Mr. Woodring is quite correct. Mr. Parsons has never, ever, ever been a fan of steam. Ever. One of his very first actions when he arrived in BX was to boot Bill Benson and the 2100 from the backshops. Hopefully he has not drilled this philosophy into his heir apparent.

Rob Gardner

Okay, so let’s assume that nobody will make an offer, and let’s assume that the land has been sold and the locomotive must be off the property by 7/1/19.

I go back to my original question. Since the owner values the engine because of all the time and money he has invested in it, why wouldn’t he just find another storage location and move the locomotive to that new location?

I have not posted here in years, given that and being short on eloquence I will point out that no one entity here has come out and stated that they want to buy 643 here, now, today - at any price. ( at least not that has been made public )

Speculation about what it might be worth is academic given no actual interest in buying it, as are the myriad of suggestions as to where it "should go". Of course we know "Should" will not become "Will" unless real action is taken and I'm not seeing it.

Despite its perceived importance to the preservation world, it is an unfortunately large locomotive located in an unfortunately inconvenient place with unfortunately few opportunities to ever operate again, under an unfortunate mandate to vacate premises with unfortunately few potential customers who have the interest and wherewithal to do any shopping.

No one would disagree that is 10 gallons of unfortunate situations in a 5 gallon bucket.

Actually its amazing that this engine has been in safe harbor in one form or another for some 60 odd years. Yes perhaps the owner had an inflated sense of its worth, other than that fact is it appears he was a good steward until the walls started to close in. Its still here, yes ? Seemingly not having a plan or contingency for the end game was the error and sadly that is not as uncommon as it should be, whether one has a stamp collection or a locomotive.

Of course the saga could take a surprising turn, but I believe that if there's a valuable lesson here it is that anyone- museum or individual- that has artifacts sitting on property that is leased , gratis or under some gentleman's agreement and doesn't already have in hand a reasonable, implementable plan to vacate- folks better get busy.

Might not "save" 643, but maybe its possible to save your own collections.

Ron, in answer to your question the answer is probably money. As a semi-educated guess I'd say between the cranes to lift it by pieces onto low boy trailers ( remember its no longer rail connected to the national system) , prep it into road trailer sized pieces, tying the pieces down, shipping charges to a new location ( mileage dependent) and cranes on the other end to unload the pieces. you're looking at no less than $ 300,000 and probably closer to $ 500,000 ???

My WAG is that Mr. Campbell most likely doesn't have that kind of cash???

Sadly, the by far most likely outcome is for it to be scrapped in place.

IMHO-Ross Rowland

Has the seller stated anything publically about the storage site having been sold and the there being a deadline to move the locomotive off the site? This information, if true, is very damaging to the sales value of the engine because it places it in a distress situation for any prospective buyer.

I am still waiting for someone -- anyone -- to state that they have personally communicated with Mr. Campbell with regard to this matter. As long as there is none, this entire subject is pure speculation.

I have been following this discussion with amusement because I believe we really are missing the major component of preservation...people not stuff.

Many well, operated, maintained, and sucessful preservation groups are beginning to face a crisis which is declining volunteers. The experienced, hard working folks who have helped build wonderful museums/operations are getting old, tired and require refreshment with new, younger volunteers.

Shouldn't we be spending our funds and time working to make our operations more inviting and approachable to the public so that they would choose to join us in preservation,...rather than discussing who can save another piece of equipment which likely will just rust, decay and "eat up" scarce funds? Often, after some obscure engine or car is "saved" folks breathe a sigh of relief with their sucess and then the object is never restored or used...just parked with the other never restored/operated piles of junk out back of the engine house.

How about, we spend time "culling the herd" of junk which will never be restored on our properties stop acquistions and become more friendly to potential volunteers? Life's too short to worry about the big, unusual, stuff like 643 or others that really are out of our reach anyhow. Use what we have, wisely, maintain a smaller, collection, well.
recruit new volunteers and enjoy life without complications. Not everything needs to be saved...but people are the key to our future.

agreed...we can't save everything. Volunteers and money is scarce.If this were something that there were several examples of, then that's one thing. But no matter which side of the fence someone's opinion is, once something is gone, it's gone. And for an example of something in basically good condition to be lost at this time would be a shame.

In my opinion the biggest problem facing preservation like railroading is not lack of volunteers, its lack of owned space. look at how many organizations have been forced to move recently. anyone who rents space must have an exit plan, and emergency money saved up just in case they get evicted. with land values rising in urban areas, and many cities wishing to redevelop former industrial areas, you will see many more railroad preservation groups disbanded in the years to come.

Is this post from page 4 the only source of the information about the storage site being sold and there being a deadline to remove the engine from the site? Why would anybody trust this information, unless it was publically confirmed by Mr. Campbell?

[quote="Charlie"]Bear in mind that the city of Anna, Texas, population of 12,000+, recently paid $348,360 for a 1906 Alco 2-6-0 that I believe is destined for static display.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=43200&p=289535&hilit=reader#p289535

As for scrap prices, the KCS 503, at 184,000 pounds, was to have brought in $35,000 last year.

Speaking of the 503, has anyone tried contacting Jason Sobczynski? He seemed to get the message out well and managed to raise the right funds.

Any chance CSX would be interested? That would certainly clear up many of the hurdles involved in moving it. Maybe the recent reaction to a certain large steamer has changed their minds?

"You can see it from Munson Ave. I don't know who owns the parcel but cars get parked there so you should be able to get right up to it."




Yes, you can see the 643 from Munson Ave. If you want to get closer, I would advise that you FIRST gain permission from the property owner.

I don't know if this is true or not, but I'm told it's not a very good place to leave a car unattended.

Looking at the locomotive front photo on Ebay, it looks like the land next to the locomotive is almost level with the main line and not that far away. It would seem like a fairly easy (less than 8 hours) move where a crane picks it up, sits it down again near the main line, then picks it up to load it on a flat car. Even at $10,000 a hour (which is a very high estimate) it shouldn't cost you more than $80,000 and it could likely get done in six hours. I wish we knew how much it cost to move the Reading 2100.