Lehigh
Valley Railroad
All Time Locomotive Roster 1853 - 1976  |
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Table of Contents. Click links in the table below to go straight to that section, then at the bottom of each locomotive section is a link to return here.
Or you can keep scrolling down to read the page "in order" |
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Built 1855 - 1916 Rostered 1855 - 1951
Scroll
for the entire 0-8-0 Roster:
See the
Consolidation section below for the 36
??-class 0-8-0's, number 3176
- 3210, that
were built from older 2-8-0's
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4-6-0
Ten-Wheeler
Built 1855 - 1918
Rostered 1855 - 1951  LV No. 61 - "Towanda" - built 1866 - McKay & Aldus. Photographer unknown.  LV No. 158 - "Pittston" - built 1870 - Mason Machine Works. Mason photo.  LV No. 1623 - built 1905 - Alco Photographer unknown.  LV No. 1805 - built 1911 - LV Sayre Shops. Photographer unknown.  LV No. 1140 - built 1917 - LV Sayre Shops Photographer unknown.  LV No. 1150 - built 1917 - LV Sayre Shops. Photographer unknown.
Scroll
for
the
entire
4-6-0
Roster:
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Built 1857 - 1906 Rostered 1857 - 1939  0-4-0 Switchers were very
uncommon on the LV. The LV, being
primarily in the business of hauling
heavy loads of coal, had little use for
such small switchers. Only two were ever
on the roster, the least common of the
"regular" wheel arrangements.
No. 3500 was known to have been used at the LV's Bronx Terminal.
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Built 1859 - 1914 Rostered 1859 - 1951  LV 22 - LV's first 0-6-0 - built by Mason - 1859 Photographer unknown.  LV No. 432 - "Potter" - built 1884 - LV Hazleton shops Photographer unknown.  LV No. 3359 - built 1892 - Baldwin Photographer unknown.  LV No. 3253 - built 1876 - LV Hazleton shops. rebuilt 1911 at Sayre. Photographer unknown.  LV No. 3438 - built 1913 - LV Sayre Shops. Photographer unknown. 0-6-0 Switchers were the
smallest switchers in common use on the
LV. One hundred eleven 0-6-0's existed,
built new as 0-6-0's, plus three
4-6-0's rebuilt into 0-6-0's.2
Making
114 total 0-6-0's on the LV roster,
slightly less than the 143 0-8-0's.
Scroll
for the entire 0-6-0 Roster:
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2-2-0 "Planet"
type
Built 1862 Rostered 1862 - 18??  LV No. 24 - "Lilliput" -
built 1862 - Mason Machine Works
Only one 2-2-0 is
recorded on the LV roster, the LV's
"Lilliput" built by Mason in 1862. The
Lilliput is said to have been
rebuilt as a 4-2-4T, there are no known
photos of her in that configuration.
(The only other 4-2-4T on the LV roster
was "Dorothy")
Could the "Lilliput" have been rebuilt into "Dorothy"? it's possible! Dorothy was built in 1884 at the Wilkes Barre shops, and Lilliput is indicated as "scrapped about 1885", so the dates are interesting. Also, there is the notation that the Lilliput was rebuilt into a 4-2-4T.2 And, the drivers of Lilliput and Dorothy appear to be identical! and the smokebox (front of the boiler) looks very similar. It has been assumed that Dorothy was built from scratch, but its possible that the Lilliput gave her drivers and boiler to Dorothy! This is however merely speculation at this point, but its an interesting theory! (click here for Dorothy)
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2-6-0 Mogul
Built 1864 - 1894 Rostered 1864 - 1930  Southern Central Railroad No. 65 - Built by Rogers, 1878 - Later LV No. 478  LV 87, the "Little Giant", built by Baldwin in 1868. 2-6-0 Moguls were quite
uncommon on the LV. Probably like the
0-4-0 switchers, the Moguls were simply
too small and light to be very useful to
an Anthracite hauler. Only seven moguls
were purchased new by the LV, the rest
came from LV predecessor roads Lehigh
& Mahanoy,
Southern
Central, Geneva Ithaca & Sayre,
Elmira Cortland & Northern, and
Delaware Susquehanna and
Schuylkill. A total of 41 moguls
were on the LV roster.
Scroll
for the entire 2-6-0 Roster:
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2-8-0 Consolidation
Built
1866 - 1913
Rostered
1866 - 1951
 LV No. 63 - The "Consolidation" - built by Baldwin, 1866 Baldwin Locomotive Works builders photo.
 Illustration of the Consolidation by William Wright. From his book "Development of the Locomotive", published in 1925.  LV No. 63 - The "Consolidation" - built by Baldwin, 1866 This is the 2nd Baldwin Locomotive Works builders photo. (the first is at the top of this section.)  LV No. 63 - The "Consolidation" (same locomotive as the original "Consolidation") Built by Baldwin, 1866. Photo shows No. 63 after being rebuilt; new boiler, new cab, and other upgrades. Date unknown, but probably 1890's.  LV No. 310 - The "United States" - built by Baldwin, 1876
 Joseph A. Smith collection, from North East Rails - used with permission, thanks! LV No. 706 - built by Baldwin, 1899. No. 706 was the last Consolidation on the LV roster, she operated up to 1950 and was scrapped in 1951. Click here for a video!  LV No. 911 - built by LV Sayre Shops, 1910 Photographer unknown. (number 911 is two years younger than sister 929 (below) but the photo of 911 is taken years after the photo of 929)  LV No. 929 - built by LV Sayre Shops, 1912. Photographer unknown. (shown in "as built" configuration) No's 911 and 929 were
members of the last class of
Consolidations on the LV, and
many of this class were rebuilt
into 0-8-0 switchers at Sayre between
1924 and 1929.2 No.
929 was rebuilt as 0-8-0 No. 3200
in 1927.2
Scroll
for the entire 2-8-0 Roster:
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2-10-0 Decapod Built 1867 Rostered 1867 - 1883 The Lehigh Valley is
credited with inventing four major wheel
arrangements: the 2-8-0 Consolidation,
the 2-10-0 Decapod, the 2-8-2 Mikado, and the 4-6-2 Pacific. Here is the second of the four, the 2-10-0 Decapod. After receiving the first Consolidation in 1866, and having it be hugely successful, the designer of the Consolidation, Master mechanic Alexander Mitchell, continued to experiment, and drew up plans that added one set of drivers to the 2-8-0 to create the first 2-10-0 Decapods. "Faced with the problem of negotiating the formidable grades on Mahanoy Mountain, Mitchell set out to design a locomotive capable of wrestling heavy trainloads over the Mahanoy branch. The result was a 2-8-0 wheel arrangement assembled by a dubious Matthias Baldwin according to Mitchell's plans. Turned out by the Baldwin works in 1866, the new locomotive was the first 2-8-0 built for road service, the progenitor of what would become a widely adopted freight hauling type on the LV and other roads. Named CONSOLIDATION, purportedly to commemorate the recent merger, the new 2-8-0 proved so successful in overcoming mountain grades that 14 more locomotives of the same type were added to the LV roster by Baldwin between 1867 and 1872. Seeking other novel motive power types for mountain road service, Mitchell drew up specifications for two 2-10-0's which were built in 1867 by Norris Brothers of Lancaster, Pa. Laying claim to the first locomotives built to the 2-10-0 design, the two Decapods ANT and BEE were something less than successful in service. Tight curves were more than a match for their long, rigid wheelbases, and they were subsequently rebuilt, the BEE as a 2-8-2 and the ANT as a 4-8-0." 3 While the LV invented the Decapod, they found the long wheelbase was not suitable for their twisting mountain routes, and the LV never rostered any others after the first two..the Decapod type however went on to become a popular wheel arrangement on other railroads, notably the PRR, who rostered nearly 600 of the type. The world's first Decapods, the Lehigh Valley's ANT and BEE:  LV No. 81 - the "ANT" - built by Norris, 1867  LV No. 82 - the "BEE" -
built by Norris, 1867
The ANT was
rebuilt in 1880 as a 4-8-0 at
Weatherly, was still around in 1905
to become ten-wheeler number 90, and
was finally scrapped in 1912.2
The BEE was rebuilt in 1883 as the world's first 2-8-2, then rebuilt again in 1889 as a 2-8-0w, and was off the roster by 1892.2
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2-2-2 Single
Built 1870 Rostered 1870 - 18?? One
of the earliest "Inspection engines"
or "Superintendents engine" was the
Lehigh Valley's "Cricket" of 1870.
Built at the LV's shops in Hazleton
PA.
 The only known
photo of the LV's "Cricket", built at the LV's
Hazleton shops, 1870.
Not much is known about the Cricket, other than she existed. It is not known how long she served with the LV. There is an interesting twist to her story however, because she appears to have a sister, which is today the only surviving example of the "Inspection Engine" type, the Reading Railroad's "Black Diamond", which is today preserved in St. Louis, and was cosmetically restored in 2014.  1947, Reading
PA, photographer unknown.
The two locomotives are remarkably similar! So similar in fact, that it seems unlikely their similarity could be pure coincidence..It seems likely that the earlier "Cricket" must have been an influence on the later "Black Diamond" somehow..but how? We do know that the build dates for both locomotives are correct. The Cricket was built in 1870, and the Black Diamond was built Nineteen years later in 1889. The LV Annual Report of 1870 specifically mentions the Cricket, and a letter from the Baldwin Company in 1949 confirms the 1889 build date for the Reading's "Black Diamond". Knowing the dates are correct, what could explain the similarity between the two locomotives? some possibilities: 1. It's just pure coincidence. that seems unlikely. 2. The Reading and the LV had a close relationship during this era. The Reading likely knew of the existance of the Cricket. Perhaps when they ordered the "Black Diamond" from Baldwin, they sent a photo, or plans, of the earlier Cricket to Baldwin to be used a guide. "Build us one like this." That's possible, but also seems unlikely, because "Inspection engine" technology had evolved a lot in the almost 20 years between the Cricket and the Black Diamond. much larger and fancier engines were being built by 1889. (The LV's "Dorothy" was built in 1884) Baldwin certaintly didnt "need" any plans to build a new inspection engine, and why would the Reading request something so "primitive" by 1889 standards? 3. A very interesting theory...Is it possible that the "Black Diamond" is in fact part the "Cricket" reincarnated?! Clearly the running gear is different, Baldwin would have added all-new working equipment: boiler, wheels, drivers, etc. Also the roof is clearly different. But perhaps the main "body" of the Black Diamond, the "coach" shell, is actually the body of the Cricket? It's entirely possible! and it's really the only thing that fully explains the remarkable similarity between the two locomotives. If this was true, Baldwin could legitimately consider the "Black Diamond" an all-new locomotive from their perspective, which they did. (they gave it a Baldwin build number). Which would make sense, as the entire "working" portion of the locomotive would have been a completely new locomotive, built new by Baldwin in 1889. And if this was true, it would not really be accurate to say the Cricket and the Black Diamond are "the same locomotive"..It would only be the coach "shell" that they have in common. But its an interesting possibility! The
LV had a total of seven "inspection
engines" alltogether, although not all
operated at the same time. More
details on the rest of them can be
found in the section for the
inspection engines, below.
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2-4-0T
Built 1871 Rostered 1871 - 18??  Baldwin Builders photo, 1871.
Only
one 2-4-0 was ever rostered by the LV.
The little tank engine was built by
Baldwin in 1871 for the Ithaca &
Athens Railroad. The Locomotive then
became Geneva Ithaca & Sayre No. 5
when the I&A became part of the
GI&S in 1876. Then, after a few
more name changes, the locomotive
finally became LV No. 528 in 1889.
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4-8-0
Mastodon
Built 1872 - 1892 Rostered 1872 - 1917  LV No. 20, "Champion", built by the LV's Weatherly Shops in 1880.  LV No. 379, "Cheyenne", built by the LV's Weatherly Shops in 1882.  LV No. 50, built by Baldwin in 1887. Photo is after 1905. Photographer unknown. The
4-8-0 Mastodon type was a relatively
uncommon heavy freight hauler on the LV.
Only sixty 4-8-0's were rostered by the
LV (compared to 308 2-8-0's, and 530
4-6-0's!) Most were built by the LV's
home shops, and some were built by
Baldwin. They were all built during a 20
year span, 1872 to 1892, and most were
still around to be assigned to the
O-class in 1905. They were gradually
phased out during the first two decades
of the 20th century, the last few
surviving up to 1917.
The first 4-8-0 ever built is believed to be the "Centipede", built by Ross Winans for the B&O in 1855. The LV began building them in 1872, and had twenty on the roster by 1882, a decade later. Some on-line sources say the first 4-8-0 was the "Mastodon" built for the Central Pacific in 1882, other sources say the Mastodon was the first "successful" 4-8-0.. both are incorrect! the first 4-8-0 was built three decades before the "Mastodon" existed, and the LV was building them a decade earlier, and they were performing just fine. The Central Pacific's "Mastodon" of 1882 was simply the locomotive that gave the "Mastodon" name to the 4-8-0 type, even though many successful 4-8-0's existed before it. Before 1882, the 4-8-0 type was simply called the "Twelve Wheeler" type, since it evolved from the 4-6-0, which was already called the "Ten Wheeler"..Sometime after 1882 the 4-8-0 type name evolved from "Twelve Wheeler" to "Mastodon". Scroll
for the entire 4-8-0 Roster:
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Built 1873 Rostered 1873 - 18??  Mason Machine Works builders photo, 1873.  The "Shoo Fly" in later service with the LV.
