(Consumers Energy issued the following news release on October 28.)
ESSEXVILLE, Mich. — Consumers Energy today announced it has donated a retired switching locomotive from its Karn/Weadock Generating Complex to the Saginaw Railway Museum for use as a permanent exhibit at the Museum.
The retired American Locomotive Company (Alco) RS-1 locomotive was transported to the Railway Museum in Saginaw today from the Karn/Weadock site in Bay County’s Hampton Township by CSX Railroad. The “old Alco” was used at the Karn/Weadock site to move rail cars carrying coal to fuel the J.C. Weadock and D.E. Karn plants from 1968 until it was retired in 2002.
“The old Alco locomotive from Karn/Weadock is historically significant to railroad aficionados because it is one of only five or six left in the United States,” said James Trier, Acting President of the Railway Museum. “We’re pleased that Consumers Energy was willing to donate it to our group locally, to preserve the history of significant railroad artifacts in the Saginaw-Bay area,” said Trier.
Karn/Weadock site General Manager Calvin H. Talley said, “We believe in being a good corporate citizen of the communities in which we operate. Making this donation of our retired locomotive is a good fit in keeping with our ‘good neighbor’ philosophy.”
The Alco RS-1 locomotive was built in 1951 in Schenectady, NY, and delivered new to the Rutland Railroad in Vermont that same year. Rutland sold the Alco RS-1 to Green Mountain Railroad, also in Vermont, in 1964. Then Consumers Power Company purchased the Alco from Green Mountain in 1967 for use at Karn/Weadock.
The Karn/Weadock Generating Complex is Consumers Energy’s largest power production complex and consists of three separate plants: the 310-megawatt coal-fueled Weadock plant; the 511-megawatt coal-fueled Karn 1&2 plant; and the 1276-megawatt natural gas- and oil-fueled Karn 3&4 plant. Together, Karn/Weadock and associated combustion turbines can generate up to 2,526 megawatts, enough to meet the electric needs of Bay City, Saginaw, Midland and Flint combined.
Consumers Energy, the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy, provides natural gas and electricity to more than six million of the state’s nearly 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties.
For more information about Consumers Energy, visit our Website at www.consumersenergy.com