I'm mostly a lurker, but I am a steam fan. I used to work for a Class I, but I really don't know a great deal about preservation but I find the knowledge represented on this board just fascinating. I like old trains, abanonded railroads and of course steam locomotives, but I love cars. I'm just a car nut. I'm currently restoring a 65 Mustang, VW Beetle, 1990 Camaro. As I'm sure most of you know car guys are subjected to some pretty good legends and myths. "There's a 67 Corvette in a barn, the guy who owned it was killed while in the Army and his mother never got rid of it." "There was an old man in my home town who still drove his Model A until he died in 1994 and his son sold it for $100." "There's a chicken house in South Georgia filled with 1957 Bel Air Convertibles." And then there's the classic line seen in advertisements: "This Super Sport 454 Chevelle was owned by an old maid who only drove it on Sunday to Church."

Anyway after reading the Big Boy thread I was wondering what some of the best rumors or myths in the rail preservation society are? Which ones have some shred of truth or fact behind them?

On a semi-related note I heard that somewhere around Knoxville, TN there was a steam locomotive of Civil War vintage in the Tennessee River. That it was wrecked by the Confederates to keep the Yankees from getting her. Any truth to that rumor?

I own a WW2 Jeep, and you can't imagine the number of times I've heard the "$50 Jeep new in a crate story." It's an urban legend about folks after WW2 buying Jeeps new in the crates long after the war was over. Never happened:
http://members.aol.com/brimiljeep/WebPa ... ePage.html
http://www.olive-drab.com/od_mvg_jeeps_50dollars.php3
But the only rumor I know for sure about trains is the Chinese WERE approached with making a newly-built "extict" locomotive from the plans. I know because the person who approcahed them had the money,m and did indeed go to China to talk it over and inspect their facilities in the early 1990s. The person in question (sorry, gonna sound like I'm making all this up but he's demanded I not name him) was quote around $40 mill for one running prototype, and the final bill could be a little over that. After looking the market over, he then looked into buying a Chinese engine already built, but changed his mind and canned the entire project. He wasn't even that big a name in the RR world, just wanted a locomotive that doesn't exist anymore that he rode behind as a very small child...

40 million? Is that with or without lead paint?

A thorough search of this forum will uncover MOST of the legends that have been discussed over the decades.......

I think the best I was ever told, by two old codgers who sincerely believed what they told me, was that General Motors MADE the major railroads dieselize with their diesel locomotives by threatening to withhold/withdraw/transfer the heavy traffic they did with the railroads over to competitors if they didn't buy their locomotives........ explaining in one swoop both the replacement of the "better" steam locomotives and the market domination of the clearly "inferior" EMD locos over Baldwin, Alco, Lima, etc. Gee, I wonder why Albert Churella never mentioned this in his book "From Steam to Diesel".......... he must be "part of the conspiracy" then..........

Slightly OT, but there's a great site for those "found in a barn" classic car stories complete with pictures:

http://www.carsinbarns.com/

Unfortunately for us, it's a lot harder to store a loco in a barn and forget it than a car.

I have a good book that covers the history of the Ford Model T rather extensively. It has good documentation of several "barn find" Tin Lizzies, including one that supposedly had under 20 miles on it.

If anything, these unrestored examples were valuable in showing how a Ford Model T looked from the factory, including the rather awful "flow on" black paint.

I'm telling you guys, there's a camoflaged storage area close to Area 51 chock full of steam engines. They picked this area because the dry climate would preserve them for use in an emergency.
I hear there are NYC Hudsons, Niagaras, MP 2200s,D&RG 1800s, Frisco 4300s,4400s and Hudsons and God knows what else. There are supposedly plenty of articulateds too, Rio Grande and others.
No PRR T-1s though, since they were the downfall of the Pennsy, the government didn't want them.

The problem with the "cars in barns" concept is that it does happen, because it *can*, unlike a couple Baldwin Sharks in a barn.

Hemmings Motor News, which used to be THE bible of classified car ads before the Internet went rampant, was doing something quite novel for a while, something that fueled a lot of the "cars in barns" stories: The advertising editors would eyeball the ads for rare or unique ads of exactly that nature, intercept the ads, and execute a purchase themselves. THEN Hemmings Motor News would trailer the cars themselves--bird droppings, cracked windshield, hay stuck in the wheel spokes, flat tires, rust, and all--to big car shows and display them "as is, where is" with sale prices that reflected little more than their purchase price plus the cost of shipping, show space, etc. When I went to a Pennsylvania import-and-kitcar show with a Triumph TR3-owning friend, he literally came running and dragged me off to show me the "amazing" stuff they had on display. As I recall, they had a Triumph TR5 (which was never legally imported to the USA), an MG 1100 saloon (ditto), an Audi "Ur-Quattro" with German racing modifications, a VW 21-window Bus, and several other cars. The whole line-up would be the moral equivalent of finding a FM C-Liner, a Baldwin Shark, a Lima center-cab transfer loco, the NYC X-Train, a Sacramento Northern electric, a GP49, a U50C, and a steam locomotive with a booster tender--all in the same scrap yard! And, yes, all the cars were serious restoration projects, with a LOT of work needed--but priced to make the possibility at least feasible. And all the other parts you might have needed were probably elsewhere in that same show, NOS, replica, or in a parts bin!

Sorry to continue this not-really-railroad related thread, but I remember a rumor back in the late '70s or early '80s repeated in Hot Rod magazine that GM (ok... there's the railroad tie-in) had sold the tooling for the '55-57 Chevy to some former employees who continued to make and sell small quantities of the said models as "low mileage used cars" on small lots into the early '60s. Reminds me of the rumor that Amtrak approached EMD in the early '70s asking for new E9's only to find that the tooling had been destroyed a short time before, so they got SDP40F's instead.

2 tank locos found in Pulaski were un-molested since '57
bought ~ 2 years ago
2 steam compressors for $1200
not to mention the numerous private collections being sold,
historical societies going belly up, etc
I know there are a lot more "trains in barns" than most people would believe
parts too

dr

Weirdly enough, when I was in Turkey (1971-1972), I was astonished at the incredible number of 1957 Chevrolet Belair's on the streets. It turns out that they were being manufactured at a plant near Istanbul, under license from GM.

Obligatory rail content: saw steam-hauled autoracks leaving this plant.

So there, nyaah.

From what I recall, one of the 2 footer engines in Maine today was stored in barn at an old lady's house. I believe its at the WW&F museum in Alna(?).

The Swedish engine in Unity, ME was shopped and stored in a cave for possible future use (among others).

Both are true. Sorry to not add to the rumor mill.

Thats is WW&F #9 (originally Sandy River Railroad #5)
the only surviving Portland 2-foot Forney.

Yes it was stored in Alice Ramsdell's barn for decades, but it was never "lost" and then found again..everyone always knew it was there.
So in that respect it doesnt really fit the "rumour/legend" catagory.

Scot

There was a Mason in a "barn" in Ahmeek, MI.

Sorry, still OT.

Mom grew up in Montpelier, ID. A great uncle was one of the more 'well-to-do' in town and each year would purchase a new car--putting the previous year's car in the barn. Mom recalls as a child of 5-7years of age playing with cousins out in the barn with the old cars (she recalls a dozen or so vehicles--so this would take models back to the mid to late teens).

Twenty-five years later, (late 50's) the barn is gone and so are the cars--no one remembers what happened, but she guesses that they went to the WW2 scrap-metal drives (made p51's jeep!).

On topic: It's no rumor, the lengendary Polar Express is again at Heber Valley Railroad this year.

sc 'doc' lewis