Any chance the latest diesel acquired by IRM will make it to Union by Friday to attend Diesel Days? Talking about Armco B-31 (Westinghouse end cab switcher built in 1930) which was loaded on a flatcar July 14th in St. Paul, MN. I'm assuming it was approved for transportation and is enroute to IRM already.
Also already ordered my ticket for the night photo session. Glad to see the night photo session is back as I enjoyed the two I attended a few years ago as part of past Diesel Days weekends. Am looking forward to visiting IRM again!
Two questions: 1) What was the B-unit between Milwaukee Road 37A and BN-3? It looked to be in CP Rail gray/maroon. 2)That appeared to be quite a lengthy train pulled by BN-1 & BN-2. With 2 locomotives, the Milwaukee Road dynamometer, plus all those passenger cars, was it just short enough for standard operation through Johnson Siding, or did you have to "saw" it through?
The E9B #102 is painted for Wisconsin Southern (WSOR) and was originally Union Pacific 967B. IRM got it as a steam generator car from the Michigan Northern who purchased it from Amtrak who was the one that converted it to a steam generator car. After IRM got it it was leased to the Wisconsin Southern and converted back into an operating locomotive by WSOR to be used with the two E9A's WSOR owned. When Watco purchased the Wisconsin Southern the lease of the 102 ended and it went back to IRM.
A little research on Trains.com turned up an August 3,2006 item on their Newswire regarding WSOR 102. In short, MARC 91 (formerly BN 9907 and CB&Q 9973) had the prime mover(s?) removed and installed into WSOR 102 to return it to as-built condition with 2 EMD prime movers. Interestingly, it quotes WSOR president William Gardner stating that, on his retirement, he would give all 3 E-units (10A, 102 and 10C)to IRM in operating condition. I guess the sale of WSOR to Watco put an end to that, instead terminating the lease of 102.