by Steve Raith/photos as noted
You can’t make this stuff up! The Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad has acquired Alco PA “Nickel Plate 190,” the lifelong restoration project of Doyle McCormack. The classic Alco passenger cab locomotive is now in Scranton, Pa., presently displayed in Steamtown. In the near future the 74-year old diesel locomotive will be moved over to DL’s Von Storch Shop in Scranton to finish mechanical work to make it operational.
The saga begins when Doyle McCormack decided that after two decades of labor restoring the historic unit in Portland, Ore., it was time to hand over the reins to a railroad capable of both finishing mechanical work and also operating the unit on mainline trackage. “Nickel Plate Road 190” was built by the American Locomotive Company as a PA-1 type diesel passenger unit in December 1948 for the Santa Fe as ATSF 62L. In 1967 it (along with three others) were sold to the Delaware & Hudson Railroad during the Dumaine era. It was originally a PA-1, and was reclassified as a PA-4 in 1975 after rebuild by Morrison-Knudsen at Boise, Idaho.
In 1977, the four PAs had a brief stint in commuter service in Boston for Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority. The D&H then sold all four of its PAs to Mexico in 1978, after the Sterzing era had ended. The PAs were used in Mexico on passenger trains for a few years, but were eventually retired. Two remain south of the border, stuffed-and-mounted in rail museums.
After years in storage in Mexico alongside D&H PA 16, rail preservationist Doyle McCormack, in partnership with Smithsonian Institution curator Bill Withuhn, made an effort to repatriate both wreck-damaged PAs in 2002. Their efforts were successful, and the then-truckless PAs were moved to the Oregon Rail Heritage Center in Portland, Oregon…