• The "LAST" Alcos on Cartier to be retired soon?

  • Discussion of products from the American Locomotive Company. A web site with current Alco 251 information can be found here: Fairbanks-Morse/Alco 251.
Discussion of products from the American Locomotive Company. A web site with current Alco 251 information can be found here: Fairbanks-Morse/Alco 251.

Moderator: Alcoman

  by Alcoman
 
I have been reading on "loconotes" Yahoo group that Cartier is ordering 7-9 more GE's this year. Can anyone confirm this or is this just a "story"?

  by N. Todd
 
They just extensively rebuilt them to be the most advanced Alcos in the world for how many thousands of dollars. Why would they retire them so soon? And besides, they aren't running the main as the GEs are. They do the work and sometimes logging trains.

If there are more GEs coming, why couldn't somebody like Ed have saved the 79 until "later"?

  by oibu
 
I beleive the new GE's have more to do with shipping more ore (looked at the price of steel lately???) than retiring any existing units.

  by Alcoman
 
oibu wrote:I beleive the new GE's have more to do with shipping more ore (looked at the price of steel lately???) than retiring any existing units.
That may be true,But I did see photos of many of the Alcos in storage.
I do hope that it turns out that those remaining Alcos are for sale that someone is able to ship them to the U.S

...

  by Ale Rider
 
For the sixty-third and final time I will attempt to post to this most UN-user friendly board....

I thought the Cartier had been all GE for some time?

How many Alcos were/are in service and of what type?

It would be sad to see more GE's come in, but perhaps another barge load would come back to the US.

What happened to the 79?

Thanks for any input.

Ed

  by Ol' Loco Guy
 
The Cartier is NOT all GE.

There are a handful of MLW's left-one RS-18 and about half a dozen M-636's.

Some of the M636's were remanufactured for the second time during this century,with the rest may have been done only once a while back.

The RS-18 was the last Alco remanufactured at PQ.

79 had an engine failure and was cut.

Google 'Jim Redmond' and 'Cartier', he has a huge photo site on MSN.
  by Ale Rider
 
Thanks for the information. I have seen Jim Redmonds site before and checked it out again.....Great photography and it was interesting to see the pics of the C630 being loaded/off-loaded....

  by ANDY117
 
That particular one is on the NYSW now. i hope we get the rest! they sure do look good in that paint.

  by 2spot
 
Cartier still has 2 RS18's (63 &67), and 7 M636's (73,76,82,83,84,86&87). They have looked after these, I dont see why they'd get rid of 'em. But 7 to 9 GE's would cover replacement of 9 Alcos(MLW's). If Ed Bowers is there when they deliver the GE's its over.