Death of the Iron Horse
During the end of September and throughout the month of October, I spent several days down at a local rail yard watching five locomotives be converted from proud, powerful beasts into nothing more than scrap metal.
The systematic destruction of each locomotive was a very interesting process. Most components, aside from the exterior hood steel, were removed, shipped off, and sold to other railroads across the continent. While most of these locomotives were shot internally, the majority of their parts were still in fair condition and held significant value. (The exception to this was locomotive 4200, which was in revenue service up to the day it was moved onto the scrap track. 4200 required a complete electrical re-wiring, so the decision was made to simply scrap it.)
And the parts that aren’t resold are worth their weight in scrap value. A dead locomotive, depending on component conditions, can have scrap value of between $50,000 and $75,000 (and I’m likely low-balling those figures). The scrapping crews are contracted by the railroads to handle the difficult and time consuming task of torching up the old equipment and preparing parts for shipment. With scrap value as high as it is, it’s no wonder that this crew has been sent all over Canada this year to chop up locomotives.
The following photos are from the last moments I had with these iron horses. There’s currently not a trace left of them in the yard.
Who knows… perhaps you will become acquainted with these locomotives in some form or another in the future. Old technology is always melted down to become the raw material for the next generation.
09-28-2008
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10-02-2008
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10-04-2008
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10-22-2008
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November 17th, 2008 at 1:56 am
Hey Jay,
Awesome scrapping shots man!
Noe
November 17th, 2008 at 8:00 am
Very nice shots, Jay. This is a rarely-captured part of the life of a locomotive.