Ladies and Gentlemen:

On behalf of Steam Locomotive Association 253, I would like to invite you to our first annual open house Saturday, January 30, 2010 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at our new location in Fort Pierce, Florida. Our Association is nearing completion on the restoration of the former Florida East Coast Railway steam locomotive #253, and we are also in the process of establishing a working railroad museum facility for the restoration and repair of steam locomotives and other railroad related items in this region; this facility will be the only working railroad museum of this type in Florida and the Southeastern United States. Our goal is the preservation of Florida’s railroad history and other items associated with railroad history of this region as it relates to the steam and diesel era so we would greatly appreciate you attending our first annual open house. The event will consist of tours of #253 and related railcars, the museum currently under construction, a bluegrass band, scale steam engines, and other historic items of this era such as hit-and-miss flywheel engines, antique cars, etc. The event will be free of charge to all participants and patrons excluding items in the SLA 253 gift shop, food and other various items being provided by third party vendors.

Steam Locomotive Association 253 is located at 1401 North Second Street in Fort Pierce, Florida. Directions to the museum: from US 1 in North Fort Pierce travel to avenue H and go east crossing over the railroad tracks and travel one block to North Second Street and turn left (north). The museum is approximately one half mile on the left (west) side of North Second Street. Please feel free to contact me or browse our newly constructed website at http://www.slafec253.org for additional information. I am excited about our first event and look forward to seeing you attend our first annual open house.

Steam Locomotive Association 253 is a 501(C)(3) non-profit organization and operates solely on donations provided by our patrons; if you are pleased with the progress of the organization, your guided tour, the event, etc. please consider a donation as your heart leads. Donation boxes are located adjacent to the locomotive and in the gift shop or please see the gift shop staff if you would like to make a donation and receive a receipt for your donation.


Sincerely,

Jeffrey W. Smith
Executive Director



Photographs: Copyright Jeffrey W. Smith 2010

Thanks for posting. Is the restoration goal for operation or for display? I was not really able to determine the plan from the website. I was following work on her restoration for some time and the old website vanished along with any news of what was going on. It was exciting to know an 0-8-0 was being restored to steam.

Hello,

The goal is to have it under steam this year; years of work have gone into the engine and the Association is on the downhill side now. We have containers and a building with pallet racks and pallets full of all the restored parts and it is now a matter of finishing the flues, tubes and superheaters and then installing all of the restored items.

We are also in the process of having our website updated so please stay tuned, that should be completed in the near future.

Thank you,

Jeffrey W. Smith

This is great news. I was following the progress on the Yahoo site, and then it seemed to die down. I knew one of two things had happened, either the project had collapsed, or that the people were too busy working on the engine to update the web site. I'm thrilled to know it was the latter. Since many Christians celebrate the Epiphany today, this is a great present for all of us.

Hello,

We would like to request that if you attend this event, please stop by the booth and let them know that you read about the event on this website. We are trying to track and document where patrons found out about the event to assist with future events.

Thank you,

Jeffrey W. Smith

The general public is asked to make a gate donation of $3.00 for adults and $2.00 for children (under 3 free) and all proceeds will be applied toward the 253 steam locomotive.

Thank you,

Jeffrey W. Smith

I noticed the website doesn't seem to be updated for some time, but has there been any progress made on the restoration of the 253?

Please remove the gratuitous whistle blow on the home page. Sometimes I browse with other family members in the room!

That's one of my pet peaves, too. Not sure if they are even monitoring any feedback on their website since it is so out of date. This was a project that looked like it had a ton of momentum but then seemed to die off. Hopefully they are still working towards restoration of some sort. An 0-8-0 is not your ideal engine for any kind of distance trips. Maybe around the musuem grounds but not out on FEC!

Rob Gardner