In a post earlier this week, I wrote about DM30AC #507, and while that was an interesting story, this is the more well known one and the LIRR got lucky with their already limited fleet for this to be the only of the DE/DM's to actually have been fully retired so far.
The LIRR's fleet have all stayed in service, and with the only other exception being #507 which as I wrote in Friday's post, got renumbered to #423 and is now a DE30AC, DM30AC #503 is the only of the LIRR's locomotives to be retired early. The story goes as told. On a normal October 22, 2003, Engine #503 was on a typical dual-mode run on train #658 (the old 4:19pm from Penn to Port Jeff) when the lead engine struck a hobo's shopping cart in Huntington. The cart left on the tracks caught the third rail and the metal engine shell causing a 750-volt short to ignite, igniting a fire underneath the engines, and as some railfans describe it "turned the cab into a thunderstorm." The engineer was able to get the train safely to the station and all passengers were evacuated before the FD came and put out the fire.
The engine then sat in Morris Park for a while (um, actually 13 years), stripped of all useful parts, before the LIRR decided it was un-salvageable and then it was subsequently scrapped. It's unfortunate to see an engine that was only a couple months old meet it's end so quickly, and it's even more unfortunate that very few photos exist of this engine in it's original form. From what I know, it seams the engine is no longer in Morris Park, but if anyone knows for sure I'd love to know.
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| Taken in 2009. |
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| #503 in 2011 |
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| 503's cab after the incident. |
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| Also taken in 2009. |
In conclusion, #503's retirement from service brought the already struggling diesel fleet down one more locomotive, especially a much-needed dual-mode, thats literally the worst part of the disaster, however in the grand scheme of things, we've survived 22 years without it and I think we'll be able to survive another 10 more. I hope you enjoyed!