Anyone here remember Pielet Bros.?

General
1

Does anyone here remember Pielet Bros.?

The company that was known for cutting up hundreds of diesel locomotives in Illinois. The most common division was McCook, but they also had Joliet, Chicago and LaGrange.

I wonder if there are any footage or even public domain photos showing the scrapping of the locomotives.

Its last name was B&B Scrap until it went defunct.

Don’t know what year it was founded, since one claim suggests it was first founded in the late 1940s (either 1946, 1947, 1948 or 1949). The history behind this popular scrapyard is complicated.

I even have an entire list of locomotives that were cut up there.
https://diesel-locomotives.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_diesel_locomotives_scrapped_by_B%26B_Scrap

2

They had a policy that any locomotive that passed into their possession would only leave as scrap.

3

You sure about that?

How come these locomotives escaped Pielet?

  • D&RGW 142 and 144
  • C&NW 4100, 4102, 4107, 4135, 4141, 4144, 4206 and 4209
  • SP 4390
  • D&RGW 141
  • C&NW 6628
4

These are the names that Pielet had from start to finish.

  • Pielet Brothers Scrap Iron & Metal Company
  • Pielet Brothers Trading Company
  • St. Louis Auto Shredding
  • Illinois Scrap Processing Company
  • Scrap Service Company
  • Scrap Corporation of America
  • Midwest Metallics
  • B&B Scrap
5

I would guess by the time of St. Louis Auto Shredding the Pielet Brothers had been scrapped (deceased) themselves.

6

A friend and I drove to McCook for EMD’s 50th Anniversary open house. I remember we went past Pielet and saw a road that went in. We paused there and I believe they were cutting up Santa Fe Alco PA’s. They stopped and stared at us and we got out of there.

7

When was this? 1972?

8

The open house was September 9th, 1972.