What is the rarest locomotive, rail car, or any other peice of equipment you've seen??

[AntonioFP45]

In the mid 1980s in Tampa at an industrial plant near SR 60 there was an ex-Milwaukee Road switcher with badly faded orange paint. What was unusual about it was that it was a Fairbanks Morse unit.

I'm sure it was sold or retired eventually. Hopefully it wasn't scrapped.

[Anonymous]

For me, it was the AAR's Test Train, seen at Rigfby Yard, South Portland, Maine, prior to the startup of Boston-Portland Amtrak Downeaster service. I wish I could share a photo with you-all.
RadioRon

[Anonymous]

1. A FM H16-44 on a flatcar behind two NS C-39-8 headed to Spencer, NC.
2. NS GP40X
3. NS GP59 #4610, the Southern tribute engine

That's all for now. If I think of some more, I will add them!

[trainfan1221]

I saw the Conrail "support our troops" SD50 once, even more amazing was that it was on a southern tier train. Also saw the inspection train (amused a co-worker with my reaction to that one), and years ago saw a derelict steam locomotive on the Middletown & New Jersey, which is supposedly still on the property.

[Train Guy 3]

I guess the rarest thing ive ever saw was the Panama Canal electric towing locomotive at the VA museum of transportation.

[Big_Boy_4005]

I don't know if I would call this rare, but it certainly is unusual. It is pulling a string of gondolas full of ties. I think I may have seen this thing on the highway once, driving down the road with a knuckle coupler on it's bumper.[swg]

[Anonymous]

Not really rare <yet> but I saw an old E&N loco leading a CP coal train out of Roberts Bank the other night. The old paint scheme too, not the one where E&N is painted in tiny letters below the cab window.

Seems the way the things are going on Vancouver Island right now, the E&N won't be around too much longer.

[BentnoseWillie]

Easy. CP 4744 - the one and only M640.

[mloik]

Just down the street at the excursion Roaring Camp Narrow Gauge Railroad, they have the oldest operating Heisler (1898), as well as an operating Climax and Shay. I rode in the cab of the Hesiler a couple of years ago, and got to take some turns at the throttle.

[mudchicken]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Big_Boy_4005

I don't know if I would call this rare, but it certainly is unusual. It is pulling a string of gondolas full of ties. I think I may have seen this thing on the highway once, driving down the road with a knuckle coupler on it's bumper.[swg]

Brandt Hi-Rail gear is not that uncommon and that is what you are looking at.

[Anonymous]

It may not be uncommon, however seeing a move like that is pretty rare! He's pulling gondolas and doesn't even have traction motors. At least it has air brakes!

I have heard of trucks taking business away from the RR's, but this one takes rthe cake!!

[Anonymous]

I saw the General Dynamics Turbo Train in service on the New Haven Shoreline back in the 60's or 70's. It certainly was odd looking, and odd sounding. It didn't last long, and I never got a photo of it.

[coborn35]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Doggy

I BELIVIE IT WAS A DM&IR SD18 WHEN I WAS A KID

Doggy, if you like SD18's, the North Shore Scenic Railroad in Duluth,MN operates one that is is brand new condition.

[oskar]

a BNSF SD9 in Augusta,GA




kevin

[Anonymous]

Seen a Sperry Track Inspection Car in Charleston S.C. Also seen 3 rail grinding trains in Seattle. Does watching the animals being unloaded off the circus train count?
In Brisbane Queenslands saw a long livestock train of sheep, the herding dogs ride underneath one or two cars.

[adrianspeeder]

A gon in LV paint in enola yard last year parked in the weeds. The next time i came back with a camera, it was gone. :(

Adrianspeeder

[tatans]

As a child watching a C.P.R. Selkirk-5900---2-10-4 backing up on a wye spur line because it couldn't fit the turntable in Moose Jaw, Sask. These locos seldom got this far east from Calgary and the mountains, could anything really be this BIG?

[passengerfan]

I guess I grew up at a fortunate time I was able to see and ride the Pioneer Zephyr while it was stiil operational. I rode the CN Turbo's many times between Toronto and Montreal.
And following is a list of just a few of the passenger trains I rode before they were absorbed by Amtrak.
Coast Daylight, Empire Builder, North Coast Limited, Super Chief, El Capitan, San Diegan, Cascade, Western Star, Mainstreeter, Denver Zephyr, California Zephyr, Twentieth Century Limited, Broadway Limited, New England States, Canadian, Super Continental, Panorama, Ocean, Scotian, Chaleur, Texas Chief, Sunset, International, Winnipeg Limited, Caribou Dayliner and many others.

[edbenton]

For me it would have to have been a SDL39 up on the WC in the mid 90's wish I had gotten a pic of it then there were only 10 of them ever built. Second would have to be UP 6936 pulling freight on the old Golden State route in early 1998 during the meltdown of the UP.

