I know scrap yards sometimes take RR cars to cut them up for recycling as they often have tracks serving them. Are there any large places that just scrap RR cars and engines or places that specialize in this? Do they sometimes save and sell the trucks? Do engines or other parts get sold? Around where I live I know of 1 steel boxcar sitting near grain bins for storage and another place out in the country with a wooden boxcar sitting about 200-300 feet back from the road.
Modeling the "Fargo Area Rapid Transit" in O scale 3 rail.
There is an automotive junkyard in Phoenix called Ecology Auto Wrecking - it's on 27th avenue just north of the ex-SP Phoenix line, though not directly served by it. They do metal recycling of all sorts there, as well as automotive recycling. On occasion, I've seen freight car trucks by the dozens in there. I've also seen passenger car trucks, as well as other various cut up pieces of freight cars. I've also seen EMD 16-645E3 engines in there, complete with turbos, just sitting on their sides on the ground in various states of damage (it was a sad sight).
There is usually many sections of railroad rail in there at any given time.
There are places like that al over the country. Just soth of Chcago in the rough suburb of dior is NRE's main facility. Here is a phoo of thir backot. They have plenty of old EMD power there, including an F40C, an F7, SP High hood Geep, SD45-2, and dozens of old end cab switchers and first generation geep rebuilds. They build Gensets here and rebuild and sell or lease locomotives.
LARRY'S TRUCK AND ELECTRIC, INC. (located where?) operates like a regular automobile scapyard, except it is for locomotives in addition to trucks. The scrap locomotives, sell usable parts to railroads that can use them, including museum operatons, and occasionally will recondition, repair, and sell a used and operating locomotive. Anything not usable is comapted into steel crap cubes and sold to steelmakers.
Dixmoor isn't that rough. About 2 miles from where I grew up was (is?) a scrap yard operated by Hyman-Michaels at 137th and Avenue O. They have been scrapping freight cars and locomotives for years. Chrome Crankshaft formerly occupied a corner of this facility. The Purdy Company also has a small facility near Powderhorn Lake at Brainard and State Line Rd.
Though it is not a railroad burial ground nor scrap yard, the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum (http://sdrm.org/) in Campo, California has acres of cars, apparently in perpetual storage. It is probable that this organization has easily acquired rolling stock that was being retired and had a desert location with very low humidity, no rain, etc. that allows such preservation until a use emerges.
This may be sort of like the desert locations where airplane leasing companies store planes until needed.
daveklepper LARRY'S TRUCK AND ELECTRIC, INC. (located where?) They are located in McDonald Ohio.
LARRY'S TRUCK AND ELECTRIC, INC. (located where?)
They are located in McDonald Ohio.
On the east coast, they often went to Naporano (now Metal Management, I think), located in the Ironbound section of Newark NJ. Here's a Bing Bird-Eye view, but no locomotives to be scraped (the white boxcar, I'm not sure if it's to be a victim or not).
Here's a Railroad.Net thread about Naporano, with links to images (alas most of the links don't work anymore, it's an old thread). However, the last image works, of some PC E units being scrapped in 1980, does work. I personally remember seeing the yard south of Naporano jammed pack w/ old NYCTA subway cars (late 1980s) waiting to be scrapped - sort of a sea of red bodies + white roofs (this was before they began reefing old subway cars enmasse). Sorry, no images, this was before digital photography and as a college student back then I never really carried a camera...
The only problem with railroad scrapyards is the hoppers and gondola that are used to haul the scrap are often so beat, you can't be sure if they're not there to be scrapped themselves.
I have read that Pielet Brothers in McCook, Illinois - next to EMD's La Grange plant - scrapped a lot of locomotives, especially those that EMD received as trade-ins on new units. For example, see the article under ''Pielet Brothers Scrap Iron & Metal Company'', about 2/3 of the way down this web page on -
COMPANIES KNOWN TO BE IN THE LOCOMOTIVEBUILDING, REBUILDING, RESALE, AND SCRAPPING BUSINESS
Compiled by Don Strack
(Listed alphabetically)
This page was last updated on May 2, 2010.
http://utahrails.net/loconotes/dealers.php
Who knew ?
But, missing from the list is Intercontinental Engineering (or similar) in the Kansas City area, if I'm not mistaken. They had several of UP's gas-turbines after they were removed from service, per the book Turbines Westward by Thomas R. Lee (1975). So I'll let Mr. Strack know about that sometime soon.
- Paul North.
I work for Alter Railcar Services in Mankato MN and we dismantle cars and locomotives. All usable components are resold to various reconditioners and everything else is cut up for remelt. We also buy scrap off the street. Our facility in Des Moines IA only cuts up cars and locomotives. It amazing some of the nice cars the railroads dispose of. Our two locomotives that we use to switch our facilities were both bought as scrap, a 1940 ALCo HH100 and a 1954 ALCo S-4. Parts from railcars are availble for sale to the public.
And of course sometimes the railroad does the work themselve.
Port of Tillamook Bay has been scrapping a number of their SD9s in place at their facility for a bit now.
