 These brand-new locomotives, with at most a couple of weeks' actual use, sat preserved until approximately 1970, when the Pentagon concluded that their plans for a future, large-scale land war no longer included the capture and use of the enemy's railway system.Thus the 96 locomotives were redundant for their original purpose.Many of the units were taken out of storage and assigned to various military installations around the country, where locomotives of that size and power were required.