This unit was built by Alco-GE for the Pennsylvania Railroad
in December 1953 and was delivered as PRR 8445. It is unique
in that it has a raised short hood used to house the dynamic
brakes and a steam generator for heating passenger cars.
For obvious reasons it soon got the nickname "Hammer Head".
This unit is one of five RS3's equipped with both dynamic
brakes and a steam generator. PRR 8445 was built especially
for helper service between Emporium and Keating Summit, Pa.,
on the Harrisburg-Buffalo line. The steam generator was installed
to permit the 8445 to protect the passenger schedules on
the line between Emporium and Erie in the event of a failure
by the normally-assigned E8's.
The unit was renumbered in 1966 to PRR 5569 and conveyed
in the Penn Central merger in 1968 and became PC 5569. As
the unit was to be traded into GE in 1970 it was exchanged
with the PC controlled Lehigh Valley for an older RS-2 #211
which was then traded into GE in the Hammer Heads place.
It was then painted with Lehigh colors and numbered #211.
This unit spent time in western NY being used in yard and
local service in and around Buffalo. Occasionally the unit
took a local east out of Buffalo on the main and ventured
within 1 mile of our museum on the LV main to the south of
us.
After its short stay in western NY the unit was transferred
to the Lehigh's Bethlehem, PA engine facility and saw service
on the coal branches and serviced the steel mills in the
Allentown area.
With the onset of Conrail the unit was renumbered CR 5487,
used for a while, then set aside. In 1979 Conrail was in
its final stages of rebuilding RS3's into "DeWitt Geeps",
so named because PC started rebuilding RS's in their DeWitt,
Syracuse, NY shops.
This unit was selected as one of the last to be rebuilt
in August 1979 and consequently it had all of the bugs worked
out of the hybrid matching of General Motors (EMD) components
to an ALCO shell. Its prime mover was removed from a scrapped
Conrail (Ex EL) E8, rebuilt as all other major components
were, fitted with an EMD control stand and electrical cabinet
which eliminated problems encountered with earlier DeWitt
rebuilds, and then sent on its way.
With a raised long hood customized to give the unit its
as delivered appearance, mind the dual EMD exhaust stacks,
the unit emerged from Conrail's Juniata Shops with its 12
cylinder 567 engine and was repainted in its Conrail blue
and renumbered 9920.
The unit was again assigned to the Allentown steel mills
and saw only 20 months of service before being stored by
Conrail in April 1981. Along with its sister 9900 rebuilds
it sat at Altoona until August 1986. At a suggestion of Railfan
Doug Eisele, that no one has saved a LV unit, negotiations
were entered into with Conrail and a reduced purchase price
was "hammered" out. A group of Rochester Chapter NRHS members
banded together to form LV 211 Associates and purchased the
unit from Conrail. At this time Conrail was in the process
of either selling or scrapping this series of units. The
unit arrived at our museum in August of 1986 and was cleaned
and partially repainted Conrail blue for the time being.
As the January 1980 Railfan & Railroad Magazine stated, "Conrail's
RS3m 9920 is like the proverbial cat with nine lives." It
now has survived a third retirement and an near scrapping
by Conrail in April 1986. Through the efforts of the NRHS-Rochester's
Superintendent of Motive Power and Equipment, David MonteVerde,
LV211 was saved from scrap and brought back to Western NY.
In addition to its third retirement, it has survived two
bankruptcies (PC & LV), four former owners (PRR, PC,
LV, CR), and now is seeing service on its fifth road. On
October 1,1986 the unit was leased to the new Rochester & Southern
Railroad and worked there for approximately 1 year and then
returned to its present location at the Rochester and Genesee
Valley Railroad Museum. The locomotive was primed and re-painted
during the summer of 1990 to match its paint scheme that
the Lehigh Valley Railroad used during the early 1970's.
- Built Alco-GE Dec 1953 as an RS-3 Builder # 80580
- Rebuilt Conrail-Juniata Shops August 27,1979-RS3m
- Gear Ratio 74/18
- Numbers
- PRR 8445 (1953)
- PRR 5569 (1966)
- PC 5569 (1968)
- LV 211 (1970)
- CR 5487 (1976)
- CR 9920 (1979)
- LV 211 (1986)
|
