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I don't think
there's much sadder in railroading, short of a wreck, than seeing
older locomotives waiting in a dead line for further parts
cannibalization or scrapping, especially while their younger
cousins race by on the mainline as you see in the photo below.
Yes, you're looking right through the shell of Conrail
B-23-7 # 2814 and seeing a train of auto-rack cars passing by
on the Norfolk Southern mainline next to the Juniata
Shops, Altoona,
PA in October 2003.

Conrail SW-1200 model # 9368, as seen
above, sits on the Norfolk Southern dead line with
the hulk of Conrail locomotive # 956, truck sets and
miscellaneous engine parts like the louver vents in the
foreground.

This engine has a long
pedigree--built in February 1956, delivered to the New Haven as #
645, absorbed into the Penn Central as # 9185 before ending up on
Conrail as # 9368. The engine next to it, now not much more
than a hulk, is Conrail # 1956. (The black shadow in the
picture isn't smoke--it's where I had to shoot the picture around
the opening in a cyclone fence!)(Yes, I practice safe railfanning
and respect all fences!)
The dead line had more than a few old
proud engines down on their luck including Conrail General Electric
Model B23-7 locomotives # 1902 and
1956.

As the sun drops into the west, we
look to the north end of the dead line and see Conrail locomotive #
2022, another B23-7 keeping company with fellow retired engines #
1902 and # 1956...

...while to the south end of the dead
line, Conrail switcher # 9364, her "white lined" number showing

she's off the railroad's books, and
Conrail locomotive # 2953, a General Electric U33B, await their
fate.
While these proud locomotives who made
America hum may not have the brighter museum exhibit future of

Pennsylvania Railroad GG-1 electric
locomotive # 4913 as a museum piece....

...at least they're not
mounted on the wall like some other anonymous iron horse!
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