End of Service for VGN EL-2B Streamliners

[NW Mailing List]

Ken, Thank you, thank you for the lengthy explanation. My pleaded ignorance 
was due mainly to until I joined the NW Mailing List, I knew very little 
about the Virginian but in my older years- I'm learning!!!
An aside years ago  I was  the Signal Maintainer for our Naugatuck Railroad 
(a 20 mile all volunteer subsidiary of the Railroad museum of New England. 
I was head of the C & S Dep't -read the only person in the C & S Dep't. I 
could claim any title that I wanted.
 When there was a movement to clean out our Saybrook CT. storage yard (read 
junk yard) and bring all stored items to our restoration shop in Thomaston, 
CT- a 40 mile or so  midnight rail move.  This move involved the Valley 
Railroad (tourist railroad next to our junkyard) 3 miles to Saybrook, Ct., 
Amtral, Saybrook to New Haven and Metro North, New Haven to Waterbury to our 
rails.Most of us  felt that if there were any really bad alcoholics around 
New Haven Station at 2:30 am that day, the sight of what went through went a 
great deal towards sobering them. This move also included an ex Canadian 
Pacfic 4-6-2 being pulled, tender first.
My point for this rambling tome is that I stood up in the planning meeting 
and stated that there was NO WAY I was going to string catenary over 10 or 
20 miles of our railroad.
 iginal Message ----- 
From: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2012 9:42 AM
Subject: Re: End of Service for VGN EL-2B Streamliners



> Sorry Stewart, those are the EL-C class that began delivery in 1956.  One 

> of those also survives in the Transportation Museum in Roanoke,  VGN 135, 

> which has the distinction of being the only unit to actually  be painted 

> in all 5 roads scheme, as it was the only one repainted to  N&W because of 

> wreck damage. Jeff Sanders (see below) was one of the  primary people 

> responsible for that unit being the one that was saved  and selected for 

> Roanoke.

>

> Back to the question of the EL-2B service life. They did indeed serve 

> right up to the end of VGN electrification in June 1962. One unit had 

> been separated into two single units, with one serving as the  Whitethorne 

> pusher. The other unit, I am not sure if it was used on  Clarks Gap or 

> not, but it appears in photos, stored, and appeared to  have been for some 

> time at Mullens. There was an entire series of 35mm  negatives shot by an 

> N&W photographer of the last two days of  operation, more or less, a 

> casual documentation. Highly unusual for  the time that they would use 

> 35mm, as that was certainly not a  standard for them, it tells me they 

> were not that serious about the  matter, that someone had told them to go 

> and get some pictures, there  were also some family type photos on the end 

> or beginning of the roll.  There was also at least one EL-C stored, I 

> suspect it and the EL-2B  were being used for parts to keep the other 

> units running as long as  they could.

>

> I honestly don't think the EL-2Bs were on the property for very long 

> after retirement. A file on electrification talks about the high 

> maintenance costs of these units in 1960-61 and their generally aged 

> condition, which certainly would hasten their retirement and reduce  their 

> marketability. I think N&W might have tried to market them, but  the 

> demand for electrics was very limited. Even with the bargain price  it 

> took a good while for the New Haven to purchase the EL-Cs, which  were 

> much newer, and far better condition.

>

> Ken Miller

>

>

> On Oct 21, 2012, at 4:48 AM, NW Mailing List wrote:

>

>> Hi Group, please forgive the ignorance of a Yankee member.- Were the  VGN 

>> EL-2b's, the "hood style" rectifier locomotives delivered by  General 

>> Electric to the VGN?  If so, some of them came to the New  Haven 

>> Railroad, probably in the 1960's and probably by way of  General 

>> Electric-Erie Works. They passed from the New Haven into  Penn Central 

>> then into Conrail.  I'm a member of the Railroad Museum  of New England 

>> and the museum owns one of the units in very faded  Conrail blue and 

>> minus it's main transformer due to it's  concentration of PCB's in the 

>> transformer oil. It will never run  again, there's no main transformer 

>> and the 20 mile Naugatuck  Railroad subsidiary of the museum has 

>> absolutely no centenary.

>> Stewart Fritts

>> ----- Original Message -----

>> From: NW Mailing List

>> To: NW Mailing List

>> Sent: Monday, October 08, 2012 9:39 PM

>> Subject: Re: End of Service for VGN EL-2B Streamliners

>>

>> Sorry I can't answer all your inquiries about the EL2b's. I do have  a 

>> note, of which I do not remember the source, that says the EL2b's  were 

>> scrapped at the Peck Iron

>> & Metal Co. in south Richmond. Maybe this will jog someone's memory  with 

>> the details.

>>

>> Jeff Sanders

>>

>> From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

>> To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org

>> Sent: Friday, October 5, 2012 1:59 PM

>> Subject: End of Service for VGN EL-2B Streamliners

>>

>> I've seen several accounts of the end of the EL-2Bs which say they  were 

>> taken out of service and scrapped between 1959 and 1962.  The  early date 

>> is clearly incorrect as McClure and Plant show several  pictures in their 

>> book of these motors in service into at least Oct.  1960.  Can anyone 

>> clear up the history of the final days of the  EL-2Bs?  When were they 

>> actually taken out of service?  Were they  stored for a while before 

>> disposal?  Were they sent back to General  Electric or were they scrapped 

>> by some local company?  If so, who,  when and where?  Many thanks for 

>> your help.

>>

>> Tom

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