DL&W GP7 #959

Thanks for that scoop, Pete.  I look forward to seeing it!  Call me crazy, but there's something really cool about that basic black Lackawanna paint scheme with gold lettering.  Here's a shot of #959 working in Scranton, PA.  I apologize for the grainy photo.

This is VERY GOOD NEWS to me. The 959 went on post merger to become Erie Lackawanna MFSE15D-4 # 1278 and she is the only surviving DL&W road diesel of any kind. I spent many hours riding her and her sister units on the O&S Division north of Syracuse. BETTER THAN STEAM!!!

MFSE15D-4 #1278 in Utica, NY 1-1971

joe,

that's what it's going to look like.

Mike Delvecchio told me that that unit actually survived EMD trade-in and the Pielet Bros. scrap yard.

DOES ANYONE HAVE PHOTOS OF 959/1278 EN ROUTE?!?!?!

It was already through Altoona on the 27th, and someone posted a photo on RYPN.

not my picture, got it off of facebook from mike delvecchio. but here it is going through horseshoe curve enroute to allentown pa.

Surviving Pielet Bros.  and EMD trade in.....better than steam....Yunz guys are making my day !!!   Don't let what happened to Espee 4450 happen here !   Be diligent !  She needs to be restored, and MUed with the two Lackawanna F3s  for a photo freight ! Can I get a giant HUZZAH !!!!

The photo on Horseshoe Curve was actually taken by Missy Gray, as Mike DelVecchio mentioned on Facebook.  This unit is a long-hood forward locomotive.  She will definitely be unusual when she runs around Scranton.  

Another unusual thing about her is that she defies the laws of LIONEL!    She is a dynamic brake equipped GP7.  All Lionel units with the dynamic brake "clip" on their back are considered GP9s, and the non clipped units are GP7s.  To complicate matters, Steamtown's resident GP9, from the Nickel Plate Road, does not have dynamics.  

As we say at Steamtown, "truth is stranger than fact."

Would Bachmann make a Williams GP7 Diesel in the Lackawanna scheme to commemorate the preservation effort?

Andrew

I doubt any of the folks here could answer that. Why not ask WBB, Lionel, and MTH?

She had an early EMD drum controller and 24 RL brake facing the long hood when I was on her back in the EL days. Along with gutting the dynamics, what did MK do to the cab configuration??? Retrofitting 26NL or even 26L brakes and RP 105 ("clean cab") control stands to Capital Rebuild Program units like CR 5460 was commonly done and if the control stand was changed out, it couldn't have been too much trouble to set the unit up for short hood first operation.

The DL&W GP-9 is eastbound on NS 33A on the Harrisburg Line. It went through Palmyra, PA on 10-01-13 at 1815 Hrs . It is the 5th or 6th engine in line. NS 33A is a manifest train destined for Allentown, PA.  The same train is pulling three New Jersey Transit passenger cars.  

Please,,,,,,it is a GP7!!! Also please note that there were NO "dashes" in the early EMD model names, until the "40-2" series of units.

I have seen Dave Monte Verde's photos of the cab of 959 as it is today and the unit appears UNTOUCHED. Original EMD drum controller set up for long hood lead and a DS-24 brake valve. Now to get her her Dynamics back.

Stopped down today and here she sits awaiting some long overdue TLC

For those not familiar with Scranton, bbsfdl60's photo was taken at the Delaware-Lackawanna's yard in the South side of town, a small yard on the former D&H line. In the distance, you can see an Erie Lackawanna/NJDOT passenger car that is part of the Erie Lackawanna Dining Car Preservation Society.  

There are plenty of preservation options in the area, if you want to take part in any of them.

Tim is right, I hope those in the area realize how good they have it.  

Very luck and I have hundred of photos from 1997 to now showing the evolution of the DL and the amazing preservation work.  Where else could you see a quartet of vintage restored RS-3's lashed up pulling freight trains.  Very lucky to also live three blocks from the Breck St shops