We’re traveling today to Brownsville, Pennsylvania, in the heart of Monongahela Railway country. On display are Baldwin S12 switchers 401 and 424. The two units were built two years apart in November 1952 and June 1954 respectively. The date of the photograph is July 1, 1972.
John Woodworth and I first saw the Monongahela Railway and its treasures on Oct. 21, 1968. Here is a photo of the MRY engine facility in Brownsville, Pennsylvania. Visible are four Monongahela Baldwin switchers, four ex-New York Central RF16A Sharks, and one ex-New York Central RF16B Shark. Thankfully, two of these NYC 1205 and NYC 1216 (after several owners) still exist in protected storage in Michigan.
Additional information about the movement of a rare Baldwin Sharknose locomotive in Michigan has surfaced and it’s not what many railfans were hoping it would be.
The president of the Escanaba & Lake Superior told Trains magazine that the RF16 was moved to free space in a shop building that will be used to clean covered hopper cars.
Former Delaware & Hudson No. 1216 was moved from a car shop in Escanaba to another shop in Wells earlier this week.
E&LS President John Larkin said he would like to restore the 1216 someday but said it would be a tough project to do.
The 1216 last operated in 1982 when it suffered a broken crankshaft. It and fellow Shark No. 1205 have been stored indoors since then.
It’s early 1969 in Brownsville, Pennsylvania. The Monongahela engine facility has two Baldwin switchers, including recently-purchased ex-New York Central 1210, a Baldwin RF16A. Also visible are small portions of two more Sharks.
Penn Central No. 8123, a Baldwin S-12, was still in full Pennsylvania Railroad paint but had a PC roster number as it worked in Akron in the late 1960s.
It is late 1968 in Conway Yard neard Pittsburgh. It’s appropriate that this Baldwin DS44-660 switcher still has Pennsylvania Railroad markings because Conway way, after all, built by the Pennsy.
Baldwin Locomotive Works built S12 No. 27 new for the Akron & Barberton Belt in May 1951. The switcher would toil for the belt line railroad for two decades before being scraped in March 1972. It is shown working in Barberton in late 1967 or January 1968.
Penn Central 8075 is a Baldwin road switcher that is shown sitting in Sharonville, Ohio, near Cincinnati, in the late 1960s or early 1970s. Notice how the New York Central herald below the cab side window has been painted out. Either they did a poor job of it or some of that paint is peeling. Whatever the case, there is just enough of the herald showing through to identify the origin of this locomotive.