Hi, I know as much about Locos as my wife does about cars and that isn’t much. The RR is a short line that goes by my office every day. It also has a working relationship with CSX. I’m working on a new layout (1st.) and I want to have Locos that the W&W RR and CSX use. Any help identifying this one will be appreciated.
Thanks, Bob
That is a GP9. Click this link for more info.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=91483&showexif=1
Hey J-W, Thanks for idendifying the engine but I never expected to see the train. The GP9 is pulling hoppers full of sand. The train is owned by the Unimin Corp in MA. Unimin has a glass sand mine about 15 miles West of Winchester and that white stuff youe\ see on the ground is sand.
They have another power unit used ia a consist which is quite unusal and if I can get a pic I’ll post it. It’s only used occasionally.
Bob
Bob, take a ride west on 50 one day to GORE, VA (right near WV line). The WINCHESTER & WESTERN engine house is at the lowest point in town (very easy to find). I was passing through there last week, and they had the long hood of a GP-9 sitting out on blocks. It’s a neat little short-line that meanders up to Hagerstown to interchange with the big boys.
Hi fifedog, Well, I was surprised when jefferywimberley sent a link showing the W&W with a string of hoppers so I shouldn’t be surprised to hear from some one who has actually visited the train shop. I’m pretty familiar with this RR. It enters Winchester and connects with CSX, formerly B&O and them proceeds down the CSX main line and then switches to the crossing in the pic where it goes on to what use to be PRR track, now CSX, The CSX mainline is about 50 yards behind where I took the pic.
I’m definetly going to ride out and pay the site a visit and check out the sand mine as well. jeffery might be interested seeing the engine on blocks as he just placed an out of service steamer on his layout. Did you happen to take any pictures?
Do you travel Rt 50 often?
Thanks for the reply,
Bob
[
My younger sister lives in Winchester and had told me about the railroad there. She’s not much into trains but she told me enough to get me interested.
Sorry, all my pictures are in slide format (haven’t gone digital yet). Seeing that “shell” resting outside the Gore engine house was interesting. The long hood looked rather light, as if I could walk up and lift it. Would make a neat scene on a layout. A lot of old first generation geeps and alcos have wound up on the WW. It certainly would be a cool subject to model, and it traverses some pretty countryside.
I go across 50 about 4-6 times a year to visit family in Mineral Co. Hope to live out that way in the near future. After you visit Gore (kinda sounds like a John Allen town), head west about 30 minutes to Romney, and visit MY favorite shortline, the SOUTH BRANCH VALLEY!
Hello Jeffery,
Well this thread is getting more unbelievable all the time what with your sister living here. I’ll be sure to have my facts straight about the W&W cause she may know more about it than I do. Some time ago I bought a National Railway Bulletin on eBay that gave the history of the W & W. There’s some history about it that isn’t fit to print. The old story of truth being stranger than fiction. Today I googled the NRB and you can buy back issues and it seems like you can down load current issues but I couldn’t do it. The one I bought is quite interesting with a lot of pictures.
If I get any more pics of the W&W I’ll post them.
Bob
I found a couple of other pictures of engines on the Winchester and Western at Gore, Virginia last summer. This is listed as a MT4 on their website and is a slug unit used with a GP-9 most of the time. The cab was added so they would not have to turn the engines on the return trip to Gore. Will try to post the rest if I can get this computer to work right.
That looks like an old RS2 or maybe even an RS1.
Didn’t WW have an RS-11 at one time? could that be it (or, what’s left of it)?
That’s a real interesting picture. I’ve seen this engine recently minus the cab and was going to ask what the h— it was. Now I know. Still, if Iget a pic I’ll post it. Now it is really is just a “B” unit. The W & W has quite a history including murder and financial blackmail. I better say ALLEDGEDLY.
Bob
I think that they had two RS-11 at one time but have not seen them in a while. There is another Slug unit with no cab behind the shops that I believe was one of the RS-11’s, it is on a siding surrounded by weeds and tree’s but it has a new black paint job. I tried to get pictures last summer but did not want to go that far on the property without permission. They have one place in West Virginia that they park the units for the weekend and I drove by today and there was three GP-9’s one Gp-10 and the MT-4 slug unit sitting there. But again I would have to trespass to get good photo’s. I am going to get my 35 mm camera out of mothballs and the telephoto lens and try . It’s a pain doing it that way but my digital camera doesn’t do very good on telephoto. Jim
Hey Jim,
It was just last week that I saw the slug and it was painted bright yellow and was with the GP9. By the way in your picture you can see what a good job they did painting their track. Looks almost as good as some of our forum members [lol]
Bob
That slug looks like a cut-down Alco RS11 body. The notches in the corner are very distinctive. The cab looks like an EMD SW1500 cab, and the trucks are EMD Blomberg. Would make a heck of a modeling project.
[(-D]A real life kit-bash![(-D]
Well, here are a couple of more pictures showing the “slug”. I was lucky today because the consist made two passes. the first time when the whistle blew I grabbed the camera and ran out and took a couple of shots. When I got back inside I found I hadn’t turned the camera on, nothing like having a second chance. I’m sure there is a “slug” without a cab unless it was put on in the last two weeks which I doubt
Bob
What is a slug unit? I saw #120 again today but for the first time I saw an engineer in the cab with a GP? behind.
Bob
Superbe
A slug unit is a engine that has had the diesel engine removed and then they either weld steel plate or pour concrete where the engine was located. They mu the slug to the power unit a GP-9 in this case and draw power from that unit to power the traction motors on the slug. This increases the traction due to the fact that you now have eight traction motors pulling and only have the fuel and cost of one diesel motor. It’s not great for speed, but works great for pulling heavy trains at a lower to medium speed. They can controll the powered unit from the cab of 120 and I think that is rare for a slug unit. The other slug shows the number 1007 in the number board but has the number 10 painted on the side had worn down wheels and is supposed to have the wheels replaced and be put in operation soon. That was the black cabless unit that was parked behind the shop at Gore. Jim