If you're from Pittsburgh, or even if you've just been interested in the NS heritage units, you've heard of the Monongahela Railway, and the fleet of GE B23-7Rs (B23-S7s, or Super 7s) that the road purchased from GE in their last few years of operation before their absorption by Conrail, and subsequently NS and CSX. According to a secondhand account in the Ohio Central Facebook group, most of the fleet was stored and slatted for scrapping in the early 2000s, when a senior railroad employee and enthusiast convinced execs that the units might find homes on shortlines. Two were purchased by Providence & Worcester, two more by the Arkansas and Oklahoma, and most of the rest by Jerry Jacobsen's Ohio Central. Today, while 2216 remains in Connecticut, most of the rest (including the other P&W unit and one sold to New Castle Industrial) are on the Ohio Central, now owned by Genesee and Wyoming.
But, time is once again running out for the units; the EPA recently found that G&W was not operating enough locomotives that met minimum emissions standards, and ordered to road to invest in Tier 1(?) compliant units and disable many locomotives in its current fleet. Just over half of the Super 7s are on the list.
I have already made two trips out to Ohio to see the Super 7s, first in 2021 when rumors first circulated of their demise, and then again this past summer. On both trips, I ran into OHCR 3185, painted in patched CSX paint, and on the expedition filmed above, I ran into OHCR 4096, one of three units in various states of decaying Conrail paint. I'll be making one more trip next month, and will hopefully get at least a few more of the units I haven't seen, before they are sidelined in accordance with the mandate.