[spbed]

I would have to say the DHRR wooden president car that they had stored at that time in a barn in Albany NY. Supposely the car goes back to the inception of the DHRR & was used for board meetings.

[cnw1995]

A CGW caboose now in work train service for the UP

[Bob-Fryml]

During the summer of 1995 I was driving southwards along a South Dakota state highway that paralleled the Rapid City - Hermosa - Dakota Jct. branch that Union Pacific had acquired through its CNW-UP merger. As I approached Dakota Jct., the tri-weekly evening freight trundling westbound towards Crawford, Nebr. came into view. I pulled up to the road crossing and with camera in hand snapped the last exposure of Kodachrome left on the roll. It was a good shot, a nice three-quarters wedge view, but it didn't capture the real prize in that train consist. Found about midway in this mixed merchandise local freight was a rather nicely aged Minneapolis & St. Louis two bay covered hopper bearing its original paint, no secondary reporting marks, and completely graffiti free! To hell with the locomotive, that little covered hopper was the true rarity of the year. Just think, 35-years after Heineman absorbed "The Louie" and it was still around!

Yes, I've seen CGW covered hoppers rebuilt or refurbished by the C.& N.W. as well as CGW company service fuel tanks, but only one original piece of "Louie" rolling stock.

[espeefoamer]

In 1978 I saw the Washington (DC)Terminal Quarter Horse switcher. This was built in Romania.Does anyone know what happened to that unit after that?
I have seen all three South Shore Little Joes and thier line car 1100.This was rebuilt from an Indiana Railroad interurban coach.I have seen Jersey Central boxcab 1000 at the B&O museum in Baltimore.This was the first successful diesel electric unit built. I saw the CB&Q Pioneer Zephyr at the Chicago Museum of Science & Industry.I saw the Canadian National boxcab electrics in Montreal just before they were retired.
I also saw Amtrak's UA turbotrain in storage,and one of the center cars from the New Haven Roger Williams train.I also saw Amtrak's French turbo train.

[CP5415]

I've only seen one in my lifetime, even though I've seen it several times.
CPR H1b 4-6-4 Hudson 2816.

Gordon

[Cribbercat]

I've seen, operated, and repaired a Loram "Cribbing Machine". Only 2 were built as prototypes. Both are on site at Navajo Generating Station in No. Az. The 455 is a parts machine after being hit with a loaded coal train, Unit #6004 in the lead. The 456 is in operating condition and goes out occasionally. Thats how I got my nickname "cribbercat".

[morseman]

In the early 50's at the Montreal St.Laurent CN yard
there was a flat car with 3 large wooden vats,
with the name of a pickling company on the vats.
they were the width of the car and about four feet high.
I believe they were destined for a pickling company
about a mile away.

In the same yard I noticed several trains with five or six locos destined
for the scrap heap. They had their driving rods removed and the rods
were in the engines tenders. These trains were part of a regular
freight consist .

[Glen Ellyn]

I think the rarest thing I have ever seen was an S-2 Green Mountain deisel attatched to Union Pacific #3300. ofcourse

[Anonymous]

Although most of these locomotives are unoperateable, I've seen a UP 4-12-2
3 hesilers (one was owned by sunkist ! ), a SP streamlined alantic (rare) , a WP
2-8-0 , & a logging 2-6-6-0 (small for a mallet). Does a RG&W GP-35 sighting
on Dec 15 2004 count ?

[greyhounds]

Let's see, it had to be:

1) Rock Island DL-109 re-engined by EMD on the head of the Peoria Rocket.

2) Those RS1325's on the C&IM that ran through Manito, IL on a regular basis.
(I have absolutely no idea why the railroad bought them, unless EMD was selling 'em cheap)

3) US Army Transportation Corps 2-8-0 #607 designed for European clearances and preserved in the Army Transportation Museum at Ft. Eustis, VA. (I ran that thing when it was pulled out of the museum and operated over the Army track on the fort.)

[daveklepper]

Rode the Boston - NY turbotrain at least five times. It did last about two years or more in operation. First ran into Grand Central, then after the NH was merged into PC and into the Amtrak era, ran into Penn. Enjoyed sitting in the pod behind the engineer, a great way to railfan the line. Highest speed reached was 110 mph, and that was not on the 100 mph track between "Boston Switch" north of Providence and Route 128, but between Rye and New Rochelle. We were routed west on the eastbound express track which had recently been relayed with welded rail, and the engineer did not want to miss his slot at the complex New Rochelle junction (Shell interlocking). For a while there was a 3:55 or 4:00 timing into Penn Station with a 10 minute connection to a 3:25 times Metroliner to Washington (the original mu equipment) that gave an approximately 7-1/2 hours Boston - Washington timing.