Romulus, N.Y., until it was retired in 1993. This opposed-piston diesel is one of the few operating F-Ms in the East, providing occasional service on the museum’s demonstration railway.
PHOTO BY PETE SWANSON
First Catskill Visit for Viscose No. 6
The New York Central phased out steam on its Catskill Mountain Branch in 1949, replacing Ten-wheelers with a fl eet of Alco RS1s. A visit from Viscose No. 6 on August 8 and 9 marked the fi rst return of steam on the line now operated by the Catskill Mountain Railroad Co., seen passing milepost K26 at Mount Tremper, N.Y. Privately owned, the No. 6 is a Baldwin 0-4-0 built in 1924 for American Viscose Company, of Roanoke, Va. Acquired by Scott Symans in 2004, the locomotive was completely rebuilt and has been hosted on dozens of lines around the Northeast since 2007.
PHOTO BY KEANE MAHER
Part of a fleet of 12 General Electric
EL-C electric locomotives built new for the Virginian Railway in 1955, the units were passed on to Norfolk & Western following merger in 1959. The electric system was shut down in 1962 and the locomotives became surplus. The nearly-new units were sold to the
New Haven in 1963, which immediately put them to work hauling freight. Designated class EF-4, the workhorses continued on for new owner Penn Central in 1969 as class E33. Renumbered into the 4600 series, they carried the same designation into the Conrail years after 1976. While Conrail operated extensive freight service under wires in former New Haven and Pennsylvania Railroad territory, the end came in 1979. After years of sitting in storage, the units were sent to GE as trade-in credits on new diesels in 1982.
The Railroad Museum of New England, which at the time was based in Essex, Conn., acquired No. 4601 from GE in 1987. Delivered in 1988, former New Haven No. 300 joined a growing collection of equipment representing railroads from all over the region. RMNE relocated to Thomaston, Conn., in 1996. The deal to find a new home for the venerable electric was struck in 2010 when RMNE was faced with vacating the last of its storage space in Old Saybrook. Representatives of IRM made inquiries about adding the E33 to their extensive roster of traction equipment. Realizing that the scope of the RMNE collection had changed over the years, an agreement was reached with IRM. A second E33 is preserved at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke, cosemtically restored as Virginian Railway No. 135. —O.M.V.
FP9s to Texas State
On July 9, Texas State Railroad, which is operated by Iowa Pacific, took delivery of a pair of ex-Canadian National/VIA Rail FP9s. The units were acquired from Larry’s Truck & Electric of Ohio, and are ex-CN 6308 (built in 1957) and CN 6533 (built in 1958). In the mid-1980s, both were rebuilt
by VIA Rail and renumbered 6308 and 6303, the same numbers they carried after being sold to shortline Georgia Southwestern, which used them beginning for both passenger excursions and regular freight runs out of Columbus, Ga. When Georgia Southwestern was acquired by Genesee & Wyoming in 2008, the Fs were retired and sold in 2011 to Larry’s Truck & Electric. The units will be painted in vintage Texas & Pacific colors.
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