Amtrak AEM-7 arrives in Strasburg

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Amtrak AEM-7 arrives in Strasburg

It would have been more interesting for one of the Strasburg’s steam engines to drag it to Strasburg!

Good to see an original AEM7DC go into preservation. Hopefully 915 won’t be the only survivor of this fleet when all is said and done, and it would be nice to see one preserved operational. We don’t do a good job at preserving our electric equipment in the States, as over in Europe, you can still find historical electrics on charters.

At stasburg right now. 915 is in the railroad museum yard coupled to the E60.

This much foresight in preservation should have been given to the Alco PA’s and PB’s before their numbers dwindled in the 1960’s. In the middle 20th century, total attention in railway preservation was on steam locomotives.

Norfolk Southern’s predecessor Southern Railway had the last six Alco PA’s built that could have been saved. I was fortunate that some of them pulled the trains I rode. And, that I was photographed with one of them in Huntsville, Alabama in 1958 when I was 6 years old. Trains had a colour photograph of an Alco PA-3 pulling Southern’s No. 35 that same year through the mountains west of Chattanooga on the cover of the May 1978 issue.

What a unique unit to preserve. I remember these as a child in Aberdeen, Md., fond memories. Thanks RRMP for wanting to save this.

The only pretty electric in my pinyin is the EP5. Are there any survivors out there?

A meatball is now a museum piece. I need a hit of Geritol… maybe make it a double.

Daniel,
and maybe a double hit of that Vegam… whatever,that Australian stuff is?

This makes me feel very old.

Has to be the ugliest loco in the country.

Ugliest in the country? Naw, I think that would be the GE Genesis diesel. The Alco C415 center-cab switcher is no looker either. Maybe someday they’ll restore it’s original paint scheme, which I thought looked rather nice. But given it’s still in excellent condition, I’m sure they have higher priorities.

current Amtrak orders are ANY loco donated is stripped of anything that can make it run. I.E. transformer, main breaker and Traction motors. This policy has been in effect since the retirement of the GG-1’s, E44’s and the E60.

I am wondering if Strasburg will repaint “Mighty Mouse” back to its original colors?

All 10 EP5’s were scrapped long ago, I believe in a small yard that used to exist in Guilford, Connecticut (CT). I was told that one was offered to the Railroad Museum of New England (RMNE) that, at that time, was located at The Valley Railroad in Essex, CT, but was refused because it was determined to be “Too new” for their collection and had “little historical value”. What a shame!!! I believe that the only remaining pieces that still exist are a couple of nose doors. The last I knew, one belongs to a railfan in Wallingford, CT and another, I believe, to a member of the RMNE now located in Thomaston, CT.

Mr. Reid, I think the Acela Exp. loco looks kind of cool.

Mr. Kerner, what’s “Mighty Mouse”?

My first rail trip in America, in 1989, was from New York to Philadelphia and then on to Washington DC behind these engines, so I’m glad one is being preserved.