The first diesel-electric locomotive owned by the Genesee & Wyoming Railroad, predecessor of current multi-national railroad holding company Genesee & Wyoming, Inc., was recently acquired by Lake Shore Railway Historical Society. Youngstown Steel Heritage Foundation, a Youngstown, OH non-profit, has transferred ownership of the 80-ton GE locomotive to the Society. The Erie-built locomotive will join Lake Shore’s six other General Electric locomotives on display at the Lake Shore Railway Museum in North East, ten miles from the General Electric Locomotive Assembly Plant.
This centercab locomotive, built in 1944, was the first diesel-electric locomotive owned by the New York State shortline Genesee & Wyoming Railroad and was given the number 20. Genesee & Wyoming is now a multi-national railroad holding company with 120 railroads, 7,700 employees and more than 2,500 customers.
In 1962, Genesee & Wyoming sold locomotive #20 to Cleveland, OH construction contractor Hunkin-Conkey. Hunkin-Conkey moved the locomotive from Restof, NY to Warren, PA for use with the building of Kinzua Dam on the Allegheny River. The locomotive remained stored in Warren after the construction of Kinzua pending the start of a tourist railroad that never materialized. In 1982, a locomotive broker sold the locomotive to a steel mill near Youngstown, OH. The locomotive was eventually sold, moved to McDonald Steel and gifted to Youngstown Steel Heritage Foundation in 2008.
The locomotive will be moved to Lake Shore’s property this summer.