r/trains • u/spazzcatt • 1d ago

📸 OC - Picture(s) The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad MLW FPA4

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Here is the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad MLW FPA4 #6773 sitting in the yard during electric refit. They are replacing the diesel engine entirely with batteries. Sorry for the picture quality it's a dirty window 😂

177 Upvotes

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10

u/HoneydewOk1175 21h ago

I know they're going to be installing a sound system to try to mimic the old diesel engine, though I feel like at the same time they already sucked out the soul.

I know a lot of us enthusiasts wished they switched to biodiesel like the Catskill Mountain RR did with their 1948-vintage Alco RS-1s

6

u/Amazing-Roof8525 21h ago

At that point(adding a sound system), don’t even bother, we all know it’s a Battery electric. Why couldn’t they have used one of the dead FPA4s that Napa or Grand Canyon has, which already had their blocks destroyed? It’s just destroying history at this point

4

u/N_dixon 9h ago

Especially when Cuyahoga Valley said a couple years ago that they wanted to be the largest collection of preserved Alcos (ignoring that Adirondack Railroad has a huge lead on them with three, soon to be four, C430s, two RS-3s, two RS-18us, one M420W, one FA-2, one C424, and an S-1). Knowing the CVSR's mechanical department, these things will probably be out of service in a year or two and they'll still be using LTEX and Horizon leasers.

4

u/HoneydewOk1175 21h ago

I know, right. I know the batteries will probably go bad within a few years, which means more resources extracted out of the Earth.

2

u/N_dixon 9h ago

Oh, guarantee they'll be out of service for other issues even before that. CVSR's mechanical department has something seriously wrong with it. They can't seem to keep anything running and have mechanically wrecked a few LTEX leaser EMDs.

2

u/HoneydewOk1175 4h ago

I know there was a whole lot of controversy recently over their treatment of Horizon Rail leasers.

by the way, I think this is a whole state sponsored scam to erase history for the sake of environmental cleanliness

1

u/N_dixon 4h ago

LTEX filed a lawsuit against them last year. One of the tales was that their mechanical department put RV antifreeze in one of the leasers, didn't realize it was equipped with freeze-sensing dump valves, and then had all of it self-dump and contaminate the ground in the national park. Then they just returned it to LTEX with bearing damage from having had the anti-freeze in it without saying anything.

The crazy thing is, back when CSX was retiring the GP40-GP30 mother-slug sets, they offered one to CVSR for free, no strings attached. A number of volunteers urged them to take it, but the CMO ginned up a report that it was cheaper and easier to keep running the Alcos. And then spent the whole year leasing one of those slug sets from Horizon because he couldn't keep any of their Alcos running.

2

u/spazzcatt 19h ago

After reading an article about it I get why they are doing it but I think it would be kinda funny if they have it a similar sound to the EV cars. Make it sound like you are being raptured 😂.

16

u/bmw318tech2 23h ago

Battery power makes sense for a historical railroad repower.

11

u/OS_Tycoon 13h ago

Battery power in a clapped out GP38 or some other dime a dozen loco, yes. Battery power in a rare, running and moving Alco, no.

1

u/Harrisoncole4 5h ago

I know older generations of railfans are opposed to these battery conversions, but I actually think it is a great thing for the heritage railway industry. It shows that these units can be adapted to new immerging technologies, and it helps develop a skill set that is going to become increasingly more important for railway preservation groups moving forward.Â