First off, that was a B6sa, PRR #60, now in Hockessin, Delaware after being "rescued" by the Wilmington & Western via donation in late 1982.

Second, it was not "found lying in the weeds." It had been shoved up underneath a highway overpass near the Pennsylvania Turnpike after its last owner/user basically shoved it back there and "abandoned" it. Its presence had been an "open secret" among both PRR fans and local rail enthusiasts for over two decades, sort of like the "lost engines of Roanoke". The Wilmington & Western was simply the first group proactive enough to ask for its donation, and then go and get it. Supposedly, other folks found the remains "too far gone" to bother with.

My experiences with the obsessive-compulsive thoroughness of PRR historians, researchers, modelers, and fanatics has left me with the impression that there is no way in Heaven, Hell, or any place in between that a PRR steamer, or any steamer from any other major railroad, can still be in "hiding" over 55 years after the "end" of mainline steam in the United States. If you claim otherwise, "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."

This brings to mind something that I had read in William Warden's book on the N&W Y class 2-8-8-2, about rumors of sightings of partly disassembled 2-8-8-2's after the end of the.N&W steam era in 1960. I I suppose this refers to supposed abandoned locomotives in the coalfields of West Virginia. Something of this nature does make one think if a Y6b had secretly survived...
lois

There is a Mike Eagleson shot of a burned Y6b locomotive at the Roanoke scrapyard, shot circa 1966. It appears in Ziel and Foster's book, "Steam in the Sixties". Ron Ziel once told me there was a line in time "when steam locomotives stopped being junk and became antiques". Perhaps this one had a slow watch? Thank God for men like Nelson Blount, who saved a single Class "A".

I go through Pitcarin on a regular basis. Pinpoint the location on Google earth and I'll scout it out next time I am down there.

Probably a wild goose chase, but what the heck!

At The Bluegrass Railroad Museum, where I frequent, we have a civil engineer in our midst. One of his passions is surveying, and in order to perform a good property survey, he researched our deed at the courthouse. One of the things that he found in there is that we own an 'island' or two of land, which doesn't directly connect to our right of way.

As he was presenting this to some of us who've spent some time in the woods down the line, we realized that the plot is down the side of a steep ravine. We also know that after hearing rumors of railroad equipment being down on the side of the hill, several of us slid down there to see what was there. I've seen such trivial things as what could have been a boxcar door, and a piece of rail which may or may not have come from our line.

The group of us speculated that after a derailment there, the railroad simply purchased or otherwise acquired the small plot of land on which laid the wreckage, rather than drag them up the hill. When that section of railroad was sold to us, we became owners of those pieces also.

What this has to do with this thread is, perhaps for the areas where there are supposed to have things buried, then a deed search may reveal something other than the traditional railroad right of way. If wreckage were indeed buried, and the local landowner later dug it up and began selling it, which I presume they'd have a right to, then the railroad would be quite embarrassed. So wouldn't the railroad take steps to prevent the legal sale of such items?

Just a thought.

James Hinman

N&W 2143, 2174, and 2189 were scrapped at Virginia Iron & Metal, the same scrapyard south of the Shops that later offered up the 4-8-0s and a 2-8-0, around 1976.

The Co-Ordinates of the old road underpass/duckunder are (+40° 23' 39.38", -79° 46' 32.30") or (40.395244, -79.774530). I cannot conclusivly find anything in any PRR book I have about another underpass/duckunder in place at the end of steam in the area. My main utilization for finding information of the duckunder is "PRR Facilities vol. 10", which covers the line from Derry to Pittsburgh. This underpass/duckunder was a road under the Eastbound hump.

The westbound Hump is located at approximately (40.398821,-79.779844). Although there was no duckunder at this portion at the time the book focuses on, it may be another place it may be located.

To add to the possibility of something being buried there, around the time the locomotive was stated to be used as a fill along with dirt, Pitcairn yard was utilized as a scrapping yard for PRR equipment. The Reclamation yard was filled with Steam and Rolling stock in the late 50s waiting to be scrapped, and the aforementioned book has an M1b waiting in the scrap lines dated from 1959.

I think you need the equipment though in order to tell. I would recommend the aformentioned equipment in previous posts.

Hope this stuff helps. I will try to pinpoint which part of the yard was used as reclamation, and direct attention towards its well.

I am currently researching the legend of a “lost train” in Devils Lake at Pine City, MN. I hope to soon publish an article in one of the newspapers there which will detail the context and probabilities of the legend. This would have involved the Lake Superior & Mississippi RR in the timeframe of 1870-1889.

With these kinds of legends, you have to work circumstantial evidence as far as possible. You have to interpret the small shreds of evidence to see if they can be assembled into a plausible scenario based on a good knowledge of railroad practice. And then, as others have mentioned, a magnetometer is the key detection device.

