From the "Ask Trains" column in the February 2014 TRAINS Magazine:

"The only preserved Erie steam is a 4-6-2 shipped to South Korea to re-build that country's railroads following the Korean War." - Jim Wrinn

From info here on RyPN threads in the past, I thought it was determined that the Erie Pacific didn't survive, but Jim's comments kind of make it sound like it is still with us. What do you know Jim?

Les

Dear Les:
This has become an "urban legend".
There is nothing to be done but let it run its course again, and again and again.
Years ago it was an NYC Hudson hidden away in Michigan.
Aarne: was it in a barn or a roundhouse, I have quite forgotten!
J.David

Wasn't it in a scrapyard, covered under a big pile of something? ;-}

The whole point of this thread is to hear, from Jim Wrinn, what his source for this comment is. Any other speculation defeats itself. I would post this over on the Trains forums, where it might be likelier to get a response... but that, too, would likely defeat itself.

It has been brought to my attention by a reader of this board that this conversation my be seen as a challenge or attack on Mr. Wrinn... an as such would be a violation of this boards rules... I am not locking the topic, but would suggest that unless we are preserving something (this suggestion coming in my role as your friendly moderator) that this conversation might be better suited for the letters to the editor section of trains?

Thanks, Randy

After seeing Jim's comment in Trains magazine, I sent him an email to let him know what I had learned about the Erie locomotive from the director of the Korean Railroad Museum. I never received a reply, but it's safe to assume he knows now that the Erie locomotive was not preserved in South Korea after all.

In Jim's defense, the locomotive did indeed get sent to Korea, the story about its preservation has been going around for so long that one would assume it to be true, Korea is a long way from the US, and the language differences are significant, so it would be very difficult for someone in the US to confirm or deny the existence of a supposedly preserved locomotive. If not for my Korean wife, who told me about the museum in Uiwang, took me there, helped me to meet Director Son Gil-shin in person, and then acted as an interpreter, I would never have learned the answer myself.

Randy -

Thanks for your comments. Since I was the original poster, I can tell you that it was not meant as an attack on Jim. Although I have never met him in person, I have talked to him via e-mail on preservation items through the years and I would consider him a friend. I think his original reply in TRAINS was meant to say that the only Erie steam locomotive preserved was a 4-6-2 sent to South Korea. A proof-reader obviously missed that incorrect word which changed what Jim meant to say.

Sorry if anyone took offense.

Les

If I may...

Of all the people I have met in our little corner of the railroad world, Les is one of the last guys I would suspect of ill-intent with his subject line.

Now about that Erie 4-6-2...

As recounted here years ago, my good friend Dave Albertson spent quite a bit of personal time in South Korea tracking down leads and getting into quite a few adventures looking for any remains of it. He found some cool stuff, but no Pacific.

Enough "that doesn't exist" stuff has been found over the years to make some hunts worthwhile (seems to usually be trolleys and smaller steam locomotives that turn up).

I am grateful for guys like Dave who actually follow-up on the leads that have some factual basis.

Just my two cents,

Rob