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Air Force Baldwin is scrap
The S12’s 567 1,200 hp engine could become half the power restored to ex-L&N EMD E6 at the Kentucky Railroad Museum.
My correction: The S12 was a Baldwin. So, its engine would not be appropriate for the said EMD E6.
I was the Transportation Officer at Ogden Air Logistics Center on Hill AFB from May 1975 to June 1979. Both #1863 and #1864 were in use at that time to move Minuteman ICBM missiles to and from Hill AFB to UP connections with the operational missile wings located across the American West. Hill also received hopper cars of coal for its central heating plant. During the Bicentennial in 1976 we asked higher HQ if we could paint one of the engines to celebrate the event. The higher HQ response was “of course” no!. So we looked at #1863, which had just been overhauled and repainted in Air Force Blue Imron paint by the on base Army locomotive rebuild facility, and decided we would not defy our HQ but still celebrate the bicentennial. We turned our packing and crating folks loose and we “clad” #1863 in plywood with Red, white, and blue bicentennial livery. and the Department of the Air Force Seal. Interestingly, for you modelers, Bowser Models has an accurate HO scale model of Bicentennial #1863. I bought one and it is an exact duplicate of #1863. I can only presume that #1863 suffered a fate similar to that of #1864. If she went elsewhere I would be curious as to where. Hope this is helpful.
Colonel Gordon C. Smith, USAF (Ret.)
Murfreesboro TN
Seeing as how this locomotive was bought on the taxpayer’s dime it should have been donated to a worthy group.
Very sad to see. Wish it could have been saved.
Jim Norton: they tried to donate the engine: “The logistics agency also sought to donate it to a suitable home. The cost of moving the locomotive, however, became prohibitive, so 1864 was turned over to Government Liquidation”
The full story, including paragraphs cited verbatim:
https://www.dvidshub.net/news/184030/losing-piece-air-force-history-1864-scrapped#.VnDOHb-8Wcw
Mr. Poynor: Thank you for that information. Makes it even a greater shame to be wanted but unable to be transported. Maybe a little more eagerness to allow friction bearings on the main lines would far and away save more locomotives. And, I doubt we’d see few if any break downs. than occur breakdowns.
Talk about tough, two weeks and it still isn’t completely apart!
Hopefully the prime mover will make it’s way to SMS in New Jersey where it can serve as a valuable parts source.