CLARION DEMOCRAT
September 12,1950

"Officials of the Lake Erie, Franklin & Clarion Railroad Company here have announced the purchase, at a cost of $108,000, of a second new Diesel-electric locomotive, which was delivered here last Tuesday and which is now in service.

The new locomotive, Number 21, and its twin, Number 20, delivered last year, now replace five locomotives and constitute complete Dieselization of the railroad. Last steam locomotive run over the road was made on the night of August 31 by Number 35, the steam locomotive in the photograph above.

The newest L. E. F. & C. locmotive [sic] is a duplicate of the one delivered to the railroad last year. They were manufactured by the American Locomotive Co. and General Electric Co. at Schenectady, N. Y., and are a 1,000 horse-power heavy switcher type.

In addition to the cost of $216,000 for the two locomotives, their delivery entailed an additional expenditure of approximately $25,000 by the railroad for spare parts, tools, engine house changes and Diesel-fuel storage facilities at the line's engine house here - changes necessitated by the road's complete conversion to Diesels.

The first Diesel locomotive delivered to the road last year replaced three steam locomotives. The new one delivered last week replaces the two remaining steam locomotives, Number 35 and 39, which have been in service approximately 35 years and which will probably be junked. Both engines were purchased second-hand by the local railroad from the Bessemer & Lake Erie.

An important local by-product of the railroad's complete conversion to Diesel-electric power will be the complete absence of engine-smoke - hailed as good news by residents of Clarion's east end district."