SD26 (and SD39) still kicking

[thomas81z]

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w283 ... mjt106.jpg

saw this on the head end of a westbound just past rockingham jt

[truman]

Nice shot man.

[Jonny Bolt]

Yeah man, great shot. Ol Gilfihd war paint!

[newpylong]

Not worth their weight in scrap.

[truman]

Not worth their weight in scrap.

Which equals $280 dollars per ton as of Monday.
You got to admit its a nice clear shot though.

[Finch]

I hope I manage to get a picture of a Guilford SD unit before they are retired.

[calaisbranch]

Indeed, a sweet shot of the #643! Seeing that made me remember several of us chasing trains all over D4 when those old dinosaurs were on leads. At the time, there were still four left.......615, 619, 621, and 643.
I bagged a shot of the 615 on AYMO like a month before it was sent to Waterville. Cold as ice that day, but well worth it. Just dug up this one of the #619 from August of 2002. Remember the 30+ mile jaunt that day between Deerfield and East Portal.

http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo ... 223559.jpg

[mick]

Assuming the 621 & 643 are the last SD-26's (as re-built by the Santa Fe in the 70's) that exist, should they be saved and put in a museum? Should they be in Santa Fe colors or Guilford? I feel at least one should be in Guilford colors, as they used them far longer than the Santa Fe. Santa fe only used them for about 7 years after they re-built them from SD-24's, Guilford has used them for over 20 years! For better or for worse, they epitomized the end of the B&M era & the beginning of the Springfield Terminal era when they showed up en-masse back in 1987. I personally was excited to see big 6-axle power on the B&M when I first saw them. Of course, at the time I had no idea what was going on with the strikes & whatnot, I just liked to watch trains. Ah the good old days!

A bit of SD-26 trivia: Which ST SD-26's had one-piece windshields? Which kept it's ATSF silver trucks after repainting to grey& orange?

[MEC407]

It would be neat to see an SD26 preserved in a museum type of setting. The biggest obstacle, as I see it, is money. The economy is struggling, and that effects everything, including preservation efforts. Museums, tourist railroads, and preservation groups are struggling just to stay afloat and take care of what they already have in their collections. And we all know that PAR would never donate anything to anyone. (They wouldn't do that even when the economy was great.)

Another obstacle is that I can't think of any museums or organizations in New England that would be interested in preserving a piece of Guilford history. Now please don't take that as a bash against Guilford or PAR; it's just that the organizations in this region can barely afford to preserve important pieces of history from the original railroads (BM, MEC, DH, et al.)... we've all seen how difficult it has been to preserve a national treasure such as the Flying Yankee... now imagine trying to get people to donate money towards the preservation of an ST SD26, in today's economy... I think that would take a miracle.

For better or for worse, it would probably be a lot easier to convince one of the various Santa Fe organizations to get on board with an SD26 preservation effort. The rest of the obstacles regarding money and the economy would still apply.

[mick]

Well, I hope they save one of those Beasts for posterity, but they probably won't......The 640 had a one-piece windshield, the 637 had silver trucks.
They were purchased to replace aging Alco's on the D&H for the most part, but when the D&H was spun off they were retired as they went down one by one, leaving just a handful left into the Dark 90's.

[MEC407]

If I'm not mistaken, I believe the 622 also retained its original one-piece windshield.

[Otto Vondrak]

Caught 621 a couple weeks ago at Buttermilk Falls Road:



-otto-

[NellsChoo]

Not worth their weight in scrap.

That's a nice, positive thing to say.

[jonnhrr]

Not worth their weight in scrap.

Guilford like most RRs are an unsentimental bunch so I am sure if this statement were true then 621 et al would be wrapped around 16oz of Budweiser right now. The fact that they are still pulling trains indicates they can still do the job and the RR with its power shortage cannot afford to get rid of them.

Jon

[calaisbranch]

The SD26s, as we know, are six packs. Six packs have good pullling power. Not to mention PAR, GRS....Name of the Week is too cheap to lease or buy enough adequate power to be able to get rid of the SD26 soldiers that remain. Pretty wild that they rate as the second highest HP rating in the modern roster.