Railroad Forums 

  • Private equipment collection at Colonie and Glenmont

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New York State.
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New York State.

Moderator: Otto Vondrak

 #1397325  by traingeek8223
 
Last I checked (which was a while ago) there was no plan in place. Local management needs to change at the power plant before any of this stuff can feasibly be removed.
 #1397333  by nessman
 
I'll tell you this - power plants are very security and safety sensitive these days (I know - I work at one) and outsiders with no business interest to PSEG are generally unwanted and unwelcomed. Because the equipment is no longer on PSEG's property and that particular siding they need is essentially gone - the power plant management has zero interest in restoring the tracks... and direction from corporate up above is likely the same regardless of local management's wishes. Corporate legal/risk management's thinking is along the lines of "not our problem, off our property, anything we do to help the railroad museum puts us at risk - so no. My guess is (looking at aerial photos) is the switch into the property is gone as well, and the tracks going the other way are long out of service (with a bridge so deteriorated that I wouldn't even walk across) - and railroad corporate / legal / risk management is on the same page as PSEG.

Costs. Reconnecting / restoring tracks by itself - and you're well into the 6-figure range (union labor at power plants isn't cheap). Those tracks haven't been used since the old Albany Steam Station there stopped burning coal back in the 90's. Because no railroad will ever let those things move on their own wheels, you're pushing 7 figures to crane those things onto low-boys and move them out either via special trucks or rail cars - assuming you can get the railroad to reconnect the siding for them.

Then there's insurance, etc... etc...

So yes - there is no plan. There never will be a plan because no one is going to pony up probably close to $2 million to move what is essentially $200,000 worth of scrap metal. Simply easier to let them sit on someone else's property - because even preparing the area to get equipment in to scrap and remove the equipment (along with any remediation costs - oil, asbestos, etc...) would cost more than they would get for the scrap value of the equipment.
 #1397454  by RussNelson
 
The bridge could be restored to operation. Any competent house-mover could jack it up and replace the rotten pieces. The missing rails on the north side could be put back. That gets you to a road where you could put them on trailers. All those things you could get an estimate for, and do a gofundme or kickstarter or whatever. If you can't get the money, then you give up on the idea.

They're not going out through the power plant end. That door closed decades ago.
 #1397581  by nessman
 
RussNelson wrote:The bridge could be restored to operation. Any competent house-mover could jack it up and replace the rotten pieces. The missing rails on the north side could be put back. That gets you to a road where you could put them on trailers. All those things you could get an estimate for, and do a gofundme or kickstarter or whatever. If you can't get the money, then you give up on the idea.
US Army Corps of Engineers, US Coast Guard, EPA and NYSDEC (for starters) would disagree. One of those engines causes that bridge to collapse and you're done. Even if it could happen, again - we're well into the deep 6-figure range here. You'll be lucky of you get $20-30,000 from a fundraiser.
They're not going out through the power plant end. That door closed decades ago.
That I think we can all agree on.
 #1397599  by YamaOfParadise
 
Well, it depends what good things you want. Even if some of them have some questionable decision-making at times (*cough*CoE*cough*), they're all incorporated for good things on a much grander and more important scale. I can't fault the decision-making/risk management even if I wish it wasn't working against this.
 #1397602  by lvrr325
 
Bridge is out because the piers, abutments, are damaged, sunken, millions of dollars to repair to move 8 pieces of crap and then take it out never to use again.

Even if you put some culvert pipe in and backfilled it as a supprt, then dug it all back out, expensive, expensive.

That's where the barge idea came from. crane on the barge can anchor down and load or it can be set up to the bank next to the bridge and the track altered to meet it. Much less work. Therefore much cheaper.
 #1397650  by Sir Ray
 
Gentlemen, you are simply not thinking out of the box. These babies will handle150 tonnes and should have enough internal space to haul the locomotives in question. Maybe Americans can convince Putin to lend them out for a few days as a goodwill gesture. (yes, yes, yes..."Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads")

That silliness aside, searching quickly thru the 30+ pages of this thread I couldn't find - who owns the land the equipment is currently located at?
 #1397689  by BR&P
 
Sounds like there is no practical way to move the stuff. The most practical of the IMpractical ideas would be to disassemble everything down to the last nut and bolt, take it all out in pieces, then re-assemble it elsewhere. And I'm sure THAT'S not going to happen, either.
 #1397726  by RussNelson
 
BR&P wrote:Sounds like there is no practical way to move the stuff. The most practical of the IMpractical ideas would be to disassemble everything down to the last nut and bolt, take it all out in pieces, then re-assemble it elsewhere. And I'm sure THAT'S not going to happen, either.
They've already been half-disassembled anyway, and is currently being stored in the garages of railfans all over the NorthEast.
lvrr325 wrote:Bridge is out because the piers, abutments, are damaged, sunken, millions of dollars to repair to move 8 pieces of crap and then take it out never to use again.
Have you been there?
 #1412181  by Sir Ray
 
Ironman wrote:Looks like a new bridge will be built. Link to TWC News 9: http://www.twcnews.com/nys/capital-regi ... oject.html
Hold on...from that link:
The roughly 115-foot span was crossed by a railroad trestle for decades, but the old bridge was abandoned in the 1980s and collapsed into the water in Jan. 2016. Canadian Pacific Railroad, which owned the right-of-way in that area, removed the ruins of the bridge
Is this the same bridge we've been discussing for years - the one in Russ's images? Did it collapse this past January, so that all the talk in the later spring posts of rehabilitating it were already moot?
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