The LV was a definate fan of the quality locomotives built built by the Mason Machine Works of Taunton Massachusetts. Over the years the LV rostered several Mason 4-4-0's, over forty 4-6-0 heavy freight haulers, the tiny 2-2-0 "Lilliput", the very unusual "Janus", and finally this one "Mason Bogie" type. The "Shoo Fly" was built for the Utica Ithaca & Elmira railroad in 1873. She was originally intended to be used on a proposed steep hill line that was planned to join downtown Ithaca, NY with the Cornell campus area up on the hillside. This proposed line was never built however. Two years later she got a much larger Mason Bogie sister, the full-size "Leviathan" which was used around Ithaca for a short time, and was intended for a new incarnation of the planned hillside railroad in Ithaca, a cog railway this time, which was planned to run up the steep Cascidilla creek bed in Ithaca, to join downtown Ithaca with the Cornell campus up on the hill. The Leviathan, unlike the Shoo-Fly, was actually delivered with a large geared cog on the middle driver axle for this purpose. However the cog railway was also never built, and the Leviathan was returned to Mason after only a year or so on the UI&E, and it never belonged to the LV. See this page for more infomation on the Leviathan: https://scotlawrence.github.io/leviathan/leviathan.html The smaller "Shoo Fly" remained with the UI&E however, and did join the LV roster when the UI&E was later incorporated into the Geneva Ithaca & Sayre, then finally into the LV system. The "Shoo Fly" got her unusual name from the railroad company rivalry of the time; "It stemmed from the pejorative title of "Shoo Fly Railroad" bestowed upon the UI&E by unappreciative patrons who likened the road's initial service to the pesky insect immortalized in the tune "Shoo fly, dont bother me." While some UI&E managers were annoyed by this nickname, others found it amusing, among them Mr. Cornell and Mr. Burt, who named the little Mason hill climber."9 |
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2-4-4T Forney
Built 1892 Rostered 1892 - 18??  LV No. 610, the "Charles Dorrance" - Baldwin, 1892. The LV owned two 2-4-4T tank engines, identical sisters built by Baldwin in 1892. Locomotives of this type were most often bi-directional commuter locomotives, meant to comfortably operate in either direction without needing to be turned. The full-size headlight on the tender of the 610 in the photo above suggests the LV used these two locomotives in a similar fashion. They were short-lived locomotives on the LV however, serving less than twelve years. No. 610 was reported sold to the "Atlantic Coast Lumber Company" before 1905.2 The fate of 611 is unknown, but she was also not around to recieve a new number in 1905.2
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4-4-2 Atlantic
Built
1896 - 1911
Rostered
1896 - 1929 Baldwin builders photo, First photo of an LV Atlantic. 1896. When
the Black Diamond Express made its
first runs in May of 1896, it was
hauled by the LV's most modern and
capable passenger locomotives, which
were the latest 4-4-0 camelbacks.
However the 4-4-0's werent quite up
to the task of keeping the new
Flagship train on schedule. The
evolutionary descendant of the 4-4-0
passenger locomotive had recently
been developed, the 4-4-2 Atlantic.
In 1894 the first production 4-4-2's were built by Baldwin for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, which gave the name "Atlantic" to the class. The advantage of the 4-4-2 over the 4-4-0 was that the trailing truck allowed a larger firebox to be placed behind the drivers, rather than between the drivers, which resulted in a larger, faster and more powerful passenger locomotive. (The same 2-wheel trailing truck concept, allowing an enlarged firebox behind the drivers, led to the development of the 2-8-2 from the 2-8-0.) The LV ordered some of the earliest Atlantics, placing an order with Baldwin for five of them in 1896. The new Atlantics, numbers 664 to 668, arrived later in 1896 and immediately became the LV's primary passenger locomotives. The LV quickly ordered more, and eventually rostered a total of thirty nine 4-4-2's, which would be the primary passenger power for the decade between 1896 and 1906, eventually being replaced by the 4-6-2 Pacifics. Most
of the LV Atlantics served into
the 1920's, the last being
scrapped in 1929, completing
three decades as a class on the
LV. The 4-4-2 Atlantics can be
considered the pinnacle of 19th
Century passenger locomotive
design, and were the locomotives
that ushered the LV into the
20th Century.
Scroll
for the entire 4-4-2 Roster:  LV 664,
Class F-1. One of the first six LV
Atlantics of 1896.
Photographer unknown  LV 2331,
Class F-2.
Photographer unknown  LV 681, Class F-3. Baldwin Builders photo, 1903.  LV 2411, Class F-3. Alco Builders photo, 1906.  LV 2400, Class F-3, with the Black Diamond Express, Sayre PA. Richard Palmer Collection, used with permission.  LV 2404, Class F-3. Photographer unknown  LV 2413, Class F-3. Photographer unknown  LV 674, Class F-4. Photographer unknown  LV
2476, Class F-6. Built by the LV in
Sayre.
Photographer unknown  LV 2479, Class F-6. The LV's last Atlantic, Built by the LV in Sayre in 1911 Photographer unknown
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2-6-2 Prairie
Built
1902 - 1904
Rostered
1902 - 1906 LV 791.
Baldwin Builders photo, 1902.
In
1902 the LV ordered ten 2-6-2
Prairie type locomotives from
Baldwin, LV numbers 790 - 799. In
1905 they were assigned to the K-2
class and renumbured to 2230 -
2239. The 2-wheel front truck
proved troublesome however, and in
1906, after only two to four years
on the roster, all ten were rebuilt
into 4-6-2 Pacifics at Sayre,
remaining in the K-2 class, keeping
numbers 2230
- 2239, and
remaining camelbacks. In 1920 seven
of the ten were rebuilt again, into
"conventional cab" pacifics this
time, reclassified to class K-3, and
given new numbers 2027-2033. As
Pacifics, several of these
locomotives survived until the end
of the steam era.
It was believed that these ten were the only 2-6-2 Camelbacks ever built, however there was at least one more, a locomotive named "Merrimac", built for the Virginia Anthracite Coal and Railway Company. The LV's ten are certaintly the largest order of 2-6-2 camelbacks ever built however, and are likely the only multiple-unit order. Since these locomotives operated as 2-6-2's for only two to four years, (built in 1902, '03 and '04, and all rebuilt into 4-6-2's in 1906) photos of them in their 2-6-2 configuration are very rare! few photos are known.  LV 791, used with permission, photographer unknown. from: https://sites.google.com/site/camelbacksteamlocomotives/ 
And here is LV 794 in her
rebuilt 4-6-2 configuration:
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2-8-2
Mikado
Built
1903 - 1924
Rostered
1903 - 1951 the 2-8-0 Consolidation, the 2-10-0 Decapod, the 2-8-2 Mikado, and the 4-6-2 Pacific. Here is the third of the four, the 2-8-2 Mikado. The world's first 2-8-2 was a modified version of one of the first two 2-10-0 Decopods. The LV's 2-10-0 "Bee" of 1867 was later rebuilt into the first 2-8-2: "Seeking other novel motive power types for mountain road service, Mitchell drew up specifications for two 2-10-0's which were built in 1867 by Norris Brothers of Lancaster, Pa. Laying claim to the first locomotives built to the 2-10-0 design, the two Decapods ANT and BEE were something less than successful in service. Tight curves were more than a match for their long, rigid wheelbases, and they were subsequently rebuilt, the BEE as a 2-8-2 and the ANT as a 4-8-0." 3 Here is the "BEE", originally a 2-10-0, rebuilt as the first 2-8-2:  Like the first 4-6-2 Pacific, (discussed below) this early 2-8-2 didnt immedately catch on, and the wheel arrangement was not seen again for several decades. The name "Mikado" comes from a group of 2-8-2's that Baldwin built for Japan in 1897. The
2-8-2 Mikado, as a modern "non
experimental" type, was the LV's first
new freight locomotive type of the
20th Century, and it would go on to
become the most numerous steam wheel
arrangement on the LV during the 20th
Century. While the 2-8-0 Consolidation
could be said to be the LV's primary
freight hauler of the 19th Century,
the 2-8-2 Mikado was the LV's primary
freight hauler of the 20th Century,
being used right up to the end of
steam in 1951.
The LV rostered 234 2-8-2's that were built new as 2-8-2's, plus an additional twenty 2-8-2's that were rebuilt from twenty of the LV's seventy six 2-10-2's (listed under the 2-10-2 section, they became N-6 class Mikados 275-294) , making a grand total of 254 2-8-2 Mikados on the LV, the most numerous steam locomotive type on the LV during the 20th Century. The first group of 67 LV Mikados, class N-1, built 1903 to 1907, were camelbacks, the rest were "conventional cab" locomotives. The LV's "Mike" fleet was 75% Baldwin and 25% Alco.  LV 233, Class
N-1. From the first order of LV Mikados built
in 1903.
Photographer unknown (headlight in original "as built" position)  LV 238, Class N-1. From the first order of LV Mikados built in 1903. Photographer unknown (headlight in later modified position.)  LV 238, Class N-1. Alco builders photo, 1907.  LV 278, Class N-6. One of the LV Mikados rebuilt from a 2-10-2. Photographer unknown (Note the dual side-by-side sand domes, a 2-10-2 feature.) 
 LV 352, Class N-2  . Built by Baldwin
in 1913.Photographer unknown  LV 398, Class N-3. Built by Baldwin in 1916. On display at an "open house" type event in Sayre. Photographer unknown  LV 414, Class N-3. Baldwin Builders photo, 1916. LV 425, Class N-4. Built by Baldwin in 1923. Photographer unknown  LV 444, Class N-5b. Built by Alco in 1924. Class N-5b was the last and most modern class of Mikados on the LV. Photographer unknown 
 LV 475, Class N-5b. Built by Alco in 1924. Photographer unknown  LV 481, Class N-5b. Built by Alco in 1924. Photographer unknown Scroll
for the entire 2-8-2 Roster:
The LV's Mikados were a very successful class on the LV, being the most numerous 20th Century wheel arrangement, numbering 254 units, and several operated until the very end of steam on the LV. In fact, it was a Mikado that had the dubious honor of being the very last LV steam locomotive in service. After performing her daily tasks on September 14, 1951, LV Mikado number 432 dropped her fire, for the last time, in Delano, PA. She was the very last of 1,848 LV steam locomotives to operate, ending nearly 100 years of steam power on the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Here is that last survivor, Mikado Number 432:  LV 432, Class N-4. Built by Baldwin in 1923. Photographer unknown |
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Sayre Shops
Main locomotive "Big Shops" building completed in 1904 Locomotives built there 1904 - 1925 In use by the LV 1904 - 1976 Demolished 1987-1988  For
the first 20 years of the LV's
existance, Sayre didnt even exist! The LV
literally *created* Sayre in the 1870's, as
Sayre grew around the new yards and shops
being built by the LV in Sayre. The LV
originally moved coal east from the eastern
Pennsylvania coal fields to market near New
York City. There was also a huge market for
coal in the growing industrial regions of the
Great Lakes, and the LV began to build north
and west to serve this market as well. LV
tracks reached Waverly NY in 1867, to interchange
coal with the Erie railroad, then the LV
completed its mainline to Buffalo in 1896,
which became the western terminus of the
railroad.
Before 1904, the LV built locomotives for it's own use at several smaller shops, including Beaver Meadow, Delano, Hazleton, South Easton, Weatherly and Wilkes Barre.. but after 1904 all locomotive building ceased at these shops, and all locomotive construction and heavy repairs and maintenance moved to Sayre. Freight and passenger cars were also built at Sayre. Sayre became the heart of the LV, the largest shops and yard on the railroad. From the 1870's through the turn of the 20th Century in 1900 the Sayre shop complex and yards grew quickly, culminating in 1904 with the completion of the main locomotive construction building, referred to locally as "The Big Shops" building. When the "Big Shops" was completed in 1904, it was the largest building in the world! It did not hold the title for long, it was soon eclipsed by other structures, but it can be said Sayre once held a world record, even if only for a brief time. The building was truly impressive! It was 360 feet wide by 747 feet long, and enclosed an area over six acres! If built full-size in HO scale, the model would be 4x8 feet!   1904, the Shops
are completed, and locomotive construction in
Sayre begins.
A few locomotives were built in Sayre prior
to the completion of the main erecting hall in
1904, but the majority of Sayre-built
locomotives were built after 1904. A total of
210 locomotives were built at the Sayre shops!
Designed and built by the LV. Locomotive types
built by the LV at Sayre: In 1904 the magazine "Railway Age" published a six-page article about the LV's new modern shops in Sayre. I have scans of all six pages if anyone would like a copy.  4-4-0: 4 locomotives. 4-8-0: 1 locomotive 0-6-0: 25 locomotives 0-8-0: 46 locomotives 2-8-0: 36 locomotives 4-6-0: 61 locomotives 4-4-2: 5 locomotives 4-6-2: 32 locomotives And this only includes *new* locomotives built from scratch, many more were rebuilt at Sayre into new and improved models. The last Sayre-built locomotive was 4-6-2 Pacific No. 2089, outshopped in 1925. Some "Sayre Built" motive power:  LV 2-8-0 No. 929 - built by LV Sayre Shops, 1912. Photographer unknown.  LV 0-8-0 No. 3185 - built in Sayre in 1912 as 2-8-0 No. 920 Rebuilt as an 0-8-0 in 1924 at Sayre.Photographer unknown.  LV 0-6-0 No. 3438 - built 1913 - LV Sayre Shops. Photographer unknown.  A rare "LV Builders Photo"! Taken in Sayre, of the LV's first home designed and built 4-6-2, LV No. 2010, built in 1913, First unit of Class K-2½ LVRR Photo, 1913. 
 LV 4-6-0 No. 1140 
LV4-6-2 No. 2089, Last locomotive built at the Sayre Shops, 1925. LVRR Photo, 1925. After steam
locomotive construction ceased, the shops
continued to serve as the LV's primary
locomotive repair and maintenance
facility, and after the steam era ended in the
early 1950's, and the Diesel era began, the
shops were converted to diesel locomotive
repair and maintenance.
LV employees worked in the "Big Shops" and the
other buildings throughout the Sayre shops
complex, keeping the LV diesel locomotive
fleet maintained and repaired, right up the
last day of LV operations on March 31, 1976.
