(erielack) Lackawanna 959 / Conrail 5460

[MDelvec952_@_aol.com]

In a message dated 2/7/06 1:11:10 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
dmvgvt_@_earthlink.net writes:

> Does anyone know where the former Conrail 5460 aka Lackawanna 959 is 
> currently located, and if so is it still operable?

Hi Dave,

    This unit was one of the rare birds to escape the Peilet Brothers, at the 
time known as Scrap Services, scrap dealer adjacent to the EMD plant at 
LaGrange.   Conrail had traded the unit in to EMD in ca. 1990 or so.  It and the 
5461 were both running on Conrail until shortly before the trade-in.

    Two friends at the time were key in keeping this unit around, Jack 
Wheelihan at EMD (raised in Chatham, N.J.) and the late Glenn Monhart, who owned a 
locomotive service business on the Wisconsin & Southern in addition to a few 
BL2s, an E3 and various Geeps.  The three of us talked quite often back then, 
weekly at least and often daily during news deadlines, and this unit was near 
and dear to the hearts of Jack and I.  Glenn was dating the daughter of one of 
the principles at Scrap Services, and managed to get the unit squirrelled away 
to the back of the line while carcasses were being cut almost daily.  Scrap 
Services contract with EMD stated that anything that goes in cannot appear on 
the used market, not even as parts. The only other unit I've heard of leaving 
there was the Burlington E5 at IRM, which required lots of letters and official 
permission from EMD's president. (Hundreds of builders' plates left there, but 
that's another story.)  Things looked grim for 5460, to the piont where Jack 
and I had made a deal with Scrap Services to purchase the frame numbers -- 
they would be neatly cut out with a torch when that day came.  It was a day we 
hoped wouldn't come.

    Circa 1995 or so the quarry across the street from EMD was in a pinch in 
that its side-rod tonner had quit.  The 5460 was one of the only complete 
locomotives in the lot, and it fired right up -- still had fuel in it.  Without 
EMD's knowledge -- those of us who knew agreed to shut up lest the unit would 
dissapear -- the 5460 was snuck across the street to help out a neighbor.  The 
quarry loved the unit and it became a bit of a pet that would not be returned.  
In a few years the roster keepers among us all knew about the unit, but we 
all managed to keep it out of print, including X2200 South. After the 1999 EMD 
open house, Joe VanHoorebeke and I snuck into the quarry and found the unit 
idling away, still proudly sporting its angled hand rails on the short hood.  We 
took our photos in the waning light, paid our homage to the last Lackawanna 
road unit (I don't recall completely, but I think I wrote something on the frame 
and signed it), and drove home.

    Roster keeper extraordinaire Ken Ardinger told me ca. 2002 or so that he 
had heard but not confirmed that the unit was seen in a train in south Chicago 
and wanted to know where it was heading.  I've never heard that it left, 
neither did Jack at that time, so if it did I'd like to know.  I hadn't heard that 
he confirmed it.

    I'm aware of more than a few efforts to repatriate the unit, including 
offers to trade something similar, two separate offers came from people on this 
list, and the quarry kept refusing saying it's happy and keeping it since 
anyone at the scrapper who was familiar with the unofficial deal was gone, 
including Glenn, and EMD.  I hope it's still there, or at least still extant and, 
ergo, available.

    While that's the last road unit, there are other Lackawanna gems still in 
service.  The one I'd like back home the most is Lackawanna 409, the Alco 
high-hood switcher in the Relco fleet with a new prime mover and roller bearings. 
 Three or four of the SW1s dot the Mississippi River on industrial railroads, 
and the museum in Birmingham has a Lackawanna 484, an Alco S2 switcher, that 
is.

    Mike Del Vecchio

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