How many NW5's are left?

How many NW5's are left and where are they?

Another NW5 is on display at the Florida Gulf Coast Railroad Museum at Parrish, FL (near Bradenton/Sarasota, FL). This unit started out with the Fort Street Union Depot in Detroit, MI, then to the Mississippi Export RR, and later to the Gardinier Phosphate Company in the Tampa, FL area. Gardinier was acquired by the Cargill Corporation, and the NW5 became Cargill # 61. Cargill retired # 61, and donated it to the FGC RR Museum.

Keep 'em rolling!

ACLfan

Anyone know if the Mass. Central NW5 is still operational?

I had great joy scrapping former Great Northern 189 in 1990 while working at a steel mill. That pile of junk cost me more nights sleep than any engine I had ever worked on. ..................and the best part was I got to replace it with an Alco S2.


Alcodoc

I had great joy scrapping former Great Northern 189 in 1990 while working at a steel mill. That pile of junk cost me more nights sleep than any engine I had ever worked on. ..................and the best part was I got to replace it with an Alco S2

*cries*

alcodoc wrote:I had great joy scrapping former Great Northern 189 in 1990 while working at a steel mill. That pile of junk cost me more nights sleep than any engine I had ever worked on. ..................and the best part was I got to replace it with an Alco S2.


Alcodoc

Having family that worked for the GN and BN and myself working for the BNSF I take offense to your comment. I feel that all locomotives of that era are worthy of restoration. Your comment sounds like something a foamer would say and you probably dont have any friends who are real railroaders. Nobody who is in this hobby should have great joy of scrapping a locomotive of any kind.

I know Alcodoc personally, and can vouch for the fact that he is not a foamer. As far as his not having any friends that are real railroaders, well, he is the full-time CMO of a railroad that has quite a few nice Alcos, and I'm sure he has friends at work-

I am aware of some of the problems that the 189 had, and, believe me, it wasn't worth keeping around. It was a really "used -up" mill engine. And whan your boss tells you to cut something up, you do it.

Be careful about who you throw stones at.

Thats cool but I still wouldnt find great joy cutting up a lococmotive of any kind.

Cutting up locomotives in inevitable. We can't save all of them, and it's a form of recycling. I'm all for preservation, but if a locomotive is going to be saved rather than scrapped, and then left to rot on a siding somewhere without being run ever again, while getting all rusty, then maybe it's better that it be scrapped. The steel would be put toward something useful and some of the parts could be used to help keep similar engines running.

I think everyone understands that, but would you enjoy having to cut one up ?

Having walked around At Mandak metals(a scrap/recycling facility that scraps alot of locomotives/rolling stock) numerous times, I can definatley say it isn't very enjoyable for a railfan. On one visit in the mid '90's, I was surrounded by former CN C630M's in various states of scrapping...the photos show it well.....I have one in which a mountain of cabs and hood sections has been built...fairly morose stuff. There were about 15-20 present, with one, 2042 still sitting outside the gates intact. I spent quite a long time climbing around on the 2042, in relatively fresh paint, and sitting in the engineers seat, knowing the end was near, and realizing what an undignified end to 25+ years of hard work, why couldn't someone save this veteran. 2 days later, I watched them cut up the last sections of 2042's frame, and load the trucks for their trip to GE to be re-used under the C40-8's then under construction. The Nathan Airchime horns now sound from the roof of my garage every new years eve. I also watched a line of about 12 VIA F9B's meet their fate around the same time. It's interesting, but definatley not fun to watch once proud machines meet the torch.

You know, I understand the feeling everybody here shares about once proud machines going under the scrapper's torch. It's a shame that the pride and joy of men and women of yesterday is the pots and pans of men and women today. However, another group I'm a member of - the Yahoo Lake Michigan Carferry group - has slowly started to adopt a new philosophy. Everybody knows how hard it is to preserve and restore a geep or alco, so one could only guess how hard it is to provide preservation or restoration efforts for an entire ship. Two of these ferries are safe, and another two exist with much dimmer prospects for survival. While trying to figure ways to save ex-Annie boat Arthur Atkinson, we have started to understand you can preserve all five existing boats on a shoestring or preserve and restore two or three in very good shape. What I'm saying is, I'd hate to lose the boats in poorer shape, and I hate to loose rare birds like Alcos in poor shape, but some should be scrapped so we can fully devote our efforts to healthier specimen.

Sorry for the rant.