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Re: (erielack) Lackawanna 959 coming home to Scranton



How terrific is this- some great news for DL&W pieces over the past year or so.  Will be keeping an eye out for volunteer and donation opportunities- please keep a Sunday or Monday in mind. 

I beloved I had read earlier that the dynamic brake had been deactivated or removed but the blister had renamed. 

Joshua

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 25, 2013, at 10:08 AM, Tim Stuy <njmidland_@_verizon.net> wrote:

> 
> Mike (or anyone on the list):
> 
> I remember seeing these rebuilt locomotives referred to as GP8's during the
> Conrail early years. What work was done  do convert a GP7 to a GP8?  I know
> GP8 is not an official EMD termbut I am cursious asto what is under the
> hood!
> 
> Tim
> 
> Since this latest effort to save the last remaining and unaltered
>> Lackawanna road unit started on this list, y'all are the first to know.
>> Lackawanna Railroad GP7 959 (EL 1278, Conrail GP7 5993, Conrail GP8 5460)
>> is on its way to Scranton.  A project of the Tri-State Chapter NRHS working
>> with the Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad, this was a complicated effort that
>> required some time and a lot of hard work by the Delaware Lackawanna
>> principles, employees and contractors.
>> 
>> Traveling as DLWR 5460, it left Kankakee on Monday, 9/17, and has been
>> making its way east. Today it was in Conway, Pa., and it should be heading
>> to Allentown tonight. NS delivers to the DL at Portland, Pa., on
>> Tue-Thu-Sat.
>> 
>> We'll share more details as they become available, and the full story will
>> one day be told. For now we wanted to let everyone know that this
>> significant locomotive has been saved. Once in Scranton it'll be evaluated
>> and a restoration plan developed. Certainly it'll see use on home rails in
>> the Scranton area, and it will be made available to Steamtown National
>> Historic Site when it needs diesels and for special occasions.
>> 
>> Built by EMD in April 1952, the 959 was among 15 dynamic-brake-equipped
>> GP7s (951-965) that pulled freight alongside steam power on the Road of
>> Anthracite until the last fires were dropped in Scranton during the summer
>> of 1953. After the Erie merger in 1960, the 959 was quickly renumbered
>> 1278. It became Conrail GP7 5993, later rebuilt by Morrison-Knudson as GP8
>> 5460. Conrail traded it in on new power in 1991, which landed it in the
>> Pielet Brothers scrap yard. A fortunate set of circumstances resulted in
>> the locomotive being set aside, and that led to it becoming the Pielet
>> Brothers shop switcher. Around 2001 the 5460 was sold to Vulcan Materials
>> (Lehigh Stone) in Kankakee, making it only the second locomotive to leave
>> the Pielet Brothers scrap yard in running condition.
>> 
>> There will be many acknowledgements as the project moves along and the
>> image of a Lackawanna GP7 emerges. But we are grateful to to the people at
>> the Delaware-Lackawanna, Norfolk Southern and Vulcan Materials, for
>> bringing this worthy project to Scranton.
>> 
>> For now, if anyone has pictures of this unit in service in any era or en
>> route to Scranton, please post them for all to see, especially those
>> involved in the restoration. This unit wore three EL paint variations; DL&W
>> black with EL number, EL black, and EL stripes. Attached is a photo of her
>> on the Lackawanna.
>> 
>> David Monte Verde, President, Genesee Valley Transportation, Inc.,
>> Delaware Lackawanna parent
>> 
>> Mike Del Vecchio, President, Tri-State Chapter NRHS
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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> 
> 
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