After the LV ceased to exist in 1976, Conrail did not use any of the Sayre shop buildings. The shops were used for a time in the late 1970's and early 80's by a company called Anbell, who used the Big Shops for a few years, and refurbished a few old Amtrak passenger cars there, but it was a short-lived operation, and by 1983 the shops were empty and unused. The Big Shops building stood empty for the last few years of its existance. I first picked up a camera and became a railfan in 1983, when I was fourteen, and I was able to take many photos of the building during its last years:               This is the less commonly
seen North Side:
 Also the North side:     North-East corner:
 Looking south, from a window in the North-East corner.         In 1987, the
LV had been gone for eleven years. The
building was deteriorating, and no one had any
use for it anymore. So the decision was made
to tear it down.
Destruction of the Big Shops started a few days before November 1, 1987. I dont have the exact day, but I arrived either one or two days later. I *think* I arrived the next day..so it probably started October 31, 1987. To begin the demolition process, they took one of the traveling cranes, pushed it all the way back to the rear of the building, atached a cable to it, ran the cable out the *front* of the building, attached a large Mack truck to the other end..got the truck up and running, pulling the traveling crane on its rails along the length of the building.. as the crane built up speed and momentum, it CRASHED through the front of the shops and fell to the ground!! I missed that actual event..I think I read about it in the paper the next day. When I arrived on November 1st, the crane was still sitting there on the ground and no further work had been done yet.. I was 18 when I took these photos, and had graduated from high school a few months before. (WHS class of '87)     Now it's January 1988, and the building is about half gone.  May of 1988. It's nearly over.  And so ended the
84 year history of the "Big Shops"
Gone but not forgotten. As I write
this in 2015, the LV has been gone nearly 40
years. Conrail owned the former LV mainline
through Sayre (but not the yard tracks and
shop buildings) from 1976 to 1999, and since
1999 Norfolk Southern has owned and operated
the tracks through Sayre. The "Lehigh
Railway", a new shortline that began
in 2009, operates the old LV main between
Mehoopany, Towanda and Athens, interchanging
with Norfolk Southern in Sayre.
Only five LV shop structures remain in the Sayre yard in 2015: The "Hammer Shop" (Later the Assembly hall) The "Freight car repair shop" The "Store house" The "Mill" (building names are from the map in the Archer book) and a 5th building that isn't on the 1904 map in the Archer book..not sure what it was, but it was a LV building. The large blue building that says "GE Railcar" on it isn't a LV building, that was built by GE in the 1980's.. Four companys use the Sayre yard today: (2015) Norfolk Southern still owns and uses the mainline tracks along the edge of the yard, some of the yard tracks, and the tracks approaching the yard from all three directions. (Four rail lines once radiated out from the Sayre yard, today it's three.) GE Railcar uses the largest part of the yard, they repair freight cars, and use a lot of the yard for freight car storage as cars are rebuilt. Rynone Industries uses the "Store House"..they make furniture, kitchen cabinets and such. And the "Guthrie-1" medical helicopter has its base where the roundhouse once stood. The Lehigh Railway interchanges with Norfolk Southern south of the Sayre station, and does not enter the main yard complex north of the station.  LVRR, Sayre PA, 1946. Frank Evans collection. Used with permission. |
Scroll
for the entire 4-6-2 Roster:
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Scroll for the entire
2-10-2 Roster:
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Gas/Electric
"Doodlebug" Railcars
Built
1923
-
1928
Rostered 1923 - 1952  LV 10 - Joe
Testagrose photo, used with permission
from
North East Rails. The first non-steam power that actually ran out on the mainline (as opposed to the electric pushers, discussed in the last section, above) were the gas-electric "doodlebug" railcars, the first of which arrived on the LV in 1923. These railcars were designed to be a cheaper alternative to "small" passenger trains, to run on the more lightly-used branch lines, and to bring passengers from the more remote parts of the LV system out to the mainline where they could connect to the longer distance trains. The LV rostered a total of twenty eight gas-electric railcars. (plus two RDC's, discussed in their own section below) The gas-electric doodlebugs were built between 1923 and 1928, by several different manufacturers, and served with the railroad for almost 30 years, the last one being scrapped in 1952.14          
OsBr =
Osgood Bradley
StLCr = St. Louis Car Beth = Bethlehem Steel In 2003, Seven LV doodlebugs still survived, being owned and operated by Sperry Rail Services; LV 14 - to Sperry 123 LV 15 - to Sperry 128 LV 20 - to Sperry 124 LV 26 - to Sperry 125 LV 27 - to Sperry 131 LV 28 - to Sperry 130 LV 29 - to Sperry 129 Twelve years later, when this webpage is being written in 2015, their current status is unknown. see the LV survivors page for more details. |
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4-8-2 Mountain Built 1924 - 1925 Rostered 1924 - 1948  LV 5000, Class S-1, Baldwin Builders Photo, 1924 In 1924 and 1925 the LV ordered six 4-8-2 Mountain type locomotives from Alco. Numbers 5000 to 5005, S-1 Class. At this time both Baldwin and Alco were experimenting with three cylinder locomotives, and the LV's six 4-8-2's were built new as three cylinder locomotives. They had a third full-size cylinder mounted inbetween the two traditional cylinders, attached with a driving rod to the center of one of the driver axles. The third cylinder is not easily visible from normal camera angles, but some photos taken of the front pilot area do show it. (a good photo showing the 3rd cylinder can be seen in the Archer book.) It is often written that the three cylinder concept was "not sucessful", however the LV's six Mountains operated with their three cylinders for fourteen years! That could be considered success. However they were perhaps not as efficient as later locomotives, and the LV did eventually rebuild them in 1939, removing the third cylinder and converting them to more traditional two cylinder locomotives. Upon the rebuild the locomotives kept their road numbers, but were reclassified from S-1 class to S-2 class. These six locomotives were the only members of the LV's S-class. The six
Mountains can be easily identified in
their original S-1 class configuration
versus their rebuilt S-2 state. The
primary purpose of the 1939 rebuilding
was the removal of the center third
cylinder and a conversion to two
cylinder operation, recieving new,
larger outside cylinders. The third
cylinder however is the least outwardly
visable of the changes. In addition to
the cylinder changes the locomotives all
recieved brand-new pilots, with steps
leading from the pilot up to the
walkways, and new large handrails on the
front of the locomotives, from the pilot
deck up alongside the smokebox. These
features are present in the rebuilt S-2
state and absent in the original S-1
state.
The LV's Mountains operated until December 1948, when all six were retired together, and scrapped.  LV 5000, Class S-2 Photographer unknown.  LV 5000,
Class S-2
Photographer unknown.  LV 5001, Class S-1 Photographer unknown.  LV 5002, Class S-1 Photographer unknown.  LV 5004, Class S-1 Photographer unknown.  LV 5004, Class S-2 Photographer unknown.  LV 5005, Class S-2
Photographer unknown
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Diesel
Boxcabs
The
diesel era began on the Lehigh
Valley on January
7, 1926,
with the arrival of the LV's first
Diesel-Electric boxcab, number 100.14
Number
100 was the 5th AGEIR boxcab
built, having been built in late
1924. It is believed the
locomotive was used as a
demonstrator through 1925, before
being sold to the LV in early 1926.14
AGEIR
stands for Alco
- General
Electric
- Ingersoll
Rand,
who were the three companys who
worked together to build the early
diesel boxcabs.(The Diesel invasion begins!) Built 1924 - 1927 Rostered 1926 - 1951  LV 100 - AGEIR builders photo. The LV rostered a total of three Diesel boxcabs, numbers 100, 99, and 125/101, built between 1924 and 1927. They served with the LV for about 24 years, the last one being scrapped in 1951.14  LV 100. Frank Evans Collection. Photographer unknown  LV 99. Photographer unknown  LV 125. Frank Evans Collection. LVRR company photo. Photo taken at the McIntosh & Seymour engine plant, Auburn, NY, 1927.  #101 - 1947 -
Communipaw, NJ.
H. N. Proctor collection. Used with permision from Philip M.Goldstein: BRONX TERMINAL / EAST 149TH STREET LV 101
was the rebuilt LV 125.
"Brill boxcab 125 ordered 1/26, and delivered 20Jun27 with McIntosh & Seymour 12V16 8" by 9 1/2" diesel engine, and GE electrical (hence GE serial). Proved unsatisfactory and stored until sent to Alco at Schenctady, it was rebuilt 7-8/31 with M&S designed Alco 330 (9 1/2" by 10 1/2") diesel engine on order number X349 and outshopped with new r/n 101 (not rennumbured in 1938 as some sources claim). Weight decreased two tons in rebuilding. Retired 16Apr51 and scrapped at Sayre. Bethlehem Steel proposed rebuilding 101/125 into a centercab in 1931." 14 Disposition of the LV's first diesel, number 100: "Diesel electric locomotive #100, 300 H.P. scrapped 12-15-47. It was 22 years old and in need of repairs totaling $8,526.06. Out of service at Oak Island Oct. 20, 1947; had a cut crank shaft and had been used on light jobs. Had minor overhauling in 1944. Order was to "keep it going until it plays out. It has now come to that point." Properly taken care and drained. Engine was obsolete and had been out of service six months in 1945 awaiting parts." 16 Disposition of locomotive #99: "Diesel electric locomotive #99 scrapped Sept. 22, 1947. AFE note: "This locomotive is 22 years old and in need of repairs estimated to cost $9,977.25 which is prohibitive. Recommend dismantling." 16
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Mack
Gas-Electrics
Built 1929 - 1930 Rostered 1929 - 1946  LV
51. Frank Evans Collection.
In 1929 and 1930 more
gas/electrics arrived, in the form of
three Mack switchers. The gas-electric
locomotives worked on a similar principal
to the diesels: an internal combustion
engine drives a generator which supplies
electricity to traction motors. But
gas-electrics used gasoline powered
engines, while diesel-electrics used
diesel engines.Used with permission. Photographer unknown The three Macks were built by the Mack International Motors company of Plainfield NJ. (the same company most famous for the "Mack Truck") Mack made the body of the locomotives and the gas engines, the electrical system and traction motors were supplied by GE. The three Macks were originally LV numbers 110, 111, and 112. 110 and 111 were a "center cab" style, while 112 was a heavier "boxcab". All three were renumbured in October 1938 to numbers 50, 51 and 52, to make room for new EMC SW switchers, who would become the new 110, 111 and 112 upon their delivery that year. The Macks served with the LV for seventeen years, then all three were retired in October 1946. They were then sold for scrap the following month to Rochester Iron & Steel.14  LV 110. Frank Evans Collection. Used with permission. Photographer unknown  Used with permision from Philip M.Goldstein: BRONX TERMINAL / EAST 149TH STREET  LV 52. Frank Evans Collection. Used with permission. Photographer unknown  LV 52. Frank Evans Collection. Sayre PA, 1938 Used with permission. Photographer unknown
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Gas-Electric - Built 1930 Rostered 1931 - 1953  LV 76, unknown photographer, G. Collora archives. From the collection of Phillip M. Goldstein, used with permission. From: BRONX TERMINAL / EAST 149TH STREET, by Philip M. Goldstein.  LV 76, November 1955, Bronx terminal. S. Meyers photo, D. Keller archives. From the collection of Phillip M. Goldstein, used with permission. From: BRONX TERMINAL / EAST 149TH STREET, by Philip M. Goldstein. The LV
owned two EMC Model 60 Gas/Electric
boxcabs. They were built by EMC (the
predecessor to EMD) in 1930.
Originally numbured 115 and 116, they
were renumbured to 75 and 76 in 1940
to make room on the roster for the new
SW1 No. 115 and HH660 No. 116.14
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4-8-4
Wyoming
Built 1931 - 1943 Rostered 1931 - 1951  LV T-1 class 5101, Baldwin builders photo, 1932. And now we come to the pinnacle of Steam Locomotive technology on the Lehigh Valley Railroad, the mighty 4-8-4 Wyomings. The LV rostered thirty seven of them. 4-8-4's are most commonly known as "Northerns", after the Northern Pacific railroad, who first rostered the type in 1926. However many Southern US railroads who began recieving 4-8-4's objected to the name "Northern", (the Civil War was only 70 years in the past, still within the memory of living people) and many southern railroads decided they would not use the "Northern" name, and instead would create their own names for their new 4-8-4's! This resulted in many, perhaps most, railroads who owned 4-8-4's giving them their own names, including railroads in the both the north and south. Individual railroad names in place of "Northern" included Dixie, Greenbrier, Niagara, Pocono, Potomac, Western, Wyoming, and others.. The LV chose to call their new 4-8-4's "Wyomings" after the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania, the Scranton-Wilkes Barre area, which was a region served by the LV, and was a coal region important to the early days of the railroad.. (Interesting trivia: the State of Wyoming is named after the Wyoming Valley of PA! Wyoming PA came first!) The LV ordered one new 4-8-4 from both Baldwin and Alco in 1931. The plan was to test both, see if one was preferable to the other, then place a larger order. The LV must have been equally pleased with both however, and they placed an additional order for ten more from each builder the following year in 1932. This resulted in the LV's T-1 class, eleven locomotives from Baldwin, and the T-2 class, eleven locomotives from Alco. T-1 class, Eleven
Baldwin 4-8-4's, 1931 and 1932,
LV 5100 - 5110  LV T-1 class 5100, Baldwin builders photo, 1931.  LV T-1 class 5100, Baldwin builders photo, 1931. The LV's first two Wyomings, Baldwin number 5100 and Alco number 5200, both arrived new with prominant Elesco feedwater heaters over their brow. The remainder of the T-1 Baldwins did not have this feature, but the first six of the Alcos did.  LV T-1 class 5101, Baldwin builders photo, 1932  LV T-1 class 5101, Baldwin builders photo, 1932 T-2 class, Eleven Alco 4-8-4's, 1931 and 1932, LV 5200 - 5210  LV T-2 class 5200, Alco builders photo, 1931. As
discussed above, the LV's
first two Wyomings, Baldwin
number 5100 and Alco number
5200, both arrived new with
the Elesco feedwater heaters.
Only number 5100 of the T-1
class had this feature, the
remaining ten T-1's did not.
