Two things the Carolina Northern was always short of were money and motive power.
Management came up with an idea to help the first by offering to do maintenance on other company’s locomotives.
When asked if this was possible, the head mechanic (no fancy titles like Chief Mechanical Officer on this railroad), Angus Whyte was heard to say, “I don’t care what color the paint is, if it’s a broken engine, we’ll fix it.”
That seemed a bit over the top, but Angus had good reason for his belief. He had gotten his start at Southern’s Spencer shops and had been exposed to all kinds of repairs.
At first, the shops got an occasional locomotive from a short-line that didn’t have the facilities for an overhaul or repair. The management was not above using the restored motive power on a revenue run or two before returning them to their owners – sort of a test run. The locals got used to seeing strange locomotives at the head of Carolina Northern trains. The railfans regularly lined up at the Rocky River bridge to catch pictures of some of these strange locomotives.
The change came when the Western Maryland called to say that the 81 was broken down near the Northern’s tracks. Their repair crews were overloaded. Could the Northern give it an overhaul?
The Northern dispatched an RS-1, 301 to fetch it and bring it into the shops.
81 being pushed into the shopsThey found dirty electrical contacts and a puzzling problem in the drive train.
There were chunks of what seemed to be green sponge rubber throughout the gears. After cleaning it out, Angus decided to replace the trucks with some Geep trucks they had just received from the Atlas Tool Company.
As they were completing the swap, Angus told the crew to Beardenize the 81 before turning it loose. The crew just stared at him and finally he threw up his hands and said, “OK, I’ll do it myself.”
The crew stood and watched as he worked, all the time muttering about the crew not keeping up with the latest in locomotive performance improvements.
The Northern’s management called the Western Maryland to tell them it was ready and settle the bill for the work. They were told that the decision had been made to scrap the 81 and perhaps a deal could be made in lieu of the repair bill. The Northern acquired the 81 at a favorable price minus the overhaul cost.
The crew was excited about the new locomotive type and the possibility of a new paint scheme. One ventured that maybe management would let them put a stripe on it like the old passenger power had.
Angus said they’d be lucky if the management didn’t send them down to the hardware store for a spray bomb.
As it turned out, Angus was closer as the ruling came down to cover the Western Maryland name, get some CN reporting marks on it and get it into revenue service. Since there were no 80 series diesels on the Northern, they left the number alone. A quick patch job, and it was off to work. A new paint job would have to wait for the next overhaul.
81 on it's first revenue run crossing Rocky RiverThe 81 soon proved to be a good performer for the Northern and popular with the crews. They gave the loco the nick name Cleo after the basset hound in the popular TV show, “The People’s Choice”.
When word came that the C&O wanted to get rid of a BL-2 at a good price, the management jumped at the chance to please the crews and incidentally, grab a bargain.
Found on a siding, nearly overgrownThis loco needed much of the same repairs to get it running. There weren’t any more new trucks, so it got the newly refurbished ones from the 81. The crew had no problem Beardenizing this one.
Angus knew this loco was staying and kept finding problems to fix until the paint shop boys had enough time to put a coat of Carolina Northern Blue on the old girl. It was decided to keep the series going and this one was renumbered 82.
This one acquired the nick name of Old Blue, I think named after one of the shop crew’s dog.
82 switching the millThat’s the story of how the Northern came to have BL-2’s. Somehow this escaped all of the historical records of BL-2 owners published by the railfan magazines and scholarly books.
The BL-2’s have served the Northern well for many years.