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  • West Pittston RF16 "Shark"

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in Pennsylvania
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in Pennsylvania

Moderator: bwparker1

 #907033  by TB Diamond
 
Back in the early 1980s I noticed what appeared to be a Baldwin RF16 B unit car body sitting on the grounds of a coal mine in West Pittston. Recently learned that the car body was still there as of the early 1990s. Some questions for you Keystone State folks:

1.) Was this unit, when active, utilized as a power souce by the mine?

2.) Is the assumption that the mine closed after the Knox disaster correct?

3.) What railroad was the former owner of the unit?

4.) Is the unit still there. If not, when was it removed or scrapped?

Thanks for any and all information.
 #907068  by Andyt293
 
http://nepa.railfan.net/pshark.html

"There was an ex-Pennsy B-Unit Shark at the Sullivan Trail Coal Company in West Pittston, PA. Since I used to work at Keystone Automotive Warehouse I would walk to the Blue Ribbon Dairy for ice cream at lunch and would pass it. I always wondered what it was. It looked like a locomotive, but I never seen anything like that. To further add to the riddle, there were no tracks in front of the breaker. I assumed it was just another piece of junk that was collected over the years there. But one night when I was looking at an old back issue of Extra 2200 South I got my answer. The write up in the magazine stated it was ex-Pennsy DR44-1500B #9483B. The coal company tried to use it as a portable power supply to run an electric shovel. The unit was resting on highway truck axles. The magazine stated that after not being able to adapt the unit for mobile power, it was abandoned there. The last picture shows the unit among the junk at the breaker site. As you can see, the unit kind of blended in with the surroundings. The breaker and most of the things around it was black and tainted with rust. The property has been cleaned up after demolition of the breaker and none of the junk is there. In fact, the only the buildings in the foreground are left. The pictures were taken with the a cheap Vivitar camera and kind of dark."

Unfortunately the pictures do not load on the page.
 #907125  by chief
 
The PRR-9483-b ended up at a large junk yard in Clarks Summit. They tried to also get to operate as a power plant but failed.When the new Clark Summit fire house was built the b-unit disappeared.
 #908539  by lvrr325
 
IIRC that unit was repowered with an Alco 251 by the PRR prior to retirement, one of three Sharks that were done as an experiment (they also got MU compatible with other locomotives).
 #908653  by pennsy
 
Hopefully a Shark has been preserved in a museum somewhere. At any rate, I have such a combination, in HO gauge, on my layout. All is in working order. They are excellent engines.
 #914805  by Alcoman
 
lvrr325 wrote:IIRC that unit was repowered with an Alco 251 by the PRR prior to retirement, one of three Sharks that were done as an experiment (they also got MU compatible with other locomotives).
CORRECTION: It was re-powered by ALCO along with two "A" units.
John
 #916845  by lvrr325
 
pennsy wrote:Hopefully a Shark has been preserved in a museum somewhere. At any rate, I have such a combination, in HO gauge, on my layout. All is in working order. They are excellent engines.
Uh, it's pretty well known the last two Sharks anywhere are in private hands in inaccessable storage in Michigan, no longer operable. The former D&H 1205 and 1216, ex Monongahela and NYC same numbers (renumbered at least once by the NYC), also used on the Michigan Northern after the D&H sold them.