Paul wrote: ..."If ONLY WE SAVED ONE"? Hind sight is 20/20.Boy does that ever!!
I hope this doesn't put a bee in your bonnet.
One example of how EASY it could have been: Southern Pacific owned 211 U33C's. Number preserved: 0. Any number of them could have been bought for scrap value, but it seems that everybody wanted a GP9 instead. Today there are easily ten times as many preserved GP7's and 9's as all of the U series GE's put together. Operable ones? Fewer still. One day in a future time someone will wonder how we could have been so stupid.
Even when a loco is "preserved," frequently one faces an uphill fight. Right now my currant "project" is returning an RSD12 back to operable status. (in between keeping everything else running of course) Just yesterday someone commented that they didn't understand why we wanted to get this unit running. A-bloody-mazing!!
My handle "FCP503" refers to Ferrocarril del Pacifco number 503, an Alco RSD12. The first FCP unit I ever experienced. I'm a confirmed Alco freak, and one can gather that of all types of locomotives the RSD12 is a sentimental favorite. Having seen them in action, kicking cars all day long, hauling some pretty awesome loads for their size I came to form and extreme attatchment to the little beasts. On the FCP and NdeM they were always highly spoken of. "Strong, like donkey!" RSD12's preserved? 4 Number that operate? 1(?)
Still I do understand the need to part out a few to save the many. The old beasts do need parts.
