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(erielack) Re: EL List Daily V3 #1639

Baldwin left the locomotive business in 1958 if I remember right, leaving
their products orphans.  (I believe that the BLH prime mover itself
continues in production, the rights to produce it were owned by GE for a
while and it seems as though they spun it and the Alco 251 off to Fairbanks
Morse again... lot of those details are fuzzy now).

They weren't bad locomotives, but I remember a Trains Magazine article
showing the NYC's data comparing costs on EMD, Alco, Baldwin and Fairbanks
Morse.  Alco maintenance costs were about twice that of an EMD, the others 4
times as much.  Some roads had good luck with them for a very long time,
others dumped them quickly and did not have much luck running them.  The
majority of BLH road switchers left class 1's between 1967-1972.  Not much
different than Alco - they closed up in 1969 and most Class I operators
dropped them 10-15 years later.   The longer the company was gone, the more
expensive they got to operate, so once they'd reached a useful service life
or their lease was completed, it was economic sense to get rid of them.



Bill K.



- ----- Original Message -----

> >From Archives_@_Railfan.net
> Message-ID: <FA9F775ABFB3224992A1DC631A0960D2062D4D_@_MB04.mail.fcps.edu>
> Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 12:25:13 -0400
> From: "Montgomery, Edward T" <Edward.Montgomery_@_fcps.edu>
> Subject: RE: (erielack) May calendar shot
>
> The engines with no hair--you know Bald-ones were unique.  It seems like
> Erie was more interested in this company than DL&W.  For a short season
> in the Fall of 1965 a couple of these engines were working the Greenwood
> Lake Drill.  I saw them switch freight cars at Blanchard Lumber.  Not
> knowing much about Baldwin's at the time I wondered what they were.
> They sounded like Alcos and it wasn't until they pulled towards me that
> I saw the Builders Plate indicating Baldwin.  Did these engines suffer
> from repetitive mechanical problems?  They disappeared quite quickly
> from the scene.
>
> I'm also trying to remember the significance of the Yellow and Blue D&H
> cars.  Was there a specific reason why they were painted this way?  Was
> it for a kind of exclusive service?
>
> Ed
>
>
> - -----Original Message-----
> From: erielack-owner_@_lists.elhts.org
> [mailto:erielack-owner_@_lists.elhts.org] On Behalf Of Tupaczewski, Paul R
> (Paul)
> Sent: Monday, May 02, 2005 11:14 AM
> To: 'erielack_@_lists.railfan.net'
> Subject: (erielack) May calendar shot
>
> Time to turn that page...
>
> This month's EL calendar shot is a somewhat dreary view of a pair of
> DRS-6-6-1500 diesels (incorrectly identified in the caption as
> 'DR6-6-1500'), numbers 1155 and 1156, shoving cars at Bison Yard in
> Buffalo, NY. The two units wear a grimy coat of EL's black/yellow
> "freight" scheme from the early 1960s. Right behind the power are some
> relatively-new D&H yellow 50' boxcars. There's not much of a
> "photogenic" look to this image, but the view of two big Baldwins is
> still nice (even though I wouldn't consider this a "calendar" shot)
>
> The caption is also a bit misleading, if not wrong: "Years before being
> shorn of prime movers and assigned slug service, two MFSB-15A class
> Baldwins..."
>
> Ummm, neither the 1155 nor the 1156 were rebuilt into slugs. The only
> DRS-6-6-1500 that holds that honor was the class unit, the 1150, which
> became EL B-65 in July of 1965.
>
> <sigh>
>
> - Paul
>
>
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>
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