So as some of you may have seen I have been restoring and scoring vintage public domain railroad related films. A lot of these films are silent so I add public domain sound recordings (for the united states that is anything older than 100 years thanks to the The Music Modernization Act). Now what does this have to do with the F40PH Preservation Society? While as the name suggest the main goal is to preserve a F40PH Locomotive the founding documents do allow for other railroad related history work, and this brings us to the fundraiser. The Library of congress holds a copy of the film "The New Road's Mascot" from 1914. It appears this film has not been made available in any form for people to enjoy. When I contacted the Library of Congress about scanning the film they informed me there would be a fee. The F40PH Preservation Society decided we would hold a fundraiser (with all donated funds being tax deductible as we are a 501(c)(3)) through Go Fund Me. Our goal is to get this filmed scanned and put it up on the Internet Archives for all to access download and share for free as the film is in the public domain.

Here is a copy of the email we got from the Library of Congress

"MIRC Reference Librarian

May 12 2026, 09:07AM via System

Hello Rowan de la Barre,

We have a 35mm film dupe neg and a 35mm film access print of "The new road's mascot". However, since it has not been digitized, you would need to purchase a fresh scan from the film, which is fairly expensive: an HD or 2K scan of our dupe neg reel would cost an estimated $380 and take 6-8 weeks.

If you're interested in starting the ordering process, please send the following information:

1. Contact information: Name, phone, and email
2. Statement of intended use
3. Type of digital copy you would like to receive: HD or 2K (they cost the same. For personal use on home equipment, we typically recommend HD ProRes, as 2K files are quite large and can be difficult to handle).

If you select HD, you'll need to choose one of these three filetypes (2K is ProRes by default):

ProRes
DNxHD
H.264

If you have any questions about resolutions or formats, let me know--I may have some tips, or I can connect you directly to our tech team, who can advise you.

Once I receive the information I'll write up the order and submit it to the tech team, and when it reaches the head of their queue, staff will contact you to finalize order details and payment.

Also, in case this is of interest: we have a number of free early films showing trains and trolleys online in our "National Screening Room" digital collection. For instance, there is a film where the camera takes a ride on the New York Subway, point-of-view films aboard the New York Elevated Railroad or , a drive down San Francisco's Market Street (a few days before the catastrophic earthquake) that shows the streetcars, various early films of railroad trains, etc. (including fiction films set on or around trains). Any film in that collection with a "Download" button under it is free to take and use as you see fit.

I hope this information is helpful to you. Please let me know if there's anything I can clarify.

Sincerely,

Dorinda Hartmann
Moving Image Research Center
Library of Congress




Thank you for using Ask A Librarian at the Library of Congress."

Rowan,

Contact me off-list. I’ll help you with this.

At this point in 2026, you might as well spend time and money on preserving general railroad history because the people who designed the F40PH locomotives were mostly in their 30's to 50's back in 1977. And very few of them are alive today.

PC