April 2011 Article

This Month's Article for - April 2011

(albeit somewhat overdue....)

In Search of N&A Locomotives:

An Update on #5 and Diesel #3

It seems like only yesterday when we started searching for information on several of the used locomotives that found their way onto the Nelson & Albemarle Railway. It was also with great excitement that in June 2009 we found a great resource for the two locomotives that came out of New York's Manhattan Railway, featured in the Railroad & Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin, Railroad History 162, from Spring 1990. Pittsburgh-built #'s 56 & 60 became #'s 6 & 5 (reverse order from original numbering). They started life in December 1893 and January 1894 and ended their career with the Manhattan Railway by 1905 in a shift from steam to electric powered trains. In July 2009, I sent requests out to several organizations looking for photographs of the original #56 or #60 while in New York.

It's been almost 2 years, but here we are with a new photograph of MRy #60 from 1902 found in the Archives of the New York Transit Museum. These 0-4-4T engines of Forney design were built by several manufacturers, but these two out of the hundreds and hundreds built would end up in Schuyler supporting off-mainline moves. The New York Transit Museum was one of several sites that offered great possibilities on finding an original photo, so it was great to hear from them with this wonderful photo. The museum's archives are located at 2 Broadway, 20th floor, Office B20.30, New York, NY 10004 (646) 252-2446. While I don't have details yet on how to order a copy of this photograph, that information will be posted when it becomes available. ## Now on to diesel #3..... Well as we last reported it looked pretty certain that our GE 25-ton diesel that was sold to Great Lakes Calcium by Georgia Marble was scrapped. Sitting idle and unused for several years in Nelson, Georgia as noted by author, Tom Lawson, the unit could easily have been scrapped there and the story would have ended. But author Jay Reed keeps a close watch for small industrial locomotives that have mysteriously vanished and he now adds a new twist to the story. Seems that our 25-ton GE unit was involved in an accident where it was damaged in 2003 while in Woodville, Ohio. I've just started to look for newspaper stories about that and expect it will be hard to find if it wasn't on a mainline in Ohio. Needless to say this adds one more twist to the story of the little engine. And here's one more twist! It appears that whatever condition our #3 diesel was in, it was then sold/traded and made it's way to Green Bay, Wisconsin! I'm going to reach out to see what information I can find in Green Bay, however I've yet to find any record of #3 there but will continue to keep looking. Let's see, started out life in Pennsylvania, handled freight cars for the N&A in Virginia; moved out to Georgia where it took a long rest; started a second life in Ohio and then after an unfortunate accident traveled on to Wisconsin. It's really unfortunate that Great Lakes Calcium sold that Woodville site in 2004 as someone there might have remembered the little engine and where it went next. ## It's on to May's article on the terrain of the Nelson & Albemarle.

Send email to NelsonAlbemarle@comcast.net if you have any comments or questions on "This Month's Article" or wish to contribute to future articles.

Coming in mid-May: The Ups & Downs of the N&A - the long-delayed but finally showing up article on the terrain of Nelson & Albemarle country including the flat lands around Schuyler and Alberene