North East Museum Gains 10th Vintage GE Locomotive

The Lake Shore Railway Museum and Historical Society has added a 10^th General Electric-built vintage locomotive to its collection.

The latest addition to the collection in North East, Pennsylvania, is a 45-tonner originally used by the U.S. Army.

No. 10 was built by GE in 1943 and had been sitting at ELG Metals southeast of Pittsburgh.

The company agreed to donate the locomotive to the museum with Wabtec, which now owns the GE locomotive assembly plant in Erie, Pennsylvania, providing technical assistance on how to move the diesel.

The move was handled by Daily Express of Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

The Lakeshore museum plans to restore No. 10 to operating condition.
The vintage GE engines are part of a collection that has been named “Locomotives that our parents and grandparents built.”

CSX Tribute Locomotives to Visit Lake Shore Museum

The Lake Shore Railway Historical Society said this week that it will host a visit on Oct. 12 and 13 of the three CSX Pride in Service locomotives at its museum in North East, Pennsylvania.

The GE units, which were all built at the nearby Erie locomotive assembly plant, honor America’s military veterans, first responders, and police.

In a news release posted on its website, the museum said it open at noon on both days and host a night photo session with the three visiting locomotives and its own collection of General Electric locomotives.

The three tribute locomotives were built between between 2008 and 2015 at the Lawrence Park plant when it was owned by GE. The plant is now owned by Wabtec.

The units were repainted in special liveries by CSX workers at its locomotive shops in Huntington, West Virginia.

Those same workers also recreated the “Chessie Cat” Chessapeake & Ohio Railroad paint scheme on GE locomotive No. 8272 that CSX donated to museum in 2017.

Additional information about the museum event can be found at https://lakeshorerailway.com/

Vintage Diesels Stars of Tourist Railroad Festival

The Oil Creek & Titusville Railroad will spotlight vintage Alco and GE diesel locomotives this weekend during its Diesel Days festival.

Slated for June 22 and 23, the starts of the festival will be the railroad’s own Alco S2 Nos. 75 and 85; Montreal Locomotive Works M420W No. 3568; Western New York & Pennsylvania Alco RS3M No. 406; and Lake Shore Railway Historical Society GE 25-tonner No. 1950.

The latter unit will be brought in by truck from Northeast, Pennsylvania.

The diesels will be pulling passenger trains during the two-day event. There will also be an  exhibition of diesel trucks and antique diesel engine displays.

Museum Gets Another GE U Boat

The Lake Shore Railway Museum has acquired another historic GE-built locomotive.

This week the museum received a four-axle U36B carrying MCVX reporting marks and the roster number it had when working for CSX (7764).

The museum’s parent organization, the Lake Shore Railway Historical Society said No. 7764 was last with the Firefighters Education and Training Foundation in Massachusetts as a training locomotive for firefighters.

The unit was built in 1970 at GE’s Erie manufacturing facility located in Lawrence Park, Pennsylvania, as Seaboard Coast Line as No. 1776. It was later renumbered 1813.

“The U36B is a very rare GE locomotive model and we are thankful for its inclusion in our collection,” said society President Ray Grabowski Jr. “Its earlier re-purposing as a training unit just enhances Lake Shore’s educational function. Look for it to continue to be used as a teaching tool here soon.”

The North East, Pennsylvania, museum has eight other GE locomotives and one Heisler in its collection.

Night at Museum Set in North East

The Lake Shore Railway Historical Society will hold its annual night at the railroad museum event on June 16-17 at the former New York Central passenger station in North East, Pennsylvania.

The museum will open at noon on Saturday and remain open all night and through 4 p.m. on Sunday.

There will be a night photo session with several smaller scenes set up with artificial lighting. The session will cost $20 per photographer.

No details about the scenes to be staged have been listed on the museum’s website or Facebook page.

There will be a public program starting at 8 p.m. focused on Operation  Lifesaver and presented by Scott Daley.

New this year will be a food truck at the museum site. Speeder cars will also be operating on Saturday and Sunday.

Chessie Loco Going to Lake Shore Museum

The Lake Shore Railway Museum has acknowledged that it will be receiving a locomotive painted at a CSX shop in the Chessie System colors.

Former Chesapeake & Ohio No. 8272 received the treatment in Huntington, West Virginia, so that is now resembles the appearance it had when the B30-7 was delivered by GE Transportation  in 1980

The Lake Shore museum in North East, Pennsylvania, specializes in collecting retired locomotives that were built at the nearby GE assembly plant in Erie.

No. 8272 will be the eighth locomotive to join that collection.

In a news release, the Lake Shore Railway Historical Society, which operates the museum, said  the locomotive is being donated by CSX to the museum. It was retired by CSX in 2009 as No. 5554.

The museum said that GE and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum assisted in the restoration of No. 8272 by contributing historic paint records, logo/lettering information and paint chips.

The museum said that plans to move No. 8272 to the museum are still being worked out.

Posner to Speak at Erie Banquet in April

Railroad executive Henry Posner III will speak at the Lake Shore Railway Historical Society banquet on April 8 in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Posner is the chairman of Railroad Development Corporation, which is based in Pittsburgh and serves as the parent company of the Iowa Interstate Railroad as well as a portfolio of international railway operations.

The banquet will be held at St. James Place, 2622 Buffalo Road, and begins at 5 p.m. Tickets are $25 per person. There will be a buffet-style dinner.

For ticket information, visit lakeshorerailway.com.

Chessie Locomotive Headed for Museum?

The CSX shop in Huntington, West Virginia, has repainted  a GE B30-7 locomotive into Chessie System colors and livery and a Facebook posting said the locomotive is headed for the Lake Shore Railway Museum in North East, Pennsylvania.

Trains magazine reported on Friday that the museum has declined to comment on the report and that CSX has not yet responded to a request for comment.

The engine in question is No. 8272 and a photo of it briefly appeared on a page for workers and former workers at the Huntington shops.

The museum specializes in preserving locomotives assembled at the nearly GE locomotive plant.

Restoration Completed on Erie S-2 in Meadville

The former Erie Alco S-2 switcher as it appeared last July before completion of its lettering.

Cosmetic restoration of a former Erie Railroad Alco S-2 switcher has been completed by the French Creek Valley Railroad Historical Society in Meadville, Pennsylvania.

The project got underway in 2007 and was completed with society members finishing the lettering of No. 518 in late September.

The locomotive came to the society from the Ashtabula, Carson & Jefferson Railroad.

Built for the Erie in October 1948, No. 518 served on the Erie Lackawanna and for Cleveland Electric Illuminating before ending up at AC&J.

It is now displayed in Pomona Park in Meadville along with a 1908 wooden Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad boxcar and an Erie Lackawanna bay window caboose, No. C356.

The boxcar is on loan from the collection of the Lake Shore Railway Historical Society while the caboose and the caboose belongs to the Erie Lackawanna Historical Society.

North East, Pa., Museum Gets GE Switcher

The Lake Shore Railway Museum in North East, Pennsylvania, has received a GE 80-ton switcher that was built in 1944 for the Genesee & Wyoming Railroad and also has an Ohio connection.

The locomotive was transported to the museum by flat car.

Once owned by a Lordstown steel company, the locomotive was later given to the Youngstown Steel Heritage Foundation.

The Youngstown museum traded it to the Pennsylvania museum.

It was the first diesel-electric locomotive owned by G&W and also served as an industrial switcher for the Kinzua Dam project on the Allegheny River near Warren, Pennsylvania.