NS is still holding them, but time may be ticking. They have been the last SD40s on the property now for 2 or 3 years.

Back in 1986ish, I traveled to Mexico City seeking the donation of the former ALCo PA's on behalf of the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum, along with other equipment in various yards. We reached a deal! I sent my father-in-law back down a month or two later to finalize the deal, sign papers, etc. The person I had been dealing with had moved on, and the new person had absolutely no clew what my Father-in-law was talking about. On man - so close yet so far! I had dreams of the AT&SF PA's painted up in Santa Fe (the way God intended them to be painted) and returning to San Diego where they had pulled so many passenger trains.

It just didn't happen.

I'm still unhappy about how it all went down!!!!

Jim Lundquist

in 1958, Ohio Railway Museum asked N&W for the donation of a N&W class M. Mollys were the last class 1 steam operating in Columbus because of a load limited bridge that crossed over Penny's Yard B, so they were a local fan favorite.

N&W thought the nearby Mollys weren't right, so instead offered ORM a class E-2 Pacific, #578. It had been recently shopped and it was agreed it would be able to steam for sometime without much work. The donation was finalized in December, 1958 and the locomotive officially delivered Feb 12th, 1959. It was operated four times in 1959. 578 had been assigned to the Scioto Division from 1917-1944.

Thus, for a number of years in the 1960's and into the early '70's, ORM was the only place you could see a hot N&W steamer.

Bob

re: Tim Botti

"Depending on who you get the story from, B&LE #643 was "this close" to going to Steamtown in the 1990's."

Not a story. It was so close and so far by virtue of a losing bid.

Wilmington and Western 4-4-0 No. 98 was sent to Strasburg when purchased from Paulsen Spence where she was supposed to run until the W&W signed a lease with the B&O to start operation. It turned out to be too much work to get her into service so she was only displayed.

There was also a deal in the works to send her to Kempton to the WK&S where men from Reading Shops would work on her that never came together.

Lastly, there was an offer from the Museum of Transport in St. Louis to trade their M-K-T 4-4-0 No. 311 for the No. 98. The deal was not seriously considered here in Wilmington.

If anyone has more details on any of those bits of No. 98's history please let me know. I am writing a book that details her complete history and have dug up a ton of stuff but I know there most be more.

Speaking of 'not quite,' the whole Paulsen Spence family debacle would be a thread in itself on missed opportunities...
More on that here: http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=35300&

From a previous thread here on RyPN entitled "Ones that "almost" made it to Preservation", there were these:

1. Soo Line 2-8-2 #1025 (ex-Monon #508) cosmetically restored by the railroad for presentation to Rhinelander, Wisconsin, which turned it down. Mike then sold for scrap.

2. Central of Georgia 4-8-4 "Big Apple" held for preservation; new administration then sent the engine to scrap.

3. Frankfort, Indiana requested an ex-Clover Leaf 900 class 2-8-0 for preservation. The Nickel Plate okayed sending one of the last two examples on their system to Frankfort but for some reason, the Consolidation was never put on display there. Reason never explained.

4. NKP held an ex-Wheeling & Lake Erie USRA "heavy" 2-8-2 for display in Canton, Ohio but the city wanted a Brewster built steamer instead. Thus ex-W&LE 0-6-0 #360 ended up in the city park and no USRA heavy Mikado's were saved.

5. Dick Jensen found NKP H-5 class 2-8-2 #965 and purchased it. A move to a new scrap yard for storage saw the locomotive scrapped in error.

6. The Missouri Pacific offered 2-8-0 #124 to Dupo, Illinois but the city had the very front end of the locomotive cut off and preserved, with the balance being scrapped.


Les

Regarding Ky Railway Museum's near misses, I believe the L&N M1 that they would have gotten was the 1962 which had pulled a fan trip from Cincinnati to Ravenna, KY in 1956 and was one of four M1's that pulled Ky Derby trains to Louisville the same year. Along with a few sisters, it was stored at Latonia, Ky for awhile. I shot a slide of it's remains at the D J Joseph scrap yard in Cincinnati in 1959 or 1960.

As for ICRR 4-8-2 2613, Judge Charles Allen (a founding KRM board member) once told me that it had been offered to KRM for $ 10,000 and that he later regretted not putting up the money to buy it. The engine pulled L&N's Centennial train from Louisville to Nashville in Oct, 1959 and two excursions out of Louisville in May and Oct, 1960. It would have been a great one to preserve.

I head once that IC had a policy of selling their engines rather than donating them, believing that if a city or museum had a financial stake in them, they would be more inclined to maintain them. I don't know if that was true with 2500 and 2543 or 1518 but it would be interesting to find out.

-Jim Herron

Jim -

What I had heard from a gentleman who was involved with the placement of IC 4-8-2 #2500 in Centralia is that the town and IC employees there requested a steamer. They particularly wanted a 2600. President Wayne Johnston was having none of it and refused to give them one. There was a lot of pressure put on the IC and reluctantly, Johnston eventually gave in. BUT, he told them to just take whatever was the first engine in the dead line, which turned out to be 2500.

I'm not sure about the 1518, but I believe 4-8-2 #2542 was actually given to a woman's group in Macomb, Mississippi and Mrs. Johnston might have had something to do with that donation.

Perhaps this info is not correct, and the actual facts would be welcome.

Les

Found this story regarding the B&O EM-1 #7600:

http://www.american-rails.com/em-1.html

"the last one off the roster was to be saved for the B&O Museum in Baltimore, but it never happen due to lack of funding and the museum not being open to try an reserve funding for such."

/Mitch

Thought I heard rumor that one of the LIRR engines, not sure if it was #35 or #39, was considered for the RBMN (aka; the Reading and Northern) in PA - now home to former GM&O 4-6-2 #425, among others.

And then there was the inquiry by the Reading in regards to the preservation /purchase of a Reading Camelback to the St Louis Museum of Transportation at the time they were working out the details of the Black Diamond inspection engine.

http://www.gcarter.us/Confirmation.pdf

/Mitch

LIRR #35 was to go to BR&W at one time, but a misunderstanding in the contractural nature of the exchange leveled that deal. #39 was also to go to, I believe NH&I, but that too, fell apart. I may be incorrect on the NH&I piece. Suffice to say, all parties have managed to save the locomotives, run the railroads, and things are looking up for both the locomotives.

The website's author is citing a specific individual, a John Patton. This still falls in the "folklore" category until someone comes up with that alleged newsreel footage.

A random Google page states the inflation conversion for $5,700.00 (the amount the Reading claimed as scrap value for one of their Camelbacks offered to the MOT) amounted to $56,768.34 adjusted for inflation today.

/Mitch

Getting closer to tracking it down, but it's harder than I thought. Videographer is Frank Curtis working for WTRF-TV, clip is edited down to about 30 seconds long, it was featured on a Throwback Thursday or similar retro section of the WTRF nightly news, and the station doesn't think they put it out on YouTube, but the people who would remember aren't there today. I'll have to call back Monday and see where it is and whether it's in the Ohio County or Marshall County archives (Benwood Junction is in Marshall, station is in Ohio) or still at the station.

Frank Curtis owned, but did not shoot, the single roll of early movie camera film of the OR&W's last revenue trip across the infamous S-trestle. Robert W. Richardson MAY have been the videographer. It's the only known video footage of the line and has been viewed widely around the Ohio Valley at numerous railfan events and local history days.