However the first six of the
T-2 class Alcos, numbers 5200
to 5205 had them. For a total
of seven out of 37 Wyomings
with the feedwater heater,
about 20% of the roster. 80%
did not have the feedwater
heater, including all of the
T-3 class and all of the T-2b
class.
LV T-3 class, No. 5126, Baldwin builders
photo, 1934 LV T-2 class, No. 5203. Photographer unknown.  LV T-2 class, No. 5204. Photographer unknown.  LV T-2 class, No. 5204. Photographer unknown.  LV T-2 class, No. 5206, Alco builders photo, 1932. T-3 class, Five Baldwin 4-8-4's, 1934 and 1935, LV 5125 - 5129  LV T-3 class 5126, Baldwin builders photo, 1934. Two years
after recieving the twenty
two T-1's and T-2's, the
LV still needed additional
new locomotives. Another
order was placed with
Baldwin in 1934 for five
more 4-8-4's. These five
had larger 77" drivers,
(the rest of the Wyomings
had 70" drivers) and were
configured to be "dual
service" locomotives, and
could be used as passenger
locomotives if needed.
There are several known
photos of T-3 Wyomings
pulling LV passenger
trains, including the
Black Diamond Express.
However their primary
function was freight.
These five T-3's could
perhaps be considered the
most modern steam
locomotives ever owned by
the LV, even though one
more class was yet to
come.
  LV T-3 class, No. 5126, Baldwin builders photo, 1934  LV T-3 class, No. 5129, Baldwin builders photo, 1935.  LV T-3 class, No. 5129, Baldwin builders photo, 1935.  LV T-3 class, No. 5127, with a passenger train! Photographer unknown.  LV T-3 class, No. 5128. Photographer unknown. T-2b class, Ten Alco 4-8-4's, 1943, LV 5211 - 5220 The
fourth, and final class of
4-8-4 Wyomings on the LV, and
the LV's very last steam
locomotives, were the T-2b
class of 1943. Nine years
after the T-3's, the LV was at
the height of WWII heavy
traffic, and new power was
once again necessary.
Government restrictions during
WWII meant that the locomotive
manufacturers were prevented
from spending resources on new
designs, and instead the LV
had to accept ten new
locomotives in 1943 that were
virtually identical clones of
the T-2 class of 1932, ten
years earlier! These new
T-2b's were still perfectly
fine and capable locomotives,
just not "the latest and
greatest." Because they were
so similar to the earlier T-2
class, the LV gave them class
T-2b, a very similar, if not
100% identical "sub class" of
the T-2's.
LV T-2b class, No. 5213, Sayre Pa. Photographer unknown.  LV T-2b class, No. 5218, in color! Union, NJ, July 1950. Photo by John Dziobko Jr., used with permission. http://www.godfatherrails.com/  LV T-2b class, No. 5219, Sayre Pa. Photographer unknown.  LV T-2b class, No.
5220, the LV's last steam locomotive.
Alco builders photo, 1943.  LV T-2b class, No. 5220, the LV's last steam locomotive. Photographer unknown.
And
that brings us to the very end
of the Steam era on the LV!
The 4-8-4 Wyomings, the
remainder of the Mikados, Ten-wheelers
and Pacifics, all served
admirably during WWII, but
their days would soon come to
an end. The LV, like all
railroads, had been slowly
buying diesels through the
1920's, 30's and 40's, but
they were for the most part
diesel switchers during those
decades. The reign of the
Steam Locomotive in mainline
freight and passenger use was
mostly unchallenged until the
end of WWII.
But immediately after WWII, in 1945, the LV bought its first "Road Diesels", the EMD FT's. More F-units and Alco FA's quickly arrived, then the Alco PA passenger diesels in 1948, and by 1951 the era of the steam locomotive came to a quick close. After performing her daily tasks on September 14, 1951, LV Mikado number 432 dropped her fire, for the last time, in Delano, PA. She was the very last of 1,848 LV steam locomotives to operate, ending nearly 100 years of steam power on the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Here is that last survivor, Mikado Number 432: Most of the 4-8-4 Wyomings were retired in 1948 when twenty new EMD F3's and twenty Alco FA's arrived on the roster, a few Wyomings operated up to 1950, and one was offered by the LV to Sayre, to display in Desmond Street park, right across from the LV's Sayre passenger station! Sayre said "no thanks, we dont want it", and the locomotive went to scrap with all the rest. Some of the T-2b's operated for only five years! and all T-2b's were scrapped at less than nine years of age. They were not at all "past their prime", in fact, they were just getting started! and they could have gone on to serve for many more decades! but they "died young" simply because they were born late..the Diesel onslaught had arrived. The last group of LV 4-8-4's were scrapped in 1952. Over the course of nearly a Century, 1853 to 1951, the LV rostered and operated 1,844 steam locomotives!2 See the last section at the bottom of this page for a break-down of the roster, and some interesting trivia on the locomotive fleet. Sadly, not one single LV steam locomotive survived the scrappers torch. Some notes on LV 4-8-4 Classifications: In this roster I am using only the four well-known LV Wyoming classes, T-1, T-2. T-3, and T-2b. These four are undisputed. The "b" in T-2b is simply because they were a "sub-class" of the earlier T-2 class, as discussed above. The "b" in T-2b did *not* mean "booster"..and in fact, the T-2b's were not equipped with tender boosters at all. However, there are some other LV 4-8-4 classifications "out there" in the world. Some on-line rosters list the additional "sub classes" of T-1a, T-1b, and T-2a. The T-1a and T-1b classs are said to designate booster equipped T-1's from non-booster equipped T-1's..The "b" in this case would stand for "booster". And in the same way, the T-2a would be a "non-booster" T-2, while a T-2b (when there is also a T-2a) would mean a "booster equipped" T-2. ALL of the T-1 and T-2 class locomotives did have tender boosters when new. (and none of the T-3's or T-2b's had boosters when new) It is possible that later in their careers some lost their boosters, and others had different boosters applied..So a T-1a, T-1b, T-2a, T-2b is possible..but, there are no actual LV rosters that show the use of the T-1a, T-1b, and T-2a classes. One of the primary sources of this roster is source number 11: 11. Official LVRR 1905 to 1952 Steam roster data. Records compiled and kept by the LV. A 97 page list, an actual LVRR document, that chronicles the 1905 renumburing, what locomotives were renumbured, old and new numbers, etc, and it was also updated as new locomotives came along. It is essentially the LV's own record of its steam locomotive roster from 1905 to the end of steam in 1952! an amazing resource.. This list was shared by John Wilkes Rendle for this project, (yes, he is named after the LV passenger train! :) and it is from the collection of his father, Wade F. "Spike" Rendle. Wade was a LV employee, and saved the list from the Sayre Shops when the shops closed down. Thank you Wade and John! This is the LV's own document! compiled and kept by the railroad. On this document, the LV itself lists the four Wyoming classes as only T-1, T-2. T-3, and T-2b. there is no mention of T-1a, T-1b, and T-2a subclasses. The only place that T-1a, T-1b, and T-2a appear are modern on-line sources, I have never seen a printed source that mentions them. So "when in doubt" I am going with what the LV itself said. If anyone can shed any light on these mysterious T-1a, T-1b, and T-2a subclasses, I would like to hear about it! They are either simply mistakes, internet inventions, or there might yet be more to learn about the history of the LV Wyomings. The LV's electric pushers last operated in 1949, the last LV Steam locomotive operated in 1951, and the last LV Gas-Electric operated in 1953. From 1953 to 1976, the final 23 years, the LV would be a "diesel only" railroad. From this point on, the roster is all diesels. |
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Before
we get to the next group of
switchers, the EMC SW's, this
would be a good place to talk
about early LV Diesel switcher
paintschemes. The paintschemes of
LV Road diesels,
from the EMD FT's of 1945 to the
U23B's of 1974, are well
documented and well understood.
However the early diesel switchers
are less documented. The LV's
diesel switchers came in four main
paintschemes, and most switchers
wore more than one scheme during
their career:
1. Black paint with white lettering, the first diesel scheme, only applied to switchers. 2. The "Pre War" scheme of Red, black and yellow, also applied only to switchers. 3. The standard scheme of 1945 to 1964, "Cornell Red with three black stripes", applied to switchers and road units. The three schemes above were applied by the factory to new units by Alco, Baldwin, EMD and GE. 4. Technically a "switcher scheme", although only applied to one unit, was the scheme on Alco HH600 number 105, applied to 105 around 1940, as seen in the section above. 5. LV Tuscan repaints. Applied at Sayre to switchers and road units from 1963 to about 1971. 6. The final scheme, variations on LV Red repaints with yellow lettering, 1971 to 1976, painted at the Sayre shops. also applied to both switchers and road units. Not totally standardized, but mostly red with yellow lettering, with variations in logo and flag placement. 1. Black
& White scheme, 1926 to
1937.
 Alco builders photo, 1931. This scheme was applied to all switchers (and only switchers) for the first decade of the diesel era, from the LV's first diesel, Boxcab number 100 of 1926, to the first two EMC SW's delivered in 1937. This is the same basic color scheme also used on LV steam locomotives of the same era. Thirteen units wore this scheme, (eleven diesels, and two gas-electric boxcabs) all of them recieved this scheme new from the factory. There are no known color photos of this scheme. Boxcabs number 100, 99 and 125 Mack switchers number 110, 111 and 112 Gas-electric boxcabs number 115 and 116 Alco HH300 number 102 and 103 Alco HH600 105 EMC SW number 106 and 107. 2. "Pre War
scheme", 1938 to 1945
 EMC builders photo, 1939, digitally colorized by Scot Lawrence This
scheme was also applied only
to switchers, no road units.
Commonly called the "Pre-War
scheme" because it was used
just prior to WWII, it
should be noted that the
B&W scheme was also
"pre-war"! ;) This is a
beautiful paint scheme, Red,
Grey and Yellow,
the first use of color on LV
diesels, and it will be
recreated on a real LV
locomotive soon! LV SW1
number 112, the oldest
surviving LV locomotive,
will be repainted in this
scheme soon. (I will update
this page when that
happens!)
The first two EMC SW switchers, numbers 106 and 107, arrived new in early 1938 in the "Black & White" scheme, and also had "Route of the Black Diamond" on them, (the only diesels with that slogan, see this page for more info.) However, 106 and 107 were only the first two units of a six-unit order! The remaining four SW's, number 108, 109, 110 and 111, arrived after July 1938 as the first units in this new colorful "Pre War" scheme. Forty three LV switchers were delievered new in this scheme between 1938 and 1945: The last four of the six EMC SW's: 108, 109, 110:1, 111 All Eleven EMC NW1's: 120:1 through 130:1 The first four of the six SW1's: 112, 113, 114, 115 LV's one Alco HH660: 116 All three GE 44-tonners: 60, 61 and 62. Fifteen of Sixteen Alco S2's: 150 through 164. All five Baldwin VO1000's: 135 through 139. 3. "Cornell Red with 3 black stripes scheme", 1945 to 1964  CNJ, in the Lehigh Gorge at Hetchel PA; June 14, 1970. Photo by Rich Taylor, used with permission. The LV's first road diesels arrived in 1945, the EMD FT's. These units were the first the wear the LV's classic "Cornell Red with three black stripes" scheme. This scheme was the most common scheme of the LV's diesel era, applied to both new units from the factory, and Sayre repaints. It was the standard LV scheme for nearly 20 years, 1945 and 1964, and was applied to all new units painted at the factory, Sayre repaints, switchers and road units during that era. The last units to wear the scheme were the low-nose Alco RS11's of 1960, and the reign of this scheme ended in 1964 with the arrival of the C420 yellowjackets. Some of the original Black & White switchers were repainted into this scheme, and all of the "Pre-War scheme" switchers were repainted into this scheme. |
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Built 1937 Rostered 1937 - 1961  LV EMC SW No. 107. EMC builders photo, 1937. As discussed above, the first two SW's, numbers 106 and 107, arrived new in 1937 wearing the first LV diesel scheme, simple black paint with white lettering, but they also wore the "Route of the Black Diamond" slogan. 106 and 107 were the only locomotives to wear the slogan, see this page for more information on the "Route of the Black Diamond" slogan on rolling stock.  LV 107. Date, location and photographer unknown. The remaining four SW's, number 108, 109, 110 and 111, arrived after July 1938 as the first units in the new colorful "Pre War" switcher scheme.  LV 110 - Date, location and photographer unknown. All
six units later recieved the
"Cornell Red with 3 black stripes"
scheme.
The
SW's were originally in Class
BB4, and were later re-classed
as DS2.14
Three SW's, 106:1, 107:1 and 110:1, were traded in on SW900m's 106:2, 107:2, and 110:2.14
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Built 1937 Rostered 1937 - 1960  LV 125:1, photographer unknown, digitally colorized by Scot Lawrence. The
LV purchased eleven EMC NW1's in
1937 and 1938. All eleven were
delivered new in the "Pre-War"
scheme, and all were later
repainted into Cornell Red with
three black stripes.
 LV 121:1, EMC builders photo, 1937.  LV 127:1, Photographer unknown, 1942. The NW1's were originally classed BB5, and were later re-classed as DS5.14 Between 1953 and 1960 all eleven were traded-in to EMD for SW900m's.14
We are now up to 1,909 individual locomotives on this roster, which is 86% of the total all-time LV roster, and not one single locomotive on this list, so far, is still existing today. With the next class of locomotives, the SW1's, we finally have the first survivor! |
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EMC
and EMD SW1
Built 1939 - 1950 Rostered 1939 - 1976 EMC
Builders photo, 1939. Digitally
colorized by Scot Lawrence
The LV's SW1's are notable members
of the LV all-time roster for three
reasons:1. They are the oldest class of locomotives that survived to Conrail (two of them) in 1976. 2. One of the class, number 112, had the longest service life of any diesel with the LV, 38 years. 3. One of the class, number 112, is the oldest surviving LV locomotive today. The LV owned Six EMC/EMD SW1's, built in 1939, 1940 and 1950. The first four came in 1939 and 1940, painted in the "Pre-War" scheme, and the final two came a decade later in 1950, delivered in the then-standard "Cornell Red with three black stripes" scheme. LV 112 is the oldest surviving LV locomotive today. Notes on this webpage wont go into deep detail on the full history of surviving locomotives, since that is recorded on another page: Much more detail on surviving LV locomotives can be found on the LVRR Survivors webpage. The first four were originally class BB4, and were later reclassed as DS2. The last two were always class DS2.14  LV 115 - Newark NJ, March 2, 1940 Greg Gunshore Collection, used with permission.
