The story behind 212, as I hear it, was it was halfway thru a full overhaul that never got finished. When ELS expanded in the 1980s thru purchase of Milwaukee Road trackage north of Green Bay, they reportedly intended on running mostly Baldwins. The reason was simple-Baldwins require much lower fuel consumption per horsepower than EMDs. To this end, they overhauled RS12 #300 and started 212. Alas, the rigors of keeping a couple hundred miles of trackage and multiple daily trains going took over priorities. |