Unfortunate end for such beautiful locomotives

[Tadman]

Those E's being scrapped had their numberboards plated over! Who does that? I can just see the dispatcher now - "Um, Extra, um, blue E8 is to call for orders at ___"

[byte]

The C&NW did that for some reason ... there was some speculation on the Metra forum a while back, I think before the current board format was introduced, and no one could come up with an answer, but it was thought that they might have done it because that's one less thing on the engine to maintain. If all of the units had classification lights in place of the number boards, that would be a good reason, but not all of them had those..

[Pensyfan19]

It is with great sadness to report that Metra 521 and 516 (the two Metra E8s leased by the LIRR to test the C1s) are the latest victims of the great NRE Silvis IL scrapping of 2020-21. Truly a shame that these legendary locomotives were not saved. Were there any attempts to save these E units or any other locomotives in danger of being scrapped here? Is there an official list of locomotives which have been or are planned to be scrapped?

https://railpictures.net/photo/765282/

[eolesen]

Several of the Metra E8s are still running. Two are on the auction list for Iowa Pacific and another is in private ownership and stored at the AZRM. There may be a fourth I'm forgetting at the moment.

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[chrisf]

Were there any attempts to save these E units or any other locomotives in danger of being scrapped here? Is there an official list of locomotives which have been or are planned to be scrapped?

Preserved E8s and E9s are not really rare. There are enough around that keeping a couple more E8s doesn't seem like a good use of very finite preservation time, labor, or money when those resources could go to save something rarer or of more historic value.
Here's a list of some which are preserved: https://www.thedieselshop.us/SurvivorsEmdE-units.HTML

[MEC407]

It's always sad to see a classic locomotive scrapped, especially something as iconic as an E or F. I imagine this must be an extremely difficult time to mount a preservation campaign. The pandemic makes logistics a nightmare, and many people are suffering health-wise and financially.