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

[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?

[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

[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.

[oskar]

a BNSF SD9 in Augusta,GA




kevin

[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.

[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.

[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!!

[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.

[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.

[BentnoseWillie]

Easy. CP 4744 - the one and only M640.

[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.

[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]

[Train Guy 3]

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

[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.

[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!

[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

[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.

[starwardude]

I'd have to say the 2 and only cab units of the Roger Wiliams,owned by the New Haven RR, which is where br60103 possibly made a mistake. It ran between NYC and Boston. I saw them @ the Danbury RR Museum. Also there is the only ex-NH Mack Railbus in a museum in the US. @ others still exist , with one trundling around in the NYC subway system and the other on a railroad in Spain.[{(-_-)}]

[wcfan4ever]

QUOTE: Originally posted by stokerk

My rarest locomotive that I had ever seen was if I remember right , A Delaware & Hudson Shark nose , Quite a few years ago the SOO LINE was transporting the unit for some place . It was parked on a spur track next to the Ladysmith Wi. station with SOO power hooked onto it . I was told that this was one of only two left in the world. I wi***hat I had taken pictures when I was a youngster back then.

The locomotive you are talking about I beleive is sitting on Escanaba & Lake Superior out of public viewing. My rarest sighting was the Union Pacific United Way #3300 in Bulter, WI.

[Anonymous]

I have seen a number of one of's like the GM10 and GM6. I also count the B&O GP40 painted in gold as the GM50 in honor of the 50th year of EMC/EMD. I also saw the Amtrak LRC (being hauled by a F40 because it broke down). But what I hold as my rarest sighting was the remains of a standard gauge 0-4-0T in Damascus Virginia that the owners had removed some of the firebox and installed an old chevy engine and manual transmission connected to the rear axle. Yes a steam engine with a stick shift and a clutch!!! When I saw it 25 years ago it had not run in at least 10 years. I doubt it is still there, but I wonder.

[BR60103]

The most unusual piece that I actually rode was one of the power cars for the Roger Williams (?), the B&M RDC-type train with the F-unit noses. On a train out of Boston to Springfield, back in 1973 or 4.

[Anonymous]

Recently I saw a CB&Q (yes Chicago, Burlington & Quincy , the real deal, no patches) and FRISCO (unpatched) hoppers in BNSF iron ore service. Both cars were unaltered; original numbers, markings and all. I consider this a rare find in my book, would you all?

[Anonymous]

I think mine would have to be, the big 4-4-0 that first topped the 100mph now in Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry.

[Anonymous]

I think that an ALCo-GE-IR 100ton 600hp box cab at the Portola RR Museum would have to be the rarest I have ever seen

[SSW9389]

When I first started railfaning 1969-70 I saw the hulk of the very last DL109 out in the weeds past South Station is Boston.

Saw one of the RS1325s in Powerton, Illinois in 1980.

[METRO]

I have seen quite a few rares for someone my age (Born durring the first Regan Administration) but the very rarest would have to be the rusty Alco PA-1 I saw railfaning in Mexico. After that it would be an only slightly modified GP-7 that I saw on a shortline siding in Ohio, and the NYC Subway fare collection train.

The rarest car I have ever seen was an abandoned old riveted tank car in western New York, around Dunkirk. The bottom of the car had holes rusted out and there was a large patch with no vegitation around the holes, which makes me wonder what the car was, at one point, containing.

[Anonymous]

My rarest locomotive that I had ever seen was if I remember right , A Delaware & Hudson Shark nose , Quite a few years ago the SOO LINE was transporting the unit for some place . It was parked on a spur track next to the Ladysmith Wi. station with SOO power hooked onto it . I was told that this was one of only two left in the world. I wi***hat I had taken pictures when I was a youngster back then.

[Anonymous]

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

[TH&B]

I suppose the rarest thing I've seen is the TH&B steam generater car in the 80's wich is made from a coal tender for a NYC Hudson (didn't know that at the time but it looked interesting), possibly the only part of a NYC Hudson left on the rails.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by espeefoamer

The rarest piece of equipment I ever saw were two Alcohaulics.There were only three built.I got a picture of them from a passing train. They were in storage at Roseville.At the same time I also saw the KM camera car.[:)]

I have a brass model and a pic of the SP 9802 which was an ALCo DH-643 taken at Roseville in Oct. 1971. and the KM is in storage at the CRSM.