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Alco
HH660
The LV rostered a total of Four
Alco "High Hood" switchers: Two
HH300's, one HH600, and one HH660.
This is the fourth and last of the
High Hoods, Alco HH660 number 116.Built 1939 Rostered 1940 - 1963  LV 116 - Alco builders photo, 1940. 116 came to the LV in 1940 as a nearly new unit. She was built in September of 1939 and was initially sold to the Atlantic Coast Line railroad. However for some reason the ACL was dissatisifed with the unit and very quickly, within only a month or two, returned it to Alco, who then turned around and sold it to the LV on February 9, 1940. 116 then went on to serve 23 years with the LV, before being retired in 1962, and scrapped in 1963.14 116 was delivered in the "Pre War" scheme and was later repainted into the "Cornell Red with three black stripes" scheme. She was also originally class BB6, and was later re-classed to DS3.14  LV 116 - Photographer unknown.  LV 116, Sayre PA - Jack Koehler / Greg Gunshore collection, used with permission.
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GE
44 ton
Built 1941 - 1942 Rostered 1942 - 1964  LV 60, GE builders photo, 1941 The
LV purchased three 44 ton
switchers new from GE in 1941 and
1942, LV numbers 60, 61 and 62.
These were the smallest diesels ever owned by the LV, and they must have been too small for practical use, because two of the three were sold after only four years with the LV! 61 and 62 left the LV roster in 1946, after only four years of service. Number 60 however went on to serve 22 years with the LV, before being retired and sold in 1964.14 All three were built new in the "Pre War" scheme, and 61 and 62 must have been sold in that scheme. Number 60 however was around long enough to recieve the "Cornell Red with three black stripes" scheme. The survivor status of 60 and 62 remains unknown to this day. (61 is confirmed scrapped.) However Number 60 was last seen in 1982, and number 62 was last seen in 1976!14 So it's 99% likely both are scrapped today, since they havent turned up for many decades. But it's still (very remotely) possible they might be hiding out in the world somewhere, not yet re-discovered. Number 60 was originally class BB-7, but was later reclassed to DS1.14  LV 60 - Oak Island, NJ - April 1964 Jack Kohler / Greg Gunshore Collection, used with permission.
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Alco
S2
The LV rostered a total of Sixteen
Alco S2 switchers, Number 150 to 165,
the second most numerous class of
diesel switchers on the LV (after the
SW8's). All were built new for the LV
by Alco, and fifteen of the sixteen
arrived new in the "Pre war" scheme,
(all except the last one, built in
1949) All later wore the "Cornell Red
with three black stripes" scheme.Built 1942 - 1949 Rostered 1942 - 1965  LV 158, photographer unknown. The S2's had a fairly short service life on the LV. Five were scrapped in 1963, after only about 20 years of service, and the rest were gone from the LV by 1965. However many of them survived after leaving the LV and went on to second careers with the B&O and the South Buffalo. Four LV Alco S2's still survive in 2016. Again, this all-time roster page won't contain the *full* disposition information for each unit. More detail can be found on the LV survivors webpage.  LV 150, Alco Builders photo, 1942.  LV 164 - Bethlehem PA - Jack Koehler / Greg Gunshore collection. - used with permission.
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Baldwin
VO-1000
Built 1944 Rostered 1944 - 1969  LV 139, photographer unknown, Greg Robbins collection, used with permission. Arguably
the most "stylish" switchers on
the LV roster were the five
Baldwin VO-1000's of 1944. These
were the first Baldwin diesels
ordered by the LV, and they were
also the last locomotives to be
painted in the "Pre War" scheme.
All five were delivered new in the
Pre War scheme, and all five would
later be repainted into Cornell
Red with three black stripes.
 LV 135, photographer unknown, Greg Robbins collection, used with permission.  LV
139, photographer unknown, Greg
Robbins collection, used with
permission.
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EMD
FT
Built 1945 Rostered 1945 - 1961  EMD promotional painting, 1945 Like most American Class-1 railroads of the time, the LV began to slowly dieselize in the 1920's and 30's, ordering relatively small amounts of diesel switchers through those two decades. However Steam locomotives on mainline freight and passenger trains were still unchallenged! and steam power was the driving force that got American railroads through the traffic surge of World War Two. However by January 1945 it was clear that the war was winding down, and Victory for the allies would soon come. By August 1945 the war would be over. War-time restrictions meant that the locomotive manufacurers were mostly prevented from using resources for R&D and mass-production of diesels, and "tried and true" steam locomotives were instead manufactured throughout the war years. But by January 1945 these restrictions were lifted, and the diesel invasion was unleashed! The LV ordered its first Road Diesels in January 1945, in the form of EMD FT's. Eight total units; four A-units and four B-units, in two ABBA sets. For the first few years the LV did not use these units as "traditional" road units however! Instead they were used as pushers, pushing freight trains that still had a steam locomotive on the front end!16 However this duty was short-lived, as the LV went for full-scale dieselization beginning in 1948, and after steam was vanquished for good, the FT's began their "regular" career as road freight units. The FT's originally were numbured 500, 501, 502 and 503 for the A-units, and 500B, 501B, 502B and 503B for the B-units. However by 1948 they were renumbured when the LV deceided to adopt an "Even for A-units" and "Odd for B-units" numburing scheme for all EMD and ALCO Freight cab units.14 (EMD F-units and Alco FA's were numbured this way, but the PA's were not, since there were no PB's) The second numburing scheme for the FT's, after 1948, was 500, 502, 504 and 506 for the A-units, and 501, 503, 505 and 507 for the B-units. Number 500 was the only unit not renumbured.14 In addition to being the first Road Diesels on the LV, the FT's were also the first LV locomotives delivered in the new "Cornell Red with three black stripes" paintscheme, which would then become the standard LV paintscheme for nearly two decades, 1945 to 1964.  EMD promotional card, 1945.  EMD builders photo, 1945.  EMD builders photo, 1945. Colorized by Scot Lawrence  EMD builders photo, 1945.  "The Bombers" - Photographer unknown.
The FT's earned the nickname "bombers" when they first arrived at the end of WWII, because some said a quartet of FT's, pushing hard at the end of a train, with diesel engines throttled up and working hard, sounded like a brace of bomber jets approaching. |
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Alco
PA
Built 1948 Rostered 1948 - 1965  LV
606, Sayre PA -
photographer unknown. Colorized by
Scot Lawrence.
 LV 612 . Photographer unknown. Guy Fluck collection, used with permission. The
LV dieselized its passenger
service in one clean swoop, by
ordering fourteen Alco PA-1
diesels in the spring of 1948.
Considered by many to be the most
beautiful diesel model ever made,
the sleek new Alcos rounded out
the final decade of passenger
service on the LV.
The last steam-powered edition of the Black Diamond Express operated on May 15, 1948, powered by non-streamlined pacific 2091. The following day, the new Alco PA passenger diesels took over. The Alco PA's led the majority of LV passenger trains through the 1950's, and up to the end of LV passenger service in 1961. The PA's were the stylish image of LV passenger service through the decade of the 1950's. They were rebuilt between 1955 and 1958. Originally class DP1, they were later reclassified to AP20.14 They were delieved new in the "Cornell Red with three black stripes" scheme, and that was the only scheme they wore during their lifetimes. The final run of the Black Diamond Express occured on May 11, 1959. The John Wilkes made its last run on February 3, 1961. And the following day, February 4, 1961, the final LV passenger trains made their last runs, the eastbound and westbound editions of the "Maple Leaf". Both trains were delayed by a major snow storm that day. The westbound Maple Leaf got to Buffalo three hours late, and the eastbound Maple Leaf ended up being the last operating LV passenger train, crawling into the Newark NJ station that afternoon, running 8 hours late through the blizzard. The final train was led by Alco PA number 603. As if the blizzard and being 8 hours late wasn't enough, as a final indignity the PRR refused to take the LV cars into Penn station, as was the normal procedure, instead transferring the passengers to PRR cars for the final leg of the journey into Manhattan.18 At least the passengers made it to Manhattan, even if the Maple Leaf didn't. Like the streamlined Pacifics they replaced, the Alco PA's also soldiered on for a few extra years after their passenger career was over by 1961, but also like the Pacifics, in far less glamorous freight service. Most of the PA's survived until 1963/'64, but only one made it to 1965. The last LV Alco PA, number 606, was traded in to Alco in late 1965, on a C628 order.14 The Alco PA era on the LV was short, only 17 years! but they remain a "fan favorite" to this day. Everyone who models the LV has at least one pair of PA's on their personal model railroad roster!  postcard - photographer unknown.  More photos wanted! :) If you have any PA photos you would like to share, please let me know! Full credit of course, and a link to any page of your choice. (email at the bottom of the page)
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Built 1948 Rostered 1948 - 1972  LV
200, Sayre PA - date
and photographer unknown.
Greg Robbins collection, used with permission. Number
200 arrived in late 1948, the LV's
only Baldwin roadswitcher.
Originally equipped with a steam
generator! she was intended to be
a dual-purpose passenger and
freight locomotive for the lightly
traveled upstate NY Auburn
Division branch lines. She did
serve in that role briefly,
however after the RS2's and RS3's
arrived a few years later, and the
end of passenger service, Number
200 was demoted to yard switcher
duty at Sayre, where she spent the
majority of her career, never
straying far from the Sayre shops
who kept her running. She did have
a long career however! (for a
Baldwin) serving 24 years with the
LV before being retired in 1971,
and traded in on the GP38-2 order
in 1972.14
Number 200 arrived new in the "Cornell Red with three black stripes" scheme, and was later given a fresh Tuscan scheme sometime in the 60's. She was originally class BB-9, and was later reclassed DRS1.14  LV
200, Sayre PA, date and photographer
unknown.
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Built 1948 Rostered 1948 - 1972  EMD
promotional painting, 1948
The floodgates opened on full-scale
mainline dieselization in 1948!
(Although the FT's had arrived in
1945, there weren't enough of them to
put an end to steam operations quite
yet.) But in 1948 the LV went all-in,
ordering 55 new diesels in 1948 alone!
and an additional 115 new units
through 1949, 1950 and 1951, making a
total of 170 new diesel locomotives in
the four years between 1948 and 1951,
which put a final end to steam
operations on the LV; the last steam
locomotive operating on September 15,
1951.The "Wyoming Killers", ending most mainline steam for freight, were a group of Twenty EMD F3's, and an additional Twenty Alco FA's, ordered in 1948. (And the Alco PA's also arrived in 1948, ending steam in passenger service.) The LV ordered twenty EMD F3's in 1948, ten A-units and ten B-units. A-units were even road numbers, B-units were odd. All arrived new in 1948, and all were upgraded to F7 standards in the 1950's, although they kept their road numbers and were still referred to as F3's. The majority were traded in or sold through the middle and late 1960's, although four B-units (and only F3B's!) made it into the 1970's: 519 and 525 were traded-in in 1971, and the final two of the class, 513 and 521, made it to December 1972 (along with two F7A's) before being traded-in on the GP38-2's.14 All F3's arrived new in the "Cornell Red with three black stripes" scheme, and a few made it into Tuscan in the 60's and early 70's. They were originally class DF2, and were later reclassed as EF15.14  Lehigh Valley
Railroad Train SJ2 with units 514,
515, 526 & 527 at Sayre Pa.
April 17, 1949.
Unknown Photographer. Negative from Peter Bellisario collection, used with permission. More photos wanted! :) If you have any F3 photos you would like to share, please let me know! Full credit of course, and a link to any page of your choice. (email at the bottom of the page)
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Built 1948 Rostered 1948 - 1966  A beautiful ABBA set of LV Alco FA's leads a train east out of Sayre in 1960. In the lead is the "class unit" number 530. Photo by Mac Owen, Joseph Testagrose collection. used with permission. The FA-1's arrived new in 1948, also wearing the (by then) standard LV scheme of Cornell Red with three black stripes. Most of the FA's served their whole career in their original paintscheme, although a few did recieve Tuscan as their second paintscheme. The FA's had a respectable career, but didnt last quite as long as their EMD counterparts. Four only lasted 12 years, being traded-in in 1960, over half were gone in 1964, and the remainder made it to 1966. (the FA2's were also all off the roster by 1966) The FA1's were originally Class DF3, and were later reclassified as AF15. All twenty were rebuilt between 1956 and 1959 at Sayre or at Alco and upgraded to 1600hp.14  Used with permission.  Used with permission.  Used with permission.  Greg Gunshore collection, Used with permission. More
photos wanted!
:)
If you have any FA1 photos you would like to share, please let me know! Full credit of course, and a link to any page of your choice. (email at the bottom of the page)
Exact builders numbers for the FA1's are uncertain, extra220 south repeats/duplicates some builder numbers. |
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Built 1949 - 1950 Rostered 1949 - 1974  The
LV purchased its second batch of
Baldwin switchers in 1949/1950, in
the forum of nine DS44-10's. These
units were among the last
DS44-10's built. (The following
year the LV would buy the earliest
Baldwin S12's)
The nine DS44-10's served the LV well, operating through all of the 1950's and 1960's, and most surviving into the 70's. A few made it all the way to December 1974 and nearly recieved Conrail numbers on paper, but didnt make it to Conrail in the end, instead being traded-in on the U-boats. (No LV Baldwins made it to Conrail.) An interesting roster note for a few of the DS44-10's and the S12's: A few of these Baldwins recieved new road numbers! Some of them (four units total) had their road numbers switched around when they were ready to be traded in, the numbers being swapped for accounting purposes.14 DS44-10 number 141 swapped numbers with 148, on October 22, 1972: The original 141:1 was renumbured to 148:2 when it was traded in. Then the original 148:1 was renumbured to 141:2, and then operated as the 141:2 for another two years. Two S12's also swapped numbers, 236 and 242, also in 1972: The original 236:1 was renumbured to 242:2 when it was traded in. Then the original 242:1 was renumbured to 236:2. The DS44-10's and the NW2's were the first LV switchers to arrive new in the "Cornell Red with three black stripes" scheme, the first units in each class were built in June 1949.
