Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Miracle at Dunkirk

David writes....

Work recently took me to Dunkirk, NY.  Dunkirk is a large town on the shores of Lake Erie in Western New York.  It is about 45 minutes west of Buffalo.  Dunkirk was once the home of the Brooks Locomotive Works, which was later consolidated into Alco.  Alco-Brooks produced locomotives until 1934, and then became a manufacturing center for spare locomotive parts, and other non-railroad products made by Alco, such as heat exchangers.  Alco eventually shuttered the Dunkirk plant in 1962.



On display at the county fairgrounds in Dunkirk is a Alco-Brooks 0-6-0, built for the Boston & Maine. Eventually, the locomotive ended up with a cement company, before being donated to the local historical society.  The locomotive is displayed with a D&H wood boxcar and a New York Central caboose, with the classic "low cupola."  The locomotive is in good shape, display-wise, as are the cars coupled to it.  

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