EMD Plant - La Grange, IL

Yes, Matt, that is the original Main Plant, that was torn down, back in the late 1990s. Although not shown in that ariel view, the Engineering Building, Export Building, and Engine Plant are all still there.

The Pielet Brothers Scrap Yard, was right across the IHB tracks, to the north, and was where trade-in units went for disassembly and scrapping. Pielet Brothers was such a huge operation, that if either Art or Sam Pielet did not like the price of scrap metal at the time, they would simply hold on to it, until the price went up to their liking.

And yes, that was the ONLY EMD plant is McCook, Ill. The did have a plant 2, on the south side of Chicago (the Pullman area, I think), which was the heavy fabrication plant, but was closed in the early 1960s if I recall.

For what it's worth, the reason EMD had, and still has a MAILING ADDRESS of LaGrange, IL, is because when "The Factory" was started in about 1933, the little community of McCook didn't want to be bothered with all the future mail about to hit their postoffice (however they were more than happy the reap the tax income from EMC/EMD and Reynolds Aluminum!). Thus the mailing address was/is EMD LaGrange, IL 60525, while the SHIPPING address was/is 9301 West 55th Street, McCook IL.

I pretty sure most of the facility is still there. They definitely have a research facility there. I had a coworker get a job there 2 years ago. 

The last time I was there was in 1989 for the 50th anniversary of the FT diesel open house.

They were still making parts then and also service work, they did a demonstration of their (200 ton?) locomotive lift, impressive.

There was once a scrap yard East of their facility but its gone now. I do not know the name of it.

I have some photos of the 1989 open house I'll see if I can dig them out.

franktrain 

Thanks for the replies and all the great historic info.  Matt

Here are some pics of F-Unit construction at the EMD Plant.

http://www.pbase.com/espeef5/emd_funits

Matt

Hot Water, Here's that pic of the CB&Q F-unit being scrapped at Pielet Bros.  Photo taken by Sid Vaught in September of 1970.  Matt

Well, it's not! Everything shown in that small inset photo posted above by Matt, is GONE!!!!

For us steam fans who don't follow diesel history, where did it all GO?  When and why or

did GM get out of the loco business, and who is building them now? 

One of the Pielet Brothers' sons attended my high school - today's Hinsdale Central. Demonstrating that the locomotive scrap business was pretty lucrative, the son received a brand new 1961 red Impala, 348, "4 on the floor" convertible, in 1961. That was replaced the next year with a brand new 1962 Corvette!  

........I was driving a Ford Falcon. Drat! (or as Mad Magazine called it, a Furd Foulcar!)

The main EMD site was leveled and is now an industrial park.  As I recall, R&D was in a small facility on the east end of the property. 

I seem to be running into a few people that USED to work there recently.

Rusty

Bad enough I had to see steamers being cut-up when I was a little kid, and fortunately not the ones I really liked.  But cutting up F-Units??? I'm headed for the potty to go barf  ! ! ! ! 

That's not the half of it, what about all those beautiful CB&Q E5A & B units, not to mention all the Santa Fe Alco PA & PB units?

Than goodness the 9911 escaped!  Too bad Herb Hansen couldn't snatch a B unit, too.

Rusty

That whole "transaction" actually really happened because of Art & Same Pielet. Why, because Pielet Brothers Scrap Metals, was under strict contract to EMD/GM that they could ONLY sell "processed scrap", i.e. No bells, NO builder plates, NO engine components, NO horns, and most importantly NO LOCOMOTIVES! Thus, when Herb Hansen asked VERY NICELY if he could purchase an E5A, the EMD General Manager discussed it with the Pielets, and explained that the unit would be going to a REAL museum, that could very well be operating it someday. The Pielets agreed to sell the 9911 to Herb Hanses, at a negotiated fair, scrap value price, so long as EMD would give Pielet Brothers Scrap Metals Co. an official, legal release from the EMD/GM contract. The EMD General Manager agreed, forwarded the subject letter to Pielet Brothers, and the rest is history.

Only a very few years later, about 1972, a different group, from West Virginia, approached the Pielets about their former Santa Fe Alco PB unit, that was in Argo, IL providing electrical power for the big 2000 HP motor that drove the automobile shredder machine, there in Argo at the other Pielet Brothers Scrap yard. It is too bad that the 2 or 3 guys that walked into the main office, got just a little too pushy with the two Pielet brothers, and the end result was, they were thrown out of the office with the parting statement that they would have Mr. Jay Rockefeller, of the State of West Virginia FORCE they Pielets to donate or sell that PB to them!

Some weeks later, the EMD General Manager received a letter from that same Mr. Jay Rockefeller of the State of West Virginia, requesting help in OBTAINING the former Santa Fe Alco PB, at Pielet Brothers Scrap Yard. Naturally, the poor General Manager didn't have a clue what this was all about, sooooo, THE BOSS comes walking into my cubicle one morning, hands me "the letter" and asks if I would PLEASE find out what the he$$ THIS is all about! Sure thing, Mr. Brownell!