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Built 1949 Rostered 1949 - 1976  LV 181, Allentown PA, August 1963 Greg Gunshore Collection - Used with permission.  LV NW2 182. Guy Fluck collection, used with permission.  LV NW2 184. Guy Fluck collection, used with permission. The LV
ordered seven new EMD NW2
switchers in 1949. The
DS44-10's and the NW2's were the
first LV switchers to arrive new
in the "Cornell Red with three
black stripes" scheme, the first
units in each class were built
in June 1949. Originally class
DS6, they were later
re-classified to ES10.
There are no known surviving LV NW2's. |
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Alco
RS2 & RS3
Built 1949 - 1955 Rostered 1949 - 1976  LV 216.
Postcard, Greg Robbins
collection.
Since
the careers of the LV
RS2's and RS3's were so
intertwined, I thought
it made sense to have
them share one section.Used with permission. The LV's first Alco road switchers were five RS2's, 210:1, 211:1, 212,:1, 213 and 214, which arrived in mid-1949 and early 1950. Two more RS2's were then purchased in late 1950, originally owned by the C&O, who returned them to Alco nearly new. Then two new RS3's arrived at the end of 1950. This was the 9-unit RS2 and RS3 fleet for 20 years, LV 210 to 218, until the 1970's, when four more units arrived second-hand. In June 1970 the LV performed a swap with its corporate parent Penn Central. Three of the LV's original RS2's, 210:1, 211:1 and 212:1, now 20 years old and worn out after a good career, were swapped to PC for three RS3's in better condition. For accounting purposes the three new units were given the same road numbers, becoming 210:2, 211:2 and 212:2. PC then traded in the RS2's on new PC units. In January 1972 the LV purchased it's last Alco RS, buying the former Tennessee Central RS3 251, and giving it the highest LV RS3 number, number 219. Four of the original units, RS2's 210:1, 213, 214, and RS3 215, were built new with steam generators, so they could be used as back-up passenger units if necessary.14 They were very seldom used in this capacity however, since the LV had the PA's for primary passenger service, and also four FA2's with steam generators for back-up passenger service. There are a few photos of the FA2's with steam generators in back-up passenger service, however I am not aware of any photos of a RS2 or RS3 in passenger service! It must have been very rare, and the units spent the vast majority of their careers as regular freight units. The LV owned a total of 13 Alco RS2's and RS3's. the original 9 units were originally class BB9, they were later re-classed to DRS1. The units purchased new in 1949 and 1950 arrived new in the Cornell Red with three black stripes scheme, and the RS2's and RS3's as a group wore many different LV paintschemes over the course of their careers.  LV 213, Alco RS2. Guy Fluck collection. Used with permission.  LV 212:2, Alco RS3. Guy Fluck collection. Used with permission.  LV 216, Alco RS3. Guy Fluck collection. Used with permission.  LV
219,
Alco RS3.
Guy Fluck
collection.
Used with permission.
Only 211:2 survives today. See the LV Survivors webpage for more detailed disposition information for all the units. |
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Alco
S1
Built 1950 Rostered 1950 - 1969 The LV had four diesel models that only had a single representative on the roster: One Alco HH600, one Alco HH660, one Baldwin DRS44-15, and now the fourth and last single-unit order, one solitary Alco S1. Why the LV ordered a single 660 hp Alco S1 in 1950, when it already rostered sixteen 1,000 hp S2's delivered over the previous decade, is a mystery! Perhaps the less horsepower was acceptable for a specific purpose the LV had in mind for the locomotive? The exact reason is unknown, but in any event the LV's only Alco S1 arrived new in 1950. 117 was delivered new in the "Cornell Red with three black stripes" scheme, and she was around long enough to receive a second scheme in Tuscan. She was sold by the LV in 1969 to Precision Engineering (a dealer) then she went to Goldkist corp No. 117, Valdosta GA, in 1970, and then to Vulcan Materials No. 5789, Geismar, LA, in 1978.14  LV 117, Alco S1. Guy Fluck collection. Used with permission. More photos wanted! :) If you have any S1 photos you would like to share, please let me know! Full credit of course, and a link to any page of your choice. (email at the bottom of the page)
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EMD SW7
Built 1950 Rostered 1950 - 1976  LV 223, EMD Builders photo. Greg Gunshore collection. Used with permission.  LV 221, EMD SW7. Guy Fluck collection. Used with permission.  LV 223, EMD SW7. Guy Fluck collection. Used with permission. The
LV ordered five new SW7's from EMD
in 1950. All five survived to
Conrail, and were retired by CR in
1981 and 1982. Originally class
DS7, they were later reclassified
to ES12.14
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Built 1950 Rostered 1950 - 1974  LV
243, Sayre PA - date
and photographer unknown.
The LV seemed happy with Baldwin
switchers, they kept going back for
more. The third and final group of
Baldwin switchers on the LV was a
group of fourteen Baldwin S12's,
ordered new in 1950. Originally class
DS7, they were later reclassified as
BS12.Greg Robbins collection, used with permission. More photos wanted! :) If you have any S12 photos you would like to share, please let me know! Full credit of course, and a link to any page of your choice. (email at the bottom of the page) The three Baldwin switcher models on the LV, the VO-1000, the DS44-10, and the S12, were all very similar models, with only incremental evolutionary changes between them. Between the three classes, the LV owned a total of 28 Baldwin switchers, and the one solitary Baldwin road switcher. Even though the LV did appear to like Baldwin switchers, apart from the single road switcher (number 200, which was used more in a switcher role by the LV) the LV never bought any other Baldwin road units. Baldwin lost the diesel race and stopped producing diesel locomotives in 1956, the first of the major builders to cease production. (Alco would soldier on until 1969) The S12's would be the final LV Baldwins, built in September and October of 1950. Originally class DS-7, they would later be reclassified as BS12.14 All arrived new in the "Cornell Red with three black stripes" scheme, and a few did survive to recieve a second paintscheme of Tuscan in the 1960's. Like their nearly identical sisters the DS44-10's, The S12's served the LV well, operating through all of the 1950's and 1960's, and most surviving into the 70's. A few made it all the way to December 1974 and nearly recieved Conrail numbers on paper, but didnt make it to Conrail in the end, instead being traded-in on the U-boats. (No LV Baldwins made it to Conrail.) 234 and 240 were the last Baldwins on the LV, surviving to December 1974, and probably traded to GE on the U23B order.14 An interesting roster note for a few of the DS44-10's and the S12's: A few of these Baldwins recieved new road numbers! Some of them (four units total) had their road numbers switched around when they were ready to be traded in, the numbers being swapped for accounting purposes.14 DS44-10 number 141 swapped numbers with 148, on October 22, 1972: The original 141:1 was renumbured to 148:2 when it was traded in. Then the original 148:1 was renumbured to 141:2, and then operated as the 141:2 for another two years. Two S12's also swapped numbers, 236 and 242, also in 1972: The original 236:1 was renumbured to 242:2 when it was traded in. Then the original 242:1 was renumbured to 236:2.
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"The Pups" Built 1950 - 1952 Rostered 1950 - 1976 Lehigh
Valley SW-8 269 and four other Pups
lead the westbound "Hazelton Man" past
the west end of the
CNJ, in the Lehigh Gorge at Hetchel PA; June 14, 1970. Photo by Rich Taylor, used with permission.  LV 253, EMD SW8. Guy Fluck collection. Used with permission.  LV 257 - Hazleton PA - 1968. Houser Photo, Greg Gunshore Collection - Used with Permission.  LV 261 - Hazleton PA - October 3, 1968. Houser Photo, Greg Gunshore Collection - Used with Permission.  LV 263, EMD SW8. Guy Fluck collection. Used with permission.  LV 273, EMD SW8. Guy Fluck collection. Used with permission. The LV's EMD
SW8's, affectionately known by
railroad men and fans alike as
"Pups", are one of the better
known classes of LV locomotives,
and certainty the most "famous" of
LV switchers. They have earned
their fame for several reasons:
1. They were the largest single class/type of LV diesels, 27 units. 2. They are also the single largest class of surviving LV units today, 17 still survive in 2017. 3. But they are most well-known because of the special features and special use of eighteen of them, very unusual for switchers: Eighteen of the SW8's were equipped with dynamic brakes! MU-capability on both ends, and headlights on both ends, features very uncommon for switchers, and the LV ordered these features so they could use them in multiple-unit lashups, often four or five together, in the coal fields of Pennsylvania, where the twisting, tight curves and grades made the smaller locomotives ideal. They were essentially used as "road units"! but on the twisting mountainous branch lines in the Anthracite coal fields. Quite an unusual sight! 18 of the LV's 27 SW8's were equipped with dynamic brakes and MU-capability, nine were not.22 The units with dynamic brakes are easily identifiable by a distinct dynamic brake "hump" just in front of the cab, with cooling grates on the side, and a fan on top: http://www.anthraciterailroads.org/lvrr/images/lv269agd.jpg The concept of using switchers in multiple-unit lash-ups as pseudo "road units" was quite uncommon, and in addition to "pups" they have also been known as "super switchers" SW8's 274, 275 and 276 were the last switchers purchased by the LV. The three were built in December 1952.14 Some have said that *any* and all LV EMD switchers were called "pups", while others believe that it was only the "special" eighteen units with dynamic brakes, MU on both end, headlights on both ends, used in multiple-unit lashups, that were the ones called "Pups". Its unclear, however I believe the latter. The column for "Pup" in the list below gives a Y (yes) for the 18 SW8's with the special features, and a N (no) for the nine without.22
All 27 SW8's survived to Conrail, becoming CR 8664 - 8690. Conrail removed the dynamic brakes, taking out the internal brake apparatus under the hood, removing the side cooling grates and hood-top fan, plating over the openings, but leaving the "hump" itself intact. Many of the surviving "Pups" still show their distinctive "hump" today, just in front of the cab:  Wellsboro & Corning SW8 No. 800. Originally LV 262. Wellsboro PA, 2/14/2003, Scot Lawrence photo. Click here for more photos of Wellsboro & Corning #800. Now (in 2017) North Shore 774. |
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Built 1950 - 1951 Rostered 1950 - 1972  LV 562, duplicate
slide, Greg Robbins collection.
Used with permission. Photographer unknown.  LV 572, February 15, 1971. Rich Taylor photo, used with permission. More photos wanted! :) If you have any FA1 photos you would like to share, please let me know! Full credit of course, and a link to any page of your choice. (email at the bottom of the page) The LV purchased it's third and final model of EMD cab units (after the FT's and F3's) in 1950 and '51, Fourteen EMD F7's. The fourteen F7's were comprised of eight F7A's and six F7B's. They were ordered in three ABBA sets, plus two additional A-units.14 All were delivered new in the "Cornell Red with three black stripes" scheme, and a few got a second scheme of Tuscan. Originally class DF4, they later were reclassified as EF15.14 Being the newest EMD cab units, they survived the longest, and they survived longer overall than their Alco FA2 contemporaries (also from 1950 and '51). The first F7's were retired in 1967 and 1968, and two survived to 1972, along with two F3B's. The LV's final four cab units were: F3B 513 F3B 521 F7A 562 F7A 572 All four were traded in to EMD during December 1972 on the GP38-2 order.14 No LV cab units, EMD or Alco, survived to Conrail.
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Budd
RDC
Built 1951 - 1951 Rostered 1950 - 1966 In 1951
the LV ordered two
RDC's (Rail Diesel
Car) from the
Budd corporation. LV
40 and 41. The two
self-powered
railcars were used
for the low capacity
passenger service on
the LV's Hazelton
area branch lines.
 LV 40 meets the Black Diamond at Lehighton. Richard Palmer collection, used with permission.  LV 41 at Lehighton, 1957. David Nyce Photo, Greg Robbins collection. Used with permission.
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EMD
SW9
Built 1951 Rostered 1951 - 1976  LV 285, EMD SW9. Guy Fluck collection. Used with permission.  LV 286, EMD SW9. Guy Fluck collection. Used with permission. More photos wanted! :) If you have any SW9 photos you would like to share, please let me know! Full credit of course, and a link to any page of your choice. (email at the bottom of the page) In 1951 the LV ordered 13 new SW9 switchers from EMD. Numbers 280 to 292, the highest numbered switchers on the LV roster. Originally class DS-7, they were later reclassed to ES12. One was retired in 1968, three were traded-in on the U-boats in 1974, and the remainder survived to Conrail.
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Alco S4 Built 1951 Rostered 1951 - 1969 In 1951 the LV ordered two S4 switchers from Alco. 166 and 167 would be the last Alco switchers ordered by the LV. The two units served with the LV until 1969, when both were sold to dealer Precision Engineering, who then sold both to the Steelton & Highspire, becoming S&H 66 and 67, but retaining their LV colors. S&H 66 was refitted with blunt trucks, and 67 was cut down to a slug by 1977.14 Both were delivered new in the Cornell Red with three black stripes scheme, 167 received a second scheme of Tuscan.  LV 167 in fresh Tuscan paint - Sayre PA - March 16, 1963 Jack Koehler / Greg Gunshore collection. - used with permission.