And as has been mentioned, the magnetometer does not prove a locomotive is there, but if the magnetometer finds no anomaly, it proves a locomotive is not there. If the magnetometer does find an anomaly, then that anomaly can be measured to determine its probable mass and depth (assuming that it is buried or submerged.) And since a magnetometer finds nothing but ferric material, the mass will be iron or steel.

So if the mag finds a mass of iron big enough to be a locomotive in a place where a legend and some circumstantial evidence says a locomotive exists, you have a strong case. Another part of the search is to evaluate what type of lost objects capable of producing the anomaly could be a probable explanation for the anomaly.

But the point of this is not to recover a locomotive for restoration. The point is to unravel the legend. That is the only asset that can be recovered on a practical basis.

Well, actually it was "lying in the weeds" and in later years surrounded by small trees. The tracks were still there, but so overgrown you couldn't see them. But you are correct that it wasn't a secret. It also wasn't under an underpass, though it was close to the PA Turnpike and B&LE bridges over the Allegheny River. It was next to the PRR/PC/CR mainline, and if you were riding in a truck or bus rather than a car, it was easily visible from adjacent PA 28. (Now called Freeport Road, since the new 4 lane freeway version of 28 was constructed nearby.)

Many years ago a couple friends and I decided to go exploring in the nearby abandoned warehouse. The tracks went into the building, and we wondered what else might be inside. Another locomotive? A caboose, private car or passenger coach?

We easily found a hole in the rusty sheet metal siding and went inside. No more rolling stock, though there were some classic automobiles parked in there. We went deeper into the warehouse, looking for what else might be there. (Yes, kids "urban exploring" isn't new, just the name is...) As we got to the north end, things changed. It no longer looked abandoned, and there was more stuff. Suddenly my buddy says "Hey, here's a calendar, and it's today's date!" That confirmed what we had already suspected, that part was in use. We high tailed it back out through the hole like scared mice, picturing ending up in jail for breaking and entering, LOL!

The old plant is still there, and in fact looks better today than it did back then!
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=harmarvi ... eg=90&z=20

The locomotive was stored on a spur track paralleling the tracks at left (double track at that time.) You can see the rail door at the very left of the building, looks like it may be converted to trucks use now. The open gravel area just south of the warehouse is where the loco was parked, but back then it was weeds, trees and much more jungle like.

As you said "everyone" knew it was there. We all had a look (the engine wasn't fenced, so it was simple to access) and everyone agreed that it would be very difficult to restore, even 40 years ago. Obviously it didn't get better with age.

A friend of mine informed me of a forum that perpetuated a defunct locomotive preservation publication online. Its purpose was to create an internet community of fellow preservationists sharing factual info relating to maintaining the story about railroads of yesteryear. I'm told that this is still around somewhere. I'll get back to you when a buddy confirms this.

Gotta be a legend, Chris!! How could that possibly be true??

Howard P.
Lerp, VT

Embarrassed? They'd only bury it if it was scrap. Imagine you had a farm and an old junk tractor got stuck in the mud in the back 40. Years later you sell the place and some guy finds what's left and hauls it off to the scrapyard. Would you care?

Railroads, with a few obvious exceptions, are for profit business, they don't get embarrassed easily, especially not over some random junk metal.

2014 isn't even a month old, and we already have our best post of the year.

Howard, I've been to Lerp, VT, it was about as exciting as Dunnage, NY.

Indeed there is this website dedicated to factual preservation. For rumors of survivorship, besides this thread, I suggest joining, browsing and contributing to Rumorweb which is now just in its Yahoo format.
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/rumorwebdiscussion

Memory is an odd thing.
Once, when I was a kid (probably in the late 70s or early 80s), my family was coming back from something in central Florida (we lived in Tallahassee at the time) and Dad took a wrong turn and wound up crossing some railroad tracks to get back to the direction we came. That in itself stands out as Dad very rarely ever took a wrong turn. When Dad was turning around, I noticed we were in a minor cut with 2 or 3 tracks on a curve. I swear I remember seeing more than one steam locomotive on the far track, clearly being stored and rusting to a degree.
Recently, I've tried to look up what they could have been and even asked pals of mine still in that area. Nobody has a clue what I'm talking about.
So I asked Mom about that. She doesn't remember seeing anything like that. Neither did Dad. My father is no train fan but I'm sure he'd have noticed something like that as he does have a thing for older technology.
My point is while there is no evidence I actually saw any steam locomotives in that cut, I clearly remember seeing them. I could even draw a picture of what the area looked like. But I've been back to other places I remember from my youth over the years and have been surprised they look nothing as I recall, and I don't mean the things that have been altered over the years.
Knowing this, I can understand why people truly believe the 'loco in barn or in the weeds' stories. The mind can do odd things to you.