In the late 80's, maybe early nieties, I know CSX ran a couple trains that was entirely made up of old C&O/B&O/Chessie/Seaboard/etc.. first generation locomotives (mostly GP9's) either to or from CUmberland for scrapping. I recall having seen some photos of the trains a few years back online of literally hundreds of rusty and beat to heck locomotived sitting in a near-abandoned yard near Cumberland or Huntington. Does anyone have any pictures or know of any websites of these trains or yard/graveyard shots? Thanks.
Back in May 1981 I took a week off & railfanned in the Midwest, and shot dead engines in Council Bluffs and Oelwein, IA. Both yards (UP and CNW, repsectively) had scads of stored Rock Island locomotives, and the Oelwein yard, besides having the CNW shops, had a boatload of stored Geeps and Fs. All shots are on Kodachrome slide, so I unfortunately can't post them here. I've posted stored & derelict diesels in my shortlines albums in Railimages. Also, check out my Oregon Shortlines album for stored & derelict critters in & around Portland.
I found this shot of Chessie Geeps in storage in the early 80s: http://www.trainweb.org/chessiephotos/photos/cushops/cu03.jpg
O.K... stop harassing me. I can't find the original to scan because I DO have 1000's of photos to look thru However, I will post a smaller and poorer old scan that I have just to prove they existed.
I wonder what parts were saved from locomotives when they are scrapped..trucks? Good wheels? Batteries? Air horns?
A lot of the GP16's went to the secondary market and were picked up by various short lines. With the formation of CSX, they suddenly had tons of GP38's, GP38-2's, GP40's, GP40-2's and other newer locos, so these became surplus. One of the local shortlines, Aberdeen Carolina & Western, just recently sent their remaining GP16's away too. Harold
I would imagine the locos are stripped of any parts in decent shape, or parts that can be refurbed for the used loco parts market. Anything else not needed would be cut up for scrap.
In 1980 I did a railfan trip to Chicago, and got treated to two 'deadlines' that stunned me. This was right after the Rock Island bankruptcy and the Milwaukee Road retrenchment. The first was at Blue Island yard, where just about every Rock Island SD40 - in red and yellow paint - was all line up in a row ready to go somewhere. It would have probably been the disposition line for the lessee, but the units were still in surprisingly rough shape. The entire yard was stuffed solid of old Rock cars, home for disposition. Later that same day, took in Bensenville, where the surviving Milwaukee F's were all lined up, and stuck in the line was a Milwaukee FP45, one of I think three. The lead unit on that dead line ended up going to a tourist railroad - I think the Indiana Transportation Museum in Noblesville. So it's not always as sad as it seems. Right now there's big slews of old six-axles biting the dust, and few seem to notice or care. GP's are popular again, mostly as Green Goat frames, and the market price has shot right up again for anything on eight wheels that can be converted. Somebody at Railpower ought to be tormented with that CSXT shot.