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EMD
SW900m
(and SW8m) Built 1953 - 1960 Rostered 1953 - 1976  LV SW900M 124:2 Guy Fluck collection, used with permission.  LV
SW900M 125:2
In the
seven years between 1953
and 1960 the LV sent
Fourteen of its older
switchers back to EMD
for total
rebuilding. The LV
sent three
of the
ancestral EMC
SW's, 106, 107
and 110, and the
total population of
eleven NW1's, 120 to
130, back to EMD for
rebuilding.Guy Fluck collection, used with permission. These units are an unusual case in the annals of "rebuilding". Most of the time, when a locomotive is "rebuilt", it comes out of the process still considered the same locomotive, just with whatever upgrades it received in the rebuild. A good example is LV GP18 number 304, which was involved in a wreck then sent off to the ICG Paducah shops for a full "paducah geep" rebuilding, returning with a chopped nose, the classic roof top Paducah geep airfilter, and other internal improvements. However when the 304 returned from the rebuild, it was still considered the same locomotive it was before, just with alterations, and not a totally different locomotive. We say there was only one LV GP18 number 304, not two. This is usually the case with most diesel rebuilds, and it also applied to the LV Alco FA's and PA's, all of which were "rebuilt" but emerged from the rebuild as "the same locomotives" they were before, just rebuilt. (the FAs and PAs didn't receive new carbodies in their rebuilds, only internal upgrades.) However sometimes the "rebuild" is so extreme that it crosses a line, and the locomotive that returns from the rebuild is so heavily altered that it can only be considered a completely different and brand-new locomotive, this is the case with the fourteen LV SW900m's. These LV SW's and NW1's weren't really "rebuilt", instead they were sent as parts sources for brand-new switchers. Only the frame and trucks from the original locomotives were retained and reused, everything else on the new locomotives, from the frame up, hood, cab, engine, everything, were brand-new EMD switchers, and everything left over was then scrapped. The LV called them rebuilds, and gave the new locomotives the same road numbers as the old ones, for accounting purposes, however realistically they were essentially brand-new EMD switchers. Which is why in this roster I am counting 28 individual locomotives, not 14. Three SW's (106:1, 107:1 and 110:1) then three different SW900m's (106:2, 107:2 and 110:2) Eleven original NW1's (120:1 to 130:1), then eleven different SW900m's. (120:2 to 130:2) Technically only twelve of the fourteen were classified as SW900m's, the first two rebuilt were called SW8m's, however since it was all part of the same rebuild process, i'm including all fourteen units together in this section. Also, the first eight rebuilt retained their original builder numbers when they returned from EMD. (again, this was most likely done for accounting purposes), then the final six received all-new builder numbers from EMD. The builder number policy change occurred about 1/1957.14 However it is believed the mechanicals themselves were the same on all fourteen units, they all returned as 900HP switchers. (Why the first two were labeled SW8m is a mystery.)
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Built 1959 Rostered 1959 - 1976  LV 300 in her
original scheme. Photographer
uknown.
Both GP9's and all four GP18's were delivered new in this scheme. Guy Fluck collection, used with permission.  LV 300 in her 2nd scheme, Tuscan. Photographer uknown. Guy Fluck collection, used with permission.  LV 300 in her 3rd and final LV scheme, Coxton PA, 1975 Photographer unknown, Greg Robbins collection, used with permission. 
 LV 301 in her 4th and final LV scheme. Guy Fluck collection, used with permission. The LV
dieselized almost
exclusively with cab
units for road
freight, buying a
total of 74 freight
cab units, EMD
F-units and
Alco FA's. This
fleet of 74 cab
units (plus a much
smaller amount of
Alco RS2's and
RS3's, mostly for
branch-line service)
handled all the LV's
freight needs for
the late 1940's and
nearly all of the
50's. No new freight
road units were
purchased until
1959, when the LV
ordered two new EMD
GP9's.
The two GP9's, 300 and 301, arrived new in the Cornell Red with three black stripes scheme, and both later received additional schemes. 301 was a celebrity for receiving an experimental wide yellow band scheme, only applied to 301 and RS3 No. 216. 300 and 301 replaced FT's 502 and 505, which were traded in on the GP9's.14 Both GP9's survived to Conrail, operating nearly another decade in blue, until both were retired in 1985.33 See Lehigh Valley Railroad Survivors for disposition information for all LV diesels. Both GP9's were originally classified as DRS-2. Both were later classified as ESM-18. It is believed 300 stayed ESM-18 until the end, while 301 received a third classification of ERSM-18.34
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Alco RS11 Built 1957 - 1960 Rostered 1960 - 1976  LV 400, date and photographer unknown, duplicate slide, Scot Lawrence collection. In 1960 the
LV turned to both EMD and ALCO
for a quartet of each builder's
latest-and-greatest
road-switchers, receiving four
Alco RS11's and four EMD GP18's.
The LV's four new Alco RS11's
were the very first low-nose
road units received by an
eastern railroad. They were
delivered new in the standard
"Cornell Red with three black
stripes" scheme, and all later
received second schemes.
Originally class DRS4, they were
later classified as ARSM18.14
In addition to the four low-hood RS11's that the LV purchased new, the LV also received an additional six former PRR high-hood RS11's during a power shortage in 1964, before the C420's arrived. Originally leased, six then formally joined the LV roster. The six PRR high-hoods arrived on the LV after the low-hoods, but they were built before, in 1957. The six units were the former PRR 8640, 8641, 8642, 8643, 8644 and 8648. They kept these road numbers when transferred to the LV, becoming LV 8640-8644 & 8648. These would be the only LV diesels with 4-digit road numbers. The six high-hood RS11's had been rebuilt just before transfer to the LV, now classified as 2000hp units, and so they got a different class designation than the four original RS11's, being class ARS20.14 Extra 220 South indicates these were also designated as model RS11u after the rebuild, however no other LV rosters list them that way. They most likely were designated as RS11's on the LV, even though they had been rebuilt. In 1967 the LV re-numbured all six units to match the upcoming Penn Central numbering scheme coming soon with the PC merger of 1968. (The LV was controlled by the PRR then PC) The six units then became LV 7640-7644 & 7648. The six units kept these LV/PC numbers until 1976, at which time Conrail kept the PC RS11 number series for Conrail RS11's, and did not renumber them for Conrail.. thus these six units ended up being the only LV units that did not need re-numburing for Conrail, a dubious honor. The original four low-hoods, plus the six second-hand PRR units, made a total of ten Alco RS11's on the LV roster.  LV 7640, Alco RS11. Guy Fluck collection. Used with permission.  LV 7648, Alco RS11. Guy Fluck collection. Used with permission.  LV 8644, Alco RS11. Guy Fluck collection. Used with permission.
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Built 1960 Rostered 1960 - 1976  LV 304, Sayre PA - Photographer unknown, Greg Robbins collection, used with permission. More photos wanted! :) If you have any GP18 photos you would like to share, please let me know! Full credit of course, and a link to any page of your choice. (email at the bottom of the page) After
the two GP9's of 1959, the LV
placed another order with EMD
for four more units the
following year in 1960. However
in that one-year span the GP9
had been replaced by the GP18 in
the EMD catalog, so the LV
received four new EMD GP18's in
1960. These would be the last
high-hood units ordered new by
the LV, and the only LV EMD's
ordered in the 1960's!
The LV's four GP18's; 302, 303, 304, and 305 arrived new in the "Cornell Red with three black stripes" scheme, but all four were later repainted: 302 and 303 got a second scheme of Tuscan, and went to Conrail in Tuscan. 305 also received a second scheme of Tuscan, then a third scheme of "Late Cornell Red with billboard lettering and yellow stripe" The four GP18's would be the very last units painted in the LV's classic "Cornell Red with three black stripes" paintscheme, which had been the standard for 15 years, first arriving with the FT's of 1945. The four GP18's replaced four FT's, 500, 501, 503 and 504, which were traded in on the GP's.14 304 ended up being a unique GP on the LV roster. 304 was originally identical to her other three GP18 sisters, but she was involved in a wreck in late 1971 that damaged her heavily. 304's nose and cab was severely damaged in the wreck, so in June 1972 the LV sent the unit out to Kentucky to the Illinois Central's Paducah shops, who gave the 304 the full "Paducah Geep" rebuild treatment, with a new low-nose, new cab, and the distinctive Paducah Geep air filter on the roof. 304 returned to the LV unpainted, the LV then painted her at Sayre in the then-current "Late Cornell Red with billboard lettering and yellow stripe" scheme. All four units survived to Conrail and operated several more years in blue, but were retired by Conrail by 1985.
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Alco
C420
Built 1964 Rostered 1964 - 1976  LV 409 in her original Yellowjacket scheme. Photographer uknown. Guy Fluck collection, used with permission.  LV 410 in her 2nd scheme, Cornell Red. Photographer uknown. Guy Fluck collection, used with permission. LV diesel
paintschemes were remarkably
consistent over the two decades
from 1945 to 1964, nearly all
units being delivered in the
standard scheme of "Cornell Red
with three black stripes", and
all having the same Cornell Red
color. But this era of
consistency would end in 1964
with the arrival of the
"yellowjacket" C420's, ushering
in the new, and final era of
"many different paintschemes"
that would make the LV's final
decade very colorful indeed.
In 1964 the LV ordered a dozen new Alco C420's, the first model in Alco's new Century Series. The twelve units arrived in the new "yellowjacket" scheme of yellow and grey! quite a departure from the LV's standard red of the previous two decades. The C420's proved to be a very reliable locomotives, serving the LV well during the railroad's final twelve years. Ten of the twelve were later repainted into variations of red and tuscan at the Sayre shops, but two, 412 & 413, survived to the end still in their original yellowjacket colors. Upon the creation of Conrail, the C420's did not become Conrail locomotives, instead they (along with the LV's GP38-2's) were sold to the Delaware & Hudson railroad, who had been given trackage rights over the former EL mainline between Binghamton & Buffalo NY, in an attempt to provide competition to Conrail. It was because of this transfer to the D&H that I was still able to see LV C420's operating in the 1980's!
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Alco C628
Built 1964 - 1967
Rostered
1965 - 1976 LV 636, Lehighton PA, July 1968 Photo by John Dziobko Jr., used with permission. http://www.godfatherrails.com/  Thomas Boardman
photo. Richard Vienna Collection.
used with permission.
 Richard Palmer
Collection, used with permission.
The
largest diesels ever owned by the
LV, the largest class of 2nd
generation diesels, the only 6-axle
freight units, and the last Alcos
ordered by the LV, were the
Seventeen Alco C628's. The first
seven units came new from Alco in
November 1965, one was
ordered in January 1967, and the
remaining nine (633 to 641)were
second-hand Monon units, originally
Monon 400 to 408, returned by the
Monon to Alco, who then turned
around and sold them to the LV in
December 1967, repainting them at
the Alco plant before delivery. LV 631 in her 2nd scheme, Cornell Red. Photographer unknown. Guy Fluck collection, used with permission. All seventeen units arrived from Alco in the new "Snowbird" black & white scheme, (also called the "White Elephant" scheme), continuing the new trend of unexpected and unusual paintschemes begun with the yellowjackets the year before. They were the only units in this paintscheme, and thirteen were later repainted to Tuscan or Red, while four (626, 632, 634, 636) made it Conrail still in the Snowbird scheme.14 The big Alcos were not quite as reliable for the LV as their smaller C420 sisters. The 6-axle trucks on the C628's were rough on track, and the LV eventually banned the locomotives west of Sayre, because of tight curves in the Buffalo area. The C628's seemed to spend more time in the shop too. All of the C628's only survived about 15 years, being scrapped by Conrail around 1980, while 50 years later eight of the twelve C420's still exist! 33 The LV C628's were transferred to Conrail where they joined other 6-axle Alcos from PC and Reading. Conrail was not a fan of the big Alcos, and retired them all as quickly as they could, only running them about four years before retiring them all about 1980 and 1981.
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EMD GP38AC Built
1971
Rostered
1971 - 1976
 Richard
W. Jahn collection, used with
permission.
 Greg
Robbins collection, used with
permission, photographer
unknown.
The
LV ordered no EMD's for a solid
decade! The four GP18's were
ordered in 1960, then no other
EMD's arrived on the roster
until these four GP38AC's in
1971.
This wasn't because the LV had anything against EMD. EMD's ended up out-numburing Alcos on the LV diesel roster. It was only because the LV ordered twelve new Alco C420's in 1964, then Seventeen Alco C628's between 1965 and 1967. And most of the older locomotives ordered in the 50's were also still operating, so after the Centuries, no other locomotives were needed in the 60's! Alco just happened to get all the orders for new diesels in the 60's. But Alco went out of business in 1969. New Alcos werent an option by the 70's, so the LV turned to EMD again for the latest in modern GP road units. The GP38AC was a fairly uncommon model in the GP family, wedged only for a short time between the GP38 and the GP38-2 in the EMD catalog. The four LV GP38AC's were the first units in the new "Late Cornell Red with billboard lettering and yellow stripe" scheme. The large "billboard" helvetica "LEHIGH VALLEY" lettering on the long-hood first appeared on the Yellowjacket C420's in 1964. However the same style of lettering, but with Red paint, was first seen on the GP38AC's. This scheme would then become the last standard LV paintscheme, with the addition of nose stripes after the GP38AC's, also appearing new on the GP38-2's, the U-boats, and all Sayre repaints of older units from 1971 to 1976. The four GP38AC's all became Conrail units, and as this is written in 2016, all four still exist! 40 years after the LV died, and 45 years after the units were built. In 2016 three have been rebuilt and are operating with Norfolk Southern, and one is now a FURX lease unit. See the LV survivors page for the latest status.
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....EMD GP38-2 Built
1972
Rostered
1972 - 1976 LV GP38-2 No. 322. Buffalo, NY. Photographer unknown. Guy Fluck collection, used with permission. More photos wanted! :) If you have any GP38-2 photos you would like to share, please let me know! Full credit of course, and a link to any page of your choice. (email at the bottom of the page) The LV
ordered their last EMD's in
1972, receiving a dozen new
GP38-2's. Along with the four
GP38AC's, and then the U-boats
of 1974, these would be the
newest road units of the LV's
final years.
