I was having a relatively decent day today and then I went onto Railpictures.net and then saw this photo of several old BN E-9 commuter units being scrapped…what a real bummer for somebody who spent years watching these venerable units pound up and down the “racetrack”…may they live in memory forever.
If things (and people) didn’t die, why would we celebrate and embrace life?
That is a bummer. You’d think that maybe a historical society would maybe appropriate one or two, and renovate them.[:(]
I don’t know which is worse, seeing what I just saw in this picture, or seeing a historic locomotive, whether it be steam or diesel, sitting in a park and taking a lot of abuse from worthless punks who get their kicks out of vandalizing things. There is a former BN U-Boat, possibly an x-CB&Q unit, in a park in Gillette, Wyoming which I photographed a few years ago and it is in sad, sad shape. It’s headlights are gone and the cab was heavily vandalized.[:(][:(!][sigh]
CANADIANPACIFIC2816
Ya just think what the SD40-2’s and the SD70MAC’s will go through when their time is up.[:(]
Look on the bright side.
All that steel might just be recycled into some nice new six-axle superpower locos.
Chuck
They were old friends for me, too. No diesels made today are as beautiful as the EMD E and F units, the Alco PA’s and DL-109’s, and the Baldwin Sharks. They may be much better locomotives, today, but they cannot hold a candle as far as looks go. To relieve your sadness, though, take a look at the photograph in the March TRAINS of the restored to PRR paint of the two E-units on the disabled veteran’s Army-Navy game special. A beautiful photograph of a beautiful idea beatifully implemented.
How about that Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio loco.
[%-)] Wow rrnut282, that is just way too deep for me this early in the morning, perhaps after a second mug of coffee?
Sorry, I was already on my third cup when I wrote that. [swg]
Seeing the pictures from a scrap yard is a useful reminder that nothing lasts forever. I got a similar taste when I saw BRC’s C424’s and S6 out of service at Clearing pending sale. Most of them were sold for further service but that wasn’t guaranteed at the time. I quickly made my peace with the fact that BRC was modernizing its motive power and now I enjoy watching SD40/slug sets on the hump, RC-equipped GP38-2’s, SW1500’s and MP15’s in pulldown duty and SD40’s or paired GP38-2’s on transfers. The Alcos and cow-calves are gone, but I still enjoy watching BRC perform.
It’s not all bad news though.
On the bright side there are, literally, a bunch of E8s and some E9s that have been saved from the scrappers torch. Unfortunately those two prime movers under the carbody make E units very expensive locomotives to maintain.
Remember the New York Central E units that were in that railroad museum in Tennessee? The museum could not afford to maintain them and are now with another owner.
I think I know how you feel as I’m an E unit fan myself.
I agree that the covered wagon units were among the most beautful locomotives ever to run in any railroad’s livery. E’s, F’f, PA’s FA’s, DL’s. I understand the reasoning for the GP hood designs for freight but why couldn’t the newer passenger units be made to look like the earlier units. Why could AMTRAK not have ordered a cab unit that didn’t look like an aardvark ? I mean does a modern passenger locomotive have to be ugly to operate efficiently ?
I agree. If I am ever in a position of influence and need to order passenger diesel locomotives, I assure you I will do everything possible to make them look like E or F units with bulldog noses or like E5’s and E6’s with the longer slant version.
Price is the reason why it won’t happen, even for you. The compound curves of the bulldog nose are difficult to fabricate and include a fair amount of body putty in the final product. Alco’s flat nose, on the other hand, was designed with assembly practices in mind.
Jim, when and where was that taken?
I know that a few of the BN E9s were preserved. I guess we should be thankful for the rebuilding program that extended the lifetime of all of them in the 1970s or 1980s.
What year were these taken out of service? All at one time? What replaced these?
I, too, like the looks of the EMD E7s and it’s brethren; something right and pleasing about the lines they have. The earlier E6s, and the others with the slanty noses, seem a bit too ‘snooty’, sort of aristocratic.
But for rugged beauty, the ALCO PAs stand alone. I was modeling the steam era on my HO scale railroad, but I just had to have an Athearn PA. It’s not in GM&O colors but it does sport the ATSF Warbonnet scheme, a railroad that was involved significantly in my travels and work locations, Illinois and New Mexico.
Art
August 1997 at NRE in Silvis, IL
Here they are on a much better day in 1992…oh the memories!
n