I'm talking to a friend via AIM he just told me he heard it from his best friend Eric Boyer that 475 is going to Trainfest. is this true? if so how will it go out?

Thanks
Len.

No I doubt it is true. Given your most recent posts it sounds like it might be time for you to try to find new friends.

And, for the record, I had NOTHING to do with that "press release" on April 1st........

...considering I wrote it. :D

Len, make sure your friends actually take the time to look at stuff before they assume it's real. I posted that as a April Fool's joke, and to hear someone taking it seriously just gives me a good chuckle.

This is what one of my youtube frends sent me in a PM.

pacific3713 from Youtube wrote:

Hi Len,
I was to Strasburg yesterday and saw 475 in the shop. Her lead truck is out and the wheels are off of the axles and are lying on the floor. One of her wheels is severely damaged, damaged beyond repair. Heard that lead truck will be retired. So I guess she will be running as a 0-8-0 now.
The shop door was open, the wheels were on the floor and there were torch marks on the one wheel.
Fred

Did anyone in here heard of this??

Len.

No, but I did hear they got a federal grant to replace the steam engines with "green goat" hybrids.

Oops, looks like I'm a few weeks late and a few dollars short.

Another rumor I would say sfter reading this post from last week:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=27305

We see rumors, rather than facts too often here, and elsewhere on the internet.

No bad information can ever be pulled in this electronic age.

A joke, posted on April 1 starts to be a fact once repeated enough times on a variety of web lists, each re-posting or reference to the original fiction giving the original fiction the appearance of facts.

So a joke posting on April 1, concerning the 475 going to Train Festival 2009, means it now must be coming because "I have seen it on 7 sites" based on one joke posting.

This is followed by a posting, from someone who saw the loco in pieces... so it is now a switcher... I suspect it will soon be a tank engine running on the Baltimore dock in blue paint with a face on the smoke box (a statement as truthful as any above.)

Assume any information here or elsewhere on the web or on the "railfan telegraph" aka: friends, your scanner or such is a work of fiction until proven otherwise.

When you post rumors here expect this community to question the source of your information... Some know much, have experience in such things, and so can better judge the many rumors which appear here on their merits.

Of course, occasionally the experts are fooled...

Always watching from the sidelines, occasionally jumping in the pool, your always vigilant moderator

Fred needs to breathe ...

Those are called tires. If Fred dropped by today, he would see a stack of new tires, ready to apply to the lead truck wheels, which are still on the axles. No 475's lead truck is being rebuilt as part of her annual inspection.

What I find most amazing is that any rumor would come out dealing with the Strasburg RR. Of all the steam shops, they inform us, here on RYPN, and other sites, on their developments and achievements. And they do this regularly, without making anything sound boastful. I think this is one of the keys to their respect earned in the railroad preservation field.

Too many other steam shops believe in using the "cone of silence" to quote the Get Smart contraption of the 60s. And true to form, such a contraption never works. Leaks and opinions from the cone quickly become facts, and before you know it, wild rumors of scrapping and steaming of the same locomotive become general knowledge. Excursion schedules are expanded and abandoned based on desires of where "good ol' locomotive 222" should go.

Bringing this issue back to the Trainfestival in Owosso, I say go or don't go. Have a good time whichever choice you make. But don't let the appearance or non-appearance of one piece of equipment or another make your choice for you.