I quickly drove over to Pielet Brothers office and asked Art about an old Alco down at Argo. My Lord, you'd have thought I'd asked about his first born! He jumped up from behind the desk and darned near chewed my head off, but luckily I'd had a long working relationship with Art, over the last year or so, since I was the Sales Engineer responsible for all traded in locomotives, and had already bailed Art out of a number of pretty tight spots already. I finally got him calmed down enough for him to tell me about the 2 or 3 "rail nuts from down south, someplace" who tried to get him to GIVE the PB to them!

Naturally I was stunned to discover that the darned thing still existed! Art told me to accompany him down to Argo and he would show it to me. Sure enough, there sat a Santa Fe Alco PB, roaring away at full load, powering that enormous automobile shredder! Art told me that his brother Sam had gotten into an argument with COMED over electric rates, so they moved the old PB down to Argo on the IHB, and he paid an Alco Service Man to come in and supervise the repairs & rebuild of the diesel engine & generator. Sam then told COMED to go you know where, and he simply made his own power!

I assure Art that in NO WAY would EMD get involved in FORCING he and his brother to "give up" their toy, but our General Manager would have to do SOMETHING to respond to the guy in West Virginia. Sam and I agreed the best way for all parties to get out of this was: A) have the EMD General Manager write the official letter to Pielet Brothers, releasing them from the binding EMD/GM contract, 2) the General Manager would also write back to Rockefeller and explain that EMD had formerly "released" Pielet Brothers from the binding EMD/GM contract, so that they could THEN deal directly with Mr. Art Pielet, 3) Art would THEN be fully free to do whatever he wished with that stupid Alco!

The final end result was, of course, that those "rail nuts from someplace down south" didn't handle the whole thing properly, eventually aggravating BOTH brothers to the point that, when the Alco finally was used up, and could no longer maintain 2000HP , they scrapped it! Too bad they didn't let Herb Hansen handle it for them.

More from the Pielet Bros. Scrap Yard...Matt

Just goes to show what happens if you approach folks the right way, miracles can happen.

I've been reading about IRM's early days in the last two issues of Rail and Wire.  Those original members seemed face adversity as a challenge and managed to pull off miracles almost every day...

Rusty

My favorite pictures from Pielet Brothers are of U30C's being cut up.  One is on the wall over my computer. 

Some pictures from the EMD 50th Anniversary in 1972:

Rusty

Great photos and info in this thread! I remember seeing the big northwoods C&NW ALCOs lined up at Pielet Brothers for cutup in the late'80's or so. Very sad, and I couldn't get closer than the Joliet Road bridge to get a photo. I have that somewhere....

By the way, here's the EMD sign at IRM as it appears today:

(however they were more than happy the reap the tax income from EMC/EMD and Reynolds Aluminum!)

Reynolds Aluminum, EMD, GSC...what a shame that they're all gone. I was at Reynolds when they were auctioning off the tools & machines..that place was HUGE and half of it was already demolished. The way things are going I wouldn't be surprised if Caterpillar in Peoria leaves IL.    

Here's some photos taken at the EMD open house on 9/21/1997:

From  Goggle maps 

With the way Flickr recently changed, I'm not sure how well this will work.

Here's a link to a few pics I have of Pilet Bros scrap yard.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9...s/72157632515207912/

And I think this should be a link to pics I have from around the EMD Lagrange plant.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9...s/72157632502256850/

My only comment is, you where VERY lucky that you didn't get arrested by the McCook Police while in the process of shooting many of those photos.

Ya gotta admit, HW, they're pretty cool pics.  Maybe he had an "employee discount" and that's why he didn't get arrested.  I still like the history of EMD and that scrap yard.  Matt

Matt,

I am pretty familiar with just about every square yard around the original EMD plant grounds (up thru 1998 anyway), I can tell that the vast majority of the photos where shot from the IHB tracks that run between the EMD plant and the Alcoa plant & the scrap yard property. The McCook Police where famous for arresting raifans in that area.

Yes, my Flickr pictures were taken from the IHB ROW, and through the back of the old Pilet Brothers lot. These were from the mid-80's when I was about 15 (I remember riding my bike to get there). So while i was young and dumb at the time, there were no terrorist threats from a guy with a camera back then as there might be today. I stayed off the IHB main line, didn't climb on trains, steal anything, or cause trouble, Etc. I'm not saying it was right, and sure the police could've been called for my trespassing, but I still look back at it as me being a harmless kid who made sure to stay out of the way. I've heard stories of Pilet having guard dogs running around, but the areas I was in were always open without a fence, so I don't know about that. 

Sam

I never actually saw any "guard dogs" over at Pielet Brothers Scrap Yard, but Art & his son Bob, had a pet Rottweiler that generally hung out at the office. All someone at the scrap yard had to do was notify the McCook Police that someone was walking along the IHB track, and "The Man" would be there quickly. The Pielet family took care of the McCook Police Dept. so anything they needed, "the Man" was Jonny on the spot. You were lucky, to say the least, as neither the Pielet family nor the McCook Police liked railfans.