M&E Acquires Additional Locomotives

PVRX1 wrote:Try Selkirk. Everything revolves around the black hole known as Selkirk.

I know. That's where it came from, so I'm really hoping it didn't go back.

IMO- the money to make these things runable, plus purchase price = refurbished 18 and 19 that run and dont owe nada :>)[/quote]
Who said they don't run? 23 should run as-is (although we haven't had it in the shop yet), and 21 should run with two traction motors. 79 needs to be put back together because it got a new main generator in it, but that should be okay too. And who said we weren't going to do any work on 18 and 19?

therudycometh wrote:

PVRX1 wrote:Try Selkirk. Everything revolves around the black hole known as Selkirk.

I know. That's where it came from, so I'm really hoping it didn't go back.

IMO- the money to make these things runable, plus purchase price = refurbished 18 and 19 that run and dont owe nada :>)

Who said they don't run? 23 should run as-is (although we haven't had it in the shop yet), and 21 should run with two traction motors. 79 needs to be put back together because it got a new main generator in it, but that should be okay too. And who said we weren't going to do any work on 18 and 19?[/quote]
So wait are you guys going to run 21 with two bad traction motors or does it need two new ones? By the way if you guys STILL dont have 79.. It probably went back to Selkirk by now.

Don't forget to paint the 21 and 23! The M&E gets lots of public exposure. Locomotives are utilized on those well attended Whippany Santa Trains. The railroad needs to show a positive image. The tagged M&E 23 looks terrible and is not a good way to advertise the railroad. Back when Ben ran the railroad he would frequently have his employees wax the locomotives before public events. That's corporate pride!

RAHWAYVALLEYRAILROAD wrote:Don't forget to paint the 21 and 23! The M&E gets lots of public exposure. Locomotives are utilized on those well attended Whippany Santa Trains. The railroad needs to show a positive image. The tagged M&E 23 looks terrible and is not a good way to advertise the railroad. Back when Ben ran the railroad he would frequently have his employees wax the locomotives before public events. That's corporate pride!

In the works....

Found 79 for you Rudy. I just saw it in the Kearny Center Street pocket track at the west end of a couple tank cars waiting for the next M@E local job to pick it up. Too dark for a pic when I saw it.. But that was most definitely #79 down there.

ccutler wrote:Yes very sorry about the cost of removing the paint. Especially necessary on a mechanical representative of the company--an engine.

And a royal pain on freight cars, too, not to mention what can happen in a leak, wreck, or other emergency situation if a car's markings can't be seen because of graffiti. Graff can make it harder to get info about the contents, etc.

With falling costs of video/audio monitoring systems, it may someday make sense to have some systems installed in the high-graffiti areas, to catch the taggers and notify police.

That's being done in some places. A couple of years ago, one camera company listed NS as a "security partner," but I haven't seen that on their site for awhile.

photorailfan wrote:Just a suggestion. Why not move something like an old coach in a spot as bait to attract and catch the taggers on video?

Hmm, gives a new meaning to "Bait Car." I like it.
One "audio analytics" company was working on detectors that would recognize the sound of spray cans. Haven't heard much about that one for a couple of years. The little germ who "tagged" the newly-delivered dining car some years back used a roller and pan to paint his initials on the car, so that technology might not have been as useful as some motion-detecting cameras.

cjvrr wrote:The real question for me is. If this happens with a locomotive that is obviously going to a specific railroad and lettered as such....how often does this happen with freight cars? I have to believe quite often.

I don't know about "quite" often, but it does happen, probably more than most people (even us railfans) realize. Somewhere on the hundreds of miles of track between Point A and Point B there may be a covered hopper that never made it to the paint shop, or got painted and vanished sometime after that, or . . . We never did find out. You'd almost think somebody would be saying "I wonder why that's been sitting there all these years."
How do you "lose" something that big? Darned if I know.

79 should be at the shops as I type this, it was throgh Millburn 2 hours ago.

What. They all need some work. Water pump, traction motor, oil leaks, miscellaneous. Thats all I was saying.

79 arrived at Morristown on Monday.

23 should be coming into the shop in early January to get fired up.

23 was fired up yesterday afternoon to no fanfare. Runs great!

23 was fired up yesterday afternoon to no fanfare. Runs great!

Excellent! Can't wait to see it in action! Any pics to post? Congrats.

BigDell wrote:Any pics to post?

Not much to show, but this a photo of it idling.

must be odd hearing that emd whine compared to the gurgling alco's you've been used to. Are there plans for it to be painted or patched this year?

Steve F45 wrote:must be odd hearing that emd whine compared to the gurgling alco's you've been used to. Are there plans for it to be painted or patched this year?

Can't even hear the EMD over the Alco idling next to it! No concrete plans, but the other side of the engine got tagged during its trip through Kearny, so we'll have to do something to it.

a good way to remove spray paint at a fairly low pressure is walnut blasting,Ive done this before on my company trucks, or you can just break out the roller,good to hear its running