In 1974, the Lehigh Valley Railroad took delivery of her last new locomotives.
They were 12 General Electric U23B locomotives, built new for the LV at GE's Erie, Pennsylvania locomotive works. They were numbered 501-512.

The name "U23B" is an identification term that indicates what type of locomotive this is. The "U" stands for "Universal Series", which was a series of GE locomotives that were built in many different models from 1959 - 1976.
The "23" stands for 2300 horsepower. (although it really had only 2250 horsepower!)
and the "B" indicates 4-wheel trucks. 8 wheels total on the locomotive.
These "Universal Series" locomotives were given the nickname of "U-boats".

The 12 units were actually financed by the Federal Government, in anticipation of the LV becoming part of the planned massive government bailout of the ailing northeast railroads, which happened 2 years later.

On April 1st, 1976 the Lehigh Valley, along with 5 other northeastern railroads, ceased to exist. The 6 railroads were "consolidated" into the massive Consolidated Rail Corporation"..better known as Conrail.
(Conrail itself was dissolved in 1999, being bought by, and split up between 2 railroads,
CSX and Norfolk Southern..Today the former LV rails through Sayre are owned and
operated by the Norfolk Southern Railroad, it was Conrail from 1976-1999.)

Upon the formation of Conrail in 1976, the 12 two-year old U23B's, along with many other LV locomotives, now had a new owner. The 12 U-boats were renumbered, repainted, and became Conrail 2777 - 2788. They operated with Conrail until 1991, when all 12 units were retired by Conrail, along with its entire U-boat fleet.

In 1991, after being retired by Conrail, the units were scattered and sold off to various new owners. A few of them never ran again, and sadly, one was scrapped. Only 6 of the surviving 11 are known to still be actually operating today. 2 are known to be in non-operating condition, and the exact status of 3 is still unknown.
(for the current location of the  11 LV U-boat survivors, and other surviving LV units,
see the Lehigh Valley Surviving Locomotivestwebpage. 51 total Lehigh Valley locomotives are known to be still surviving.)

This brings us up to today.
In 2003 I started the "Lehigh Valley Railroad Survivors" webpage. With much help from people all over the country, 51 surviving LV locomotives have been found so far! including many of the U23B's. 2 of the LV U-boats were discovered languishing in inoperable condition in the rail yard of a locomotive rebuilding and leasing company, RMDI, of Pittston, PA. (ironically, the yard where these 2 units were found is a former LV yard!)

Greg Deibler of the Sayre Historical Society discovered that these 2 units were
"right down the line" in Pittston, and got to work on bringing one of them home to Sayre!
Here is Greg's account of his experiences so far:

"Early in November 2003, Scot Lawrence emailed me after some on going dialogue about the restoration of the Sayre passenger station and surviving LV engines.  He mentioned a former LV U23B diesel that was located at RMDI and there being a possibility that its current owner might want to save it.  I turned the idea over in my head for a while until I decided it might be something to try, even thought it would be incredibly expensive, it would still be worth it.

At the end of December, I first contacted RMDI by letter requesting information about the locomotive.  The owner contacted me to discuss the locomotive.  Finally, mid January, I was given the word that they would so generously donate the locomotive.  I immediately began to look into moving the locomotive.  The local newspaper, the Evening Times ran an article on the front page about the locomotive.  Almost as soon as the paper hit the newsstand, I had received a phone call from a former LV engineer who lived in Sayre.  He wanted to get the ball rolling on contributing to this costly move.  Then his conductor and the former Sayre Yardmaster stepped forward to help out as well.

During the month of January, I worked on the process involved with moving such an immense locomotive.  I sent letters to people informing them of the project to seek possible contributions to the project.  I spent lots of time on the phone with railroads and other industries who would have something to do with the move.  Work is still being carried out to prepare as much as possible before the locomotive comes up.  I will update this as they come in."
-Greg
 

As of this writing (March 2004) exactly which of the 2 locomotives will be brought to Sayre is still unknown, but it should be either 501 or 511.

This webpage will be a chronicle of the life of the engine, her early days with the LV, years with Conrail, retirement, discovery and preservation!This page is a joint effort of 2 people:
Greg Deibler, the man behind the project. Greg will provide much of the photography and narrative of the move and restoration!
and Scot Lawrence, who will build and maintain this page.
 
 

June 2005 - $2,200
 
 

This project is being undertaken by the Sayre Historical Society.
www.sayrehistorical.com
Anyone who has an interest in the recovery and cosmetic restoration of this locomotive is encouraged to submit ideas or financial contributions to the Sayre Historical Society.
The address is:

U23B Project
Sayre Historical Society
P.O. Box 311
Sayre, PA 18840

The society requests that financial contributions or correspondence relating to this project, be specifically identified for the U23B project.

contact Greg Deibler of the Sayre Historical society, for anything relating to the project!

contact Scot Lawrence for anything relating to this webpage specifically.
 

As this fantastic project gets underway, this page will be an on-going record of all the events. stay tuned!

Future pages, not yet on-line
page 3, photos of (#) in her former lives, with the LV and Conrail. 
page 4, photos of the move to Sayre! 
page 5, repainting to LV colors. 
page 6, restored to glory in her hometown!