I found another charger on Harbor Freight's site that looks like it *might* be what I'm after. Given the comments about overcharging, I'm curious if anyone knows if this one will mantain the battery properly or just keep charging until the electrolyte boils away?

Solar Charger
mconrad@msmgmt.com

Posted today on Trains Newswire at www.trains.com:

Soo Line 4-6-2 2719 bound for Montana

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. – Former Soo Line 4-6-2 2719, owned by the Locomotive & Tower Preservation Fund (L&TPF) of Eau Claire, will be heading west next month to its new home at the Talgo/Livingston Rebuild Center in Livingston, Mont., under a new 10-year lease to the non-profit 2719 Inc. of Portland, Ore.

The 1923 Alco had been returned to service in 1998 after being displayed in Eau ClaireÂ’s Carson Park since 1960 and hauled excursions on regional carrier Wisconsin Central. But with Canadian NationalÂ’s purchase of WC in October 2001, higher insurance premiums halted further excursions. The Pacific later steamed on Wisconsin Great Northern, a tourist-hauling short line at Spooner, Wis.

When the owning Eau Claire group, L&TPF, was notified by Union Pacific that the 4-6-2Â’s home, UPÂ’s former Chicago & North Western roundhouse in Altoona, Wis. (adjacent to Eau Claire), was scheduled for demolition starting this April, L&PTF was left in the position of having nowhere to run 2719 and no place to store it. (L&TPF is also responsible for the relocation of the C&NW Eau Claire interlocking tower to Carson Park as a display, hence the groupÂ’s name.)

Earlier this year, John Cox of Portland, Ore., formed 2719, Inc. with himself as president and Scott Lindsey of Steam Operations Corp. as a director. Cox is the former operations manager for the Pacific Railroad Preservation Assn., which operates ex-Spokane, Portland & Seattle 4-8-4 700. Ken Keeler, vice president of Rocky Mountain Rail Tours that runs luxury passenger excursions over Montana Rail Link, is also on the board. (In 2002, SP&S 700 steamed from its Portland home to make one series of excursions on MRL.) The group worked with regional development councils in Livingston and Butte, Mont., to obtain funding to bring the Soo Line locomotive west.

L&TPFÂ’s 10-year lease to 2719 Inc. stipulates that L&TPF is allowed to bring the engine back to the Midwest for possible future excursions, as long as those schedules do not conflict with the Montana operating schedule.

Preliminary plans call for the locomotive and tender to be moved west on flatcars, the engine to be converted from coal to an oil-burner, to retain its Soo Line identification for the present, and to operate on periodic excursions over Montana Rail Link, beginning in fall 2005. — Steve Glischinski


LNER4472-NOSPAM-@bcpl.net