Last N&W diesel heading to scrap (NW Mailing List)

[NW Mailing List]

Many things should have been saved, despite their flaws or failures,  
but railroads rarely like to be reminded of their failures, so the  
thought process is get it off the property quickly so we don't have  
to be reminded of how much money we spent on this project. The VGN  
triplex could hardly be saved, it was returned to the builder and  
rebuilt into two different locomotives and continued in service,  
albeit in a very different form.

Ken Miller
On Aug 19, 2008, at 10:58 AM, NW Mailing List wrote:


> "Sooner or later, people are going to have to realize that there  

> are generations of individuals who have grown up never seeing a  

> steam locomotive in true use... while you might not care for the  

> newer generation of motive power, the key to getting this  

> generation interested in railroad history at all is to show them  

> something they can relate to.  I'm fairly certain there were plenty  

> of steam locomotives that were abysmal failures in the operating  

> world, yet for there uniqueness and contribution to history, should  

> have been saved (the VGN Triplex for example)"

>

> Robb,

>    To be quite frank with you, I do care for the newer generation  

> of motive power more commonly known as a "diesel".  That's the  

> reason we have good people like you in "hysterical" societies, in  

> order to take care of things such as this:)

>     So what happens is that we get a division of what looks good on  

> paper or pedigree, contradicting the truth of the real world. To  

> the railfan or historian, the pedigree of this unit may look like a  

> fantastic find.

>     To the operating employee who knows too well how these units  

> contributed to the decline of any resemblence of "Precision  

> Transportation", you must forgive my less than enthusiastic support  

> of your project.

>     My logic tells me that, yes, in a way you are right to try and  

> save the 8551. My emotion tells me how wrong you are.

>     The problem lies in the fact that if 8551 would ever get into a  

> museum, there would be a beautifully written plaque extolling how  

> this was the last of the last or something another and people would  

> stream by and think "how great that is", when the truth of the  

> matter would be that they were poorly designed and over the road  

> were very mediocre units. It is amazing that it took GE so very  

> very very long before it designed it's first decent  

> locomotive...the Dash 9. That should clearly be noted in the legacy  

> of  the 8551.

>

> GP/SD40-2's  FOREVER!

> Jimmy Lisle

>

> ________________________________________

> NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org

> To change your subscription go to

> http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list

> Browse the NW-Mailing-List archives at

> http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20080819/6acbe8cf/attachment.html>