The acquisition of this former Buffalo Creek Railroad locomotive has been long and involved. Our story begins in September of 1999 when RELCO Locomotives, Inc. decided to retire this 63 year old engine from active service. The engine was last servicing the Vopac Industrial plant in Fitzgerald, GA. as RE#606.

         This engine began its career at the American Locomotive Company in Schenectady, NY. on March 15th, 1940, builders s/n 69239, when it rolled out of the paint shop as Buffalo Creek #43. This model HH660 was a "High Hood" diesel switching locomotive equipped with a six cylinder, 660HP model 539 engine and was the first ALCO diesel locomotive purchased by the Buffalo Creek. The engine weighs 197,500 lb. and is 43’5" in length. It was one of 43 engines of this model that were build by ALCO. The engine was delivered to the Buffalo Creek Railroad on March 18th, 1940.

         The locomotive was the last new one purchased by the Buffalo Creek before WWII. The BCRR had also acquired two General Motors EMD switchers at the same time for evaluation. The new diesel locomotives served the railroad, switching the many important industries located along the Buffalo River. After the war, the BCRR evaluated the performance of the ALCO and its EMD counterparts, taking into consideration such items as % of time in service, cost of maintenance and repairs, etc. The little ALCO’s reliability and the ease of quickly getting replacement parts swayed the railroad to place an order with ALCO for four of their new 1000HP S-2 model locomotives. The BCRR remained an all ALCO railroad until its take-over by Conrail in 1976.

         In the meantime, #43 faithfully performed its duties switching the grain elevators along the river. The engine continued in service for over 26 years until it was sold to RELCO Locomotives for $61,175 on December 13th, 1966. RELCO acquired the unit to lease out to various industries requiring in-plant switching services. RELCO has no record of the engine leases from 1967 to 1969. On March 25th, 1970 the engine was placed on lease service at GATX in Good Hope, LA. On June 30th, 1971, the engine was transferred to the GATX facility in Waycross, GA. where it would remain until 1986. On September 25th, 1986 the engine was placed in lease service at Empak Industries in Fitzgerald, GA. The lease was renewed in 1989. The lease at Empak (now known as Vopak) expired in September, 2000 and RELCO retired the engine from continuous service after 60 years!

         In October, 1999, I noticed a posting on one of the internet railroad message boards stating that RELCO was listing a group of locomotives for sale, including a former Buffalo Creek HH660. I contacted John Mech, an avid ALCO fan, for more information and a contact name at RELCO to inquire as to the availability of this historic locomotive. I approached the Board of Trustees as to opening negotiations with RELCO. With the blessing of the Board, I contacted Mr. Steve Bomba, Director of Sales at RELCO and we made an offer to buy the engine. Negotiations continued and in January, 2000, RELCO accepted our offer to purchase the engine. They also agreed to assist us in preparing the engine for movement to NY.

         The first major hurdle in bringing #43 home was that the engine was in Georgia, 1132 miles away by rail! It was apparent that this was too far of a distance to move the friction bearing equipped locomotive on its own wheels. Various options were looked into including loading the engine onto a flat car or replacing the trucks with roller bearing units, however the cost of purchasing the engine and moving it back home were beginning to get out of hand, and it appeared that it was going to be cost prohibitive to save the engine.

         The management at RELCO Locomotives realized this as well. After looking at the options, Mr. Donald L> Bachman, CEO/Chairman of the company offered to donate the RE606 to the Society saving us $20,000 in acquisition costs! RELCO also offered to assist us in preparing the engine for movement. All they required was that we cover the labor and shipping expenses that they would incur. On September 1st, 2000, the WNYRHS accepted the donation of the locomotive and RELCO began to prepare the engine for its journey.

         On Friday, October 20th, RELCO swapped out the friction bearing trucks on RE606 for a set of non powered trucks equipped with roller bearings. This allowed the engine to be inspected by CSX for its 1100 mile trip. In the meantime, I contacted Mr. Ed Sheehy, CSX Public Safety Officer here in Buffalo to enlist his assistance in approaching CSX to move the engine. Through his efforts, along with our local CSX District Superintendents, Mr. Larry D. Dellinger and Mr. Bill A. Zureck, they arranged with Mr. Franklin E. Pursley, Senior CSX VP in Jacksonville to move the locomotive as a donation to the Society. This save the Society over $7000 in freight charges!

         RELCO needed to ship us the removed traction motors, trucks and their components, however we were not prepared to accept delivery before the locomotive. Again help came to the rescue. Mr. Mark Patton, President of Contour Construction, arranged to unload and store the traction motor units at his shop in Lakeview until the engine arrived. Latter, he reloaded the units onto a flat bed truck and had them moved to Winter Rigging in North Collins. Thanks are also due to Mr. Marvin Winter, President of Winter Rigging for unloading the motors and storing them for the Society. We will enlist Marv’s help to get the engine put back together.

         On January 12th, 2001, CSX picked up the engine at the Vopak facility in Fitzgerald, GA. The engine then traveled to Birmingham, Louisville, Cincinnati and was finally delivered in Buffalo on February 12th, 2001. It took additional time each time the engine entered a new CSX region, because it had to wait until the unusual paperwork caught up with it due to the special circumstances of the movement. The engine arrived safe and sound on the interchange track of the Buffalo Southern on February 16th, 2001. The engine is now in North Collins awaiting final reassemble and for some test runs.

         Many thanks are necessary as this successful project reaches its conclusion. Hearty thanks are extended to Jon Mech for putting us onto the trail of this engine, Steve Bomba and Donald Bachman at RELCO for arranging the donation, Franklin E. Pursley, Larry Dellinger, Bill Zureck and Ed Sheehy at CSX for the donation of the movement, Mark Patton at Contour Construction and Marv Winter at Winter Rigging for their support of the Society. And of course the Buffalo Southern Railroad for putting up with us for over 20 years and the use of their track and equipment. And last but not least, to all of our friends and members who have generously donated to this most worthwhile preservation project.

This generous donation of the locomotive saved the Society over $20,000.00, however, the Society still needs to raise $9,000.00 to complete its restoration. We have raised over $11,000.00 to date, and we thank all those who have already made donations to the project.

In June, Marv Winter and Winter Rigging of North Collins, NY, Moved BC#43 down from the BSOR Yard in South Buffalo to North Collins. There, Marv and his crew removed the roller bearing trucks that the engine was shipped on from Georgia. Winters donated valuable crane services to lift the Alco and place it on temporary trucks while the original traction motor trucks are serviced and reassembled. Once the trucks are are ready to be reinstalled, Winters will aid in placing them back under the engine and connecting their rigging. Below are current pictures of the locomotive and the disassembled traction motors. Bearing and Axle work is needed to complete the assembly. The motors themselves are in good condition and we are anxious to get the trucks under the engine as soon as possible. Restoring it to it's original Buffalo Creek colors is tops on our list of things to do! Watch for updates! Thanks to Joe Kocsis Jr. for these photographs.