Dinky Little Locomotive For Price Of Used Car, Published 24 October 1956 Put
down Assistant Purchasing Agent Gordon Glass of E. B. Eddy Company as a
sentimentalist. He will not sell the company's 30-year-old saddle tank
yard engine to anybody unless a good home is promised.E.B. Eddy #2 went to the Canadian Railway Museum at Delson, QC. Not To Torch So old No. 2 is not going to Zagerman. Old No. 2 is not going to the torch; Old No. 2 is not going to the breakers. When and if this sentimental purchasing agent sells No. 2, he will only sell it to some fellow who promises to use it as a locomotive. Purchasing agents usually are hard boiled guys. This big, good looking hunk of man is all heart. "1 can get spot cash tomorrow for old No. 2," said Gordon Glass as he put a friendly hand on the wheel as a man might caress the flank of an old horse. "So I am not going to let her go to the junk man." Here he paused to wipe his glasses. Maybe it was a tear, maybe it was the cold air. Greater love hath no purchasing agent than when he would lay down a quick profit for a sentimental old engine. Out-shopped by Montreal Locomotive Works in 1926, No. 2 is not old as engines go. Marc McNeil of the Canadian Pacific can produce a 50-year-old engine, D-10, in a five minute taxi ride. But it is not the age that counts. This E. B. Eddy 0-4-0 type scurried about the old Booth Yards for years, and before that, operated on the Quebec side for E. B. Eddy after '26. This yard dinky began life in steam, and switched to oil. A year ago she was up for sale. The slogan dreamed up by Salesman-Purchasing Agent Glass was: "You can buy a locomotive for the price of good used car." He got a nibble from a Toronto contractor, but not a real bite, for the engine was un-sold again, made the television and then finally was put to work at Chaudiere Yards during the spring rush. Now she is on the block again; as long as the buyer will use it as an engine. |