Posted by Ky.CatFan on August 13, 2009 
The Fort Knox base actually had two of these. Both The Kentucky Railroad Museum, located at New Haven, Ky. and The Bluegrass Railway Museum, located in Versailles, Ky. asked for both H12-44s. The base donated one H12-44 to each museum and neither museum has a spare parts source and the 1849 is no longer operable. I am not sure if the sister unit at New Haven is operable. The main trouble with Fairbanks Morse locos is that a shop with a bridge crane is needed to do a rebuild on the opposed piston diesel engine. The Fairbanks Morse engine has a crankshaft at both the top and the bottom of the block, thus the block has to be removed from the loco to service the lower crankshaft and it's associated parts. Versailles, Ky. is located south of Frankfort, Ky. and west of Lexington, Ky. in the Central Kentucky horse farm area. I just happen to live in the Woodford County / Versailles area, and had several cab rides in the above locomotive before it became inoperable.
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