They will save some portions. They scrapped an Ex-BN SD9 and saved the chopped hood and cab face which will be grafted onto an Ex-SP SD9 that they are keeping.
There's a mid-sized scrapper in Green Bay (part of Alter Recycling) that gets about 3-8 cars per day from CN. Lots of gondola loads of ground up steel come out. They take in autos and other assorted steel as well. It appears they save the wheels (axles) and those get put on flat cars to be re-used.
Here's a photo at Larry's Truck and Elec, as mentioned above (which I believe is a bit SE of Columbus, OH)
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=334648
McDonald, OH is a suburb of Youngstown, OH
Doublestack There's a mid-sized scrapper in Green Bay (part of Alter Recycling) that gets about 3-8 cars per day from CN. Lots of gondola loads of ground up steel come out. They take in autos and other assorted steel as well. It appears they save the wheels (axles) and those get put on flat cars to be re-used. Here's a photo at Larry's Truck and Elec, as mentioned above (which I believe is a bit SE of Columbus, OH) http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=334648
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
travelingengineer Though it is not a railroad burial ground nor scrap yard, the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum (http://sdrm.org/) in Campo, California has acres of cars, apparently in perpetual storage. It is probable that this organization has easily acquired rolling stock that was being retired and had a desert location with very low humidity, no rain, etc. that allows such preservation until a use emerges. This may be sort of like the desert locations where airplane leasing companies store planes until needed.
I tried on google maps to find all these acres of cars, can't find them, even went up and down the tracks both ways from town, still nothing.
Can you tell me where they are located?
tatans travelingengineer: Though it is not a railroad burial ground nor scrap yard, the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum (http://sdrm.org/) in Campo, California has acres of cars, apparently in perpetual storage. It is probable that this organization has easily acquired rolling stock that was being retired and had a desert location with very low humidity, no rain, etc. that allows such preservation until a use emerges. This may be sort of like the desert locations where airplane leasing companies store planes until needed. I tried on google maps to find all these acres of cars, can't find them, even went up and down the tracks both ways from town, still nothing. Can you tell me where they are located?
travelingengineer: Though it is not a railroad burial ground nor scrap yard, the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum (http://sdrm.org/) in Campo, California has acres of cars, apparently in perpetual storage. It is probable that this organization has easily acquired rolling stock that was being retired and had a desert location with very low humidity, no rain, etc. that allows such preservation until a use emerges. This may be sort of like the desert locations where airplane leasing companies store planes until needed.
Plug these coordinates into a mapping program: N 32.61768 W 116.46942. Might be it.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
I finally figured it from a previous post, he referred to tons of cars stored by railroads and I assumed this was somewhere around Campo, I see now he was referring to the cars at the RR museum.
"Where (do) trains go to die?" And, if it became more than twelve hours late, it was "dead on schedule," and could not move without an order giving it the authority to move.
Johnny
[/quote]
Once again, Dixmoor isn't that rough. I-57 passes near the facility at about 143rd Street. The entrance to the facility is at about 144th and Robey, which is a few blocks west of Wood St. Some of it can be seen through the trees from Spalding Ave, which is a diagonal street which parallels the GTW main line east of Western Ave.
BaltACD McDonald, OH is a suburb of Youngstown, OH Doublestack There's a mid-sized scrapper in Green Bay (part of Alter Recycling) that gets about 3-8 cars per day from CN. Lots of gondola loads of ground up steel come out. They take in autos and other assorted steel as well. It appears they save the wheels (axles) and those get put on flat cars to be re-used. Here's a photo at Larry's Truck and Elec, as mentioned above (which I believe is a bit SE of Columbus, OH) http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=334648
PDN: Are you thinking of MidWest Locomotive in North Kansas City?
Might add both of RELCO's shops at Albia IA and Minooka IL to that list. The Iowa operation is growing like a weed. (they had a fair-sized fleet of ALCo's for a while)
Add Chrome Crank to that list along with the various outfits that have called the CRIP Silvis IL shops and the C&EI Mt. Vernon IL shops home.
There is a place near Santa Ana, California that scraps both locomotives and freight car.
National Railway Equipment in Silvis IL Scrap and rehab.
NRE has a number of facilities. The home office and first location is in Dixmoor. They have since acquired the ex-RI shop in Silvis, Precision Engineering in Mt. Vernon IL and the ex-IC shop in Paducah..
"Where trains go to die?"
And no one said CSX.... (Did I miss it?)
I swear, what has happened to Snark in todays America??
hahaha
I like it, and I get the joke.
~Eastrail
The Snark has been hunted to near extinction. Years ago Guilford used to be where trains died...
Here is what happens to the 30+ year old Toronto UTDC CLRV streetcar fleet at Leslie Barns as it is replaced by the new Bombardier Flexity fleet.
Note the old trolley pole. In the next few years the whole tram system will convert to half pantographs.
LensCapOnI swear, what has happened to Snark in todays America??
There are some who feel it's still in full bloom here...
And curiously, today's "Zits" comic strip referred to the term.
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