The GP38-2's, LV 314 to 325, arrived in a scheme similar to the GP38AC's of a year earlier, but with the addition of the black & white zebra stripes on the nose and pilot. This scheme, repeated on the U-boats, would be the final LV paintscheme, and fittingly, the LV went out proudly wearing Cornell Red. The GP38-2's served the LV well during its final four years, then, along with the Alco C420's, they were transferred to the D&H on April 1, 1976. The D&H kept the same LV road numbers but added a "7" to the front, becoming D&H 7314 to 7325. They continued another 15 years on the D&H, until the D&H was absorbed into Canadian Pacific in 1991. They then became CP units, where ten of the twelve still operate 45 years later, in 2017.
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.GE U23B Built
1974
Rostered
1974 - 1976 LV 512, Sayre PA, 1975. Duplicate slide, Greg Robbins collection, photographer unknown. 
And now we
come to the very last
locomotives ever owned by the
Lehigh Valley Railroad, the
twelve GE U23B's of 1974.
By 1974, the end was in sight. Planning had already begun in Washington DC for what would soon become Conrail. Congress passed the "3R Act" in 1973, which authorized the USRA to begin planning for Conrail, in an effort to save the North East rail network, which was on the verge of collapse. It was believed at the time that only the US Government could step in and save the rail network, which was still very vital to the economic health of the USA. (This turned out to be accurate, and Conrail did in fact save and preserve the North East rail network!) But that was yet to come.. The LV had a small amount of new power in the early 1970's, Four GP38AC's and the Dozen GP38-2's. But apart from those sixteen units, the rest of the LV fleet was getting on in years, the Alco C628's were spending a lot of time in the shop, and more new units were still necessary to keep the trains rolling while Conrail was being worked out. The USRA financed the LV's final dozen locomotives, the twelve U-boats, and because of this the LV's U23B's are often said to be "the first Conrail locomotives", which is essentially true. They arrived new in December 1974, not yet painted for Conrail though, and instead arrived in the LV's standard final scheme of "Late Cornell Red with billboard lettering and yellow stripe", the same scheme worn by the GP38-2's. The U-boats served a very short time with the LV, December 1974 to the "end of the line" on March 31, 1976, only 15 months! barely more than a year. However because everyone knew Conrail was coming, railfans were out in force during those last months, and the U-boats were heavily photographed during this time, which we are all grateful for decades later.
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 Although the LV would have clearly still failed even if it hadnt been under the PC umbrella, because the LV was one of four Class-1 railroads operating between New York City and Buffalo: LV, Erie, DL&W and New York Central. By the 1960's and 70's, only two of those four ancestral routes were necessary. The DL&W and the LV mainlines across central and western NY didnt survive, only the more active Erie main and the New York Central main survived. The low point for north-east railroads came in the early 1970's, when the ill-fated Penn Central declared bankruptcy, which then quickly threw the LV into bankruptcy as well. Our beloved LV was included in the plan for Conrail, which was created by the US government in an effort to save the north-east rail network, which it eventually did! The Lehigh Valley's last day of existance was March 31, 1976. The following day, April 1, 1976, the LV ceased to exist and passed into history after 123 years of operation. On April first, LV lines, locomotives and facilities were absorbed into the new Conrail system. Most LV locomotives became Conrail locomotives, except for the twelve Alco C420's and the twelve GP38-2's, which were transferred to the D&H. I was born in Sayre in 1969. I was around for the last seven years of the LV's existance, although since I was only seven years old in 1976, I was too young to even be aware that the LV and the EL, running though my hometowns of Sayre and Waverly, were going away. I became a camera-toting teenage railfan after another seven years had passed, in 1983, at the age of fourteen, and by then Conrail was well entrenched. Although LV power could still be seen! the D&H was still running former LV C420's and GP38-2's through Waverly every day, and LV ghosts could still be seen running through Waverly and Sayre on Conrail.  Conrail U23B 2780, the former LV 504, passes through Waverly NY in 1984. Scot Lawrence photo.  And that same train, pulled by a single former LV U-boat, had a former LV caboose bringing up the rear! Conrail Caboose 18622, former LV 95102. Waverly NY, 1984. Scot Lawrence photo I
believe I witnessed the last
Alco to ever operate through
Sayre! and fittingly, it was a
LV Alco. It was 1984, eight
years after the end of the LV.
D&H trains didnt normally
run through Sayre, although they
ran on the former EL (then
Conrail) Southern Tier main
every day from 1976 to 1991.
(D&H was given traffic
rights from Binghamton to
Buffalo when Conrail was
created.) So D&H trains were
common through Waverly in the
80's. However, this day a
D&H train detoured through
Sayre! due to a derailment or a
flood somewhere. This is very
likely the very last time an
Alco passed through Sayre! I can
think of no reason why there
would have been once since:
 D&H Alco C420 number 407, the former LV 407, passes through Sayre PA in 1984. Scot Lawrence photo.  Her
Lehigh Valley heritage showing,
(notice the LV nose stripes!)
D&H 7317 passes through
Waverly, NY in 1986.
Scot Lawrence photo. Click here for full-size version. For
the on-going history of LV
locomotives since 1976,
please see the Lehigh Valley Railroad Survivors page. |
| And the grand total! The Lehigh Valley Railroad owned a total of 2,209 locomotives in its 123 year history. 1,848 Steam locomotives, 1853 to 1951. 323 Diesel locomotives, 1926 to 1976. 33 Gas-Electric locomotives, 1923 to 1953. 5 Electric locomotives, 1922 to 1949.  All-time
roster (all locomotive
types) break-down by
builder:
(some numbers are rounded) Baldwin - almost 1,000 locomotives. - 48%, nearly half the all-time roster! LV's home shops - almost 500 locomotives total, 210 at Sayre. - 24%, about one quarter of the total roster. Alco - over 300 locomotives. - 16% (less than you probably thought!) EMD - 153 locomotives. - 7% (Diesels overall were only 15% of the total roster) Misc. other builders - about 50 locomotives. - 2% Mason - 48 locomotives. - 2% GE - 20 locomotives. - 1% Notes: Interesting roster observations and trivia: Steam roster break-down by wheel arrangement: 4-6-0 - 530 locomotives. 2-8-0 - 308 2-8-2 - 254 4-4-0 - 182 0-8-0 - 143 0-6-0 - 114 4-6-2 - 112 4-8-0 - 60 2-6-0 - 41 2-10-2 - 40 4-4-2 - 39 4-8-4 - 37 2-6-2 - 10 4-8-2 - 6 0-4-0 - 2 2-10-0 - 2 2-4-4T - 2 2-2-0 - 1 2-2-2 - 1 0-6-6-0 - 1 2-4-0T - 1 0-4-4T - 1 4-2-4T - 1 If you add those up, the number is 1888 locomotives. however that is *not* the total number of LV steam locomotives! ;) the actual number is 1848, forty less..why the discrepancy? it's because 40 locomotives on the roster had more than one wheel arrangement! ;) 40 are counted twice in the list above..but are only counted once in the total number of 1848 locomotives. Diesel roster summary:  Diesel roster breakdown, by year introduced:
Diesel roster breakdown, by number of units:
What single locomotive type or class served the longest on the LV? I would have thought it was the 2-8-0 Consolidations, who served 90 years, but the longest wheel arrangement in continuous use were the 4-6-0 Ten Wheelers, who served with the LV for the entire steam era, 98 years, 1853 to 1951. (although the last had virtually nothing in common with the first, other than wheel arrangement) Most numerous steam wheel arrangement on the LV: 4-6-0 Ten-Wheelers - 529 locomotives. Longest lived Steam locomotive: contender: LV 4-6-0 No. 4, one of the first 8 locomotives on the original LV roster of 1855, is said to have been rebuilt 3 times, renumbured in 1905, (to 2597) and scrapped in 1916! For a total lifespan of 61 years. (of course, being so heavily rebuilt, the locomotive that was scrapped in 1916 probably had very little of the original loco from 1855 remaining on it! ;) but it can arguably still be considered the same locomotive.) Also, LV's inspection engine "Dorothy" lived nearly as long, but not quite. She was built in 1884, and was scrapped during WWII in 1943, 59 years. (although Dorothy would have changed much less over her career than the LV Ten-Wheeler No. 4, who would have been heavily rebuilt and probably unrecognizable 61 years later.) Largest single class of locomotives: The largest single class of identical locomotives on the LV was one hundred and twelve (112) 2-8-0w locomotives built for the LV by Baldwin between 1899 and 1902. Originally 1100 series, at the 1905 renumburing they were given numbers 701 - 812 and all placed into class M-35, the largest locomotive class ever on the LV. M-35 class member LV 706 was the last LV 2-8-0 to operate, operating up to 1950. Most numerous diesel model on the LV: EMD SW8, 27 locomotives on the LV roster. (they are also the largest class of surviving locomotives, Fifteen SW8 survivors in 2012) Longest lived/oldest Diesel locomotive: LV EMC SW1 No. 112, the oldest surviving LV locomotive, built in 1939, is 77 years old in 2016, and is being rebuilt, repainted and restored by Pennsy Railcar! 112 also had the longest service life with the LV of of any diesel, 37 years. Most repeated road number: Many locomotive numbers were repeated over the years, as older locomotives were retired and newer locomotives were given the same number. The most used single number on the LV was locomotive number 610, which was used five times, by four steam locomotives, and an Alco PA. LV Camelback numbers: 216 out of 528 LV 4-6-0's were camelbacks, 41% of LV 4-6-0's. 97 out of 308 LV 2-8-0's were camelbacks, 31% of LV 2-8-0's. 82 out of 107 LV 0-8-0's were camelbacks, 77% of LV 0-8-0's. 47 out of 234 LV 2-8-2's were camelbacks, 20% of LV 2-8-2's 34 out of 114 LV 0-6-0's were camelbacks, 30% of LV 0-6-0's 34 out of 39 LV 4-4-2's were camelbacks, 87% of LV 4-4-2's. 10 out of 10 LV 2-6-2's were camelbacks, 100% of LV 2-6-2's. 8 out of 112 LV 4-6-2's were camelbacks, 7% of LV 4-6-2's. 5 out of 182 LV 4-4-0's were camelbacks, 3% of LV 4-4-0's. 1 out of 41 LV 2-6-0's were camelbacks, 2% of LV 2-6-0's. Pacifics are near the bottom of the list, in terms of both total number of camelbacks per wheel arrangement, and percentage of the wheel arrangement. It's just because most Pacifics were built after the camelback era had come to a close. It's interesting to note that 4-4-0's also have a low percentage of camelbacks! And that is because of the exact opposite: Nearly all 4-4-0's were built *before* the camelback era! ;) The LV's camelback 4-4-0's were the very last and most modern 4-4-0's on the LV roster, while the LV's camelback pacifics were the very earliest pacifics built. There was some conflicting, and missing/uncertain data concerning Southern Central locomotives. The Connelly excel file2 had question marks in the SCRR data, such as:
But the correct SCRR data has been found! Herb Trice and Richard Palmer worked out the complete SCRR roster, and it can be found in the book "A History of Railroads in Tompkins County" by Hardee Campbell Lee, 2008.6 Below is the full Southern Central Railroad roster, from that book:
Note
2:
Two of the main sources conflict on the origin of LV 4-6-2 Pacific No. 2088. Source 2 says LV 2025, an Sayre built Pacific from 1917, was rebuilt into 2088 in 8/1926. Source 11 says 2088 was built new by Alco and outshopped (or delivered) on 8/27/1926, which would make it the LV's last Pacific. Note 3: K6b class. Extra2200 south says K6b, but no K6! (how can you have a "sub class" like K6b if you have no K6?) LV roster, source 11, says only class K6. there are also references to Class K-6s, presumably for "streamlined" Class K-6s might not have been an official LV class, it could be a later railfan/historian invention. |
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Roster
references, sources and
footnotes.
1. Transcript
of Record No. 570. Records
and briefs of the United States
Supreme Court. Oct 10, 1908. |
| Photo sources and
LV links: Camelback Steam Locomotives Lehigh Valley Railroad Survivors Lehigh Valley's Bronx Terminal. North East Rails. Thanks to everyone who helped put this roster together! Thanks to Gene Connelly and Allen Stanley for the excel roster with the very early locomotive data than got this whole project going. Thanks to Wade F. "Spike" Rendle and his son John Wilkes Rendle for saving, then sharing the LV's own post-1905 steam locomotive roster. Thanks to Joe Fabregas for retreiving LV records from the Sayre shops in the 1970's, saving them from the dumpster and oblivion. Thanks to historians and authors Robert Archer, Mike Bednar, Frank Evans, Rudy Garbely, Richard Jahn, Richard Palmer, R. Craig Rutherford, Richard T. Steinbrenner, Paul Templeton, Herb Trice and Chuck Yungkurth for recording LV history, recording roster data, and writing great LV books. And thanks to the guys who have shared photos for this project, and reviewed data: Peter Bellisario, Thomas Boardman, Clint Chamberlin, John Dziobko Jr., Frank Evans, Guy Fluck, Claus Gaertner, Phillip M. Goldstein, Greg Gunshore, Richard Jahn, Jack Kohler, Bud Laws, Doug Lilly, North East Rails, David Nyce, Mack Owen, Harry Owens, Edward J. Ozog, Richard Palmer, Greg Robbins, Joseph A. Smith, Rich Taylor, Joseph Testagrose, Richard Vienna, and Martin Zak. And thanks to all the LV fans and historians out in LV internet forum land, the members of the LV forums on railfan.net, railroad.net, and the LV facebook group. All you guys are awesome! this roster wouldnt exist without you.. thank you. Scot
Lawrence
Sayre PA, Waverly NY & Rochester, NY (born Sayre Pa, the descendant of Four LV employees: Both Grandfathers and two Great Grandfathers!) Page started February 2012. First released to the internet March 25, 2018. Last updated October 28, 2018. |
