I know everyone would like to see the restoration community come together. Our company has that wish also. We are in the real sense, volunteering at Steamtown. We formed our company with a goal of bringing the community together to make restoration as easy as possible for everyone. Obviously, this will take some time. Ft.Wayne people like Rich Melvin and Wayne York are fantastic people to work with. Also, Gary Bensman of Diversified Rail has been helping our company . We are sharing information. This information which consists of about 850 - 900 prints and manuals will be copied either on CD or micro-film. Once completed, it will be distributed to the five remaining Berkshires and whoever has them.<br> VLR is in know way looking to be able to run an engine. We are preserving any locomotive that Steamtown has and wants to restore. There are many different engines at Steamtown. Steamtown was developed to tell the story of mainline steam when it was in it's glory. To do this, you should have a sample of as many pieces of equipment to tell the whole story. I don't think you should limit it to only the railroads that ran in the region. What if someone can't make it to Ohio, or, anywhere else. To have samples of equipment from all over the country best teaches the public of railroading all over the country.<br> Maybe the mid-west should have a Steamtown. And, the west coast. All I know is that VLR is in this for the preservation of history. We have no expectations of running a locomotive. We are trying to bring the Steam Community together for the same cause. We don't have it in our minds to restore a locomotive and then say " Hmmm...,now where can we run it? Steamtown will run the ones we restore. They have the best facility and staff to do so. <br> I will be proud to see CN 3254, NKP 759, the Pennsy K-4, 3713, and, whichever other engines that restored, running at Steamtown for the public to enjoy and learn about. That is the reason we are doing this, right?<br> Maybe someday, there will be room in the Lehigh Valley to run a steam engine. I for one would love to do that. But, realistically, I don't think it will. Steamtown is only an hour and 20 minutes away from here. I'm happy to support Steamtown and their efforts to display American Steam. Everyone...stand together in the name of steam preservation. Help each other out. It will work, you'll see.



VLR Homepage
Rotarykiln@aol.com

Sorry, I messed up the link on the posting before<br>



VLR Hompage
Rotarykiln@aol.com