Ahh. I wasn’t aware of that. Ideally everyone in the preservation world would work together but we don’t live in an ideal world sadly.



Maybe I’m just the crazy one. I rode the Deleware River, Black River & Western, And Strasburg all in the same day once. 3 steam locomotives on 3 different railroads in one day! And I had ridden behind the 26 at Steamtown the day before.

Responding the post above (I’m on mobile so it’s hard to get the quote to work here), I try to dedicate a day to each organization if I can, just because I like to chase and ride the trains if possible. Recently I took a 6 day vacation to the East when 2102 made its first run. I went to Strasburg, Steamtown/Trolley Museum, RBM&N, Cass Scenic, WSMR, and the B&O RR Museum in the course of 5-6 days. I enjoyed my time at Steamtown, but I wouldn’t go back until the 3713 or something else is running. I got some great shots of the Baldwin 26 though. How were those other 2 you mentioned aside from Strasburg? I know there’s a handful of 0-4-0s that run in PA, but I couldn’t squeeze them into my first vacation.

Oh trust me, I’d love to spend more time at each Railroad I visit as well. But with many operations only running on weekends, sometimes I have to jump around a bit.

The Deleware River Train is quite nice, they have the Chinese 2-8-2, I rode in an open air commuter coach.

The Black River & Western is definitely a must see, Really nice historic coaches, and the lovely Great Western 2-8-0 #60. Deleware River is a little more scenic, Black River is more historic equipment.

There’s also the Wilmington & Western, Everett, Star Barn (home of the former Leviathan), and North Central (former Steam into History) nearby.

I should've gotten the extra large bucket!

New England Steam has historic MEC records showing 3713 on the all-Pullman "Bar Harbor Express". Don't flap too much about the B&M Pacific's capabilities.

I visited Steamtown last year and rode behind/chased the Baldwin #26. The ride was nice, but beyond that, I wasn't impressed. Every displayed piece of equipment looked like if you bumped into it, it would cave in on itself excluding the reading diesels and 2124, the Big Boy, and the IC 790. They need every dollar they can get from excursions, so if 3713 will help the money come in, let's hope they actually make some progress. I guess because it's a government funded place is why they're lacking funds to even keep things cosmetically restored.

Those are short round trips of about an hour (or less!) each. R&N is marketing what amount to all-day outings. Even Steamtown's Moscow trips used to be about an hour and a half or more--back in the "old" days (the 1980s, with 2317). And you're blowing off the RR Museum of Pa. doing so, unless you go there all the time.

Certainly, if I was utterly determined, I could do both in a weekend. One time in 1989 or so, with a British associate with me in the car, we did N&W 611 Erie to Rocky River, Ohio and return, then drove a crazy direct drive from Erie to Altoona cross-country in driving rail to get to a motel in Altoona, Pa. so we could do Altoona/Horse Shoe Curve in the morning, the Railroaders Memorial Museum as it opened, then run east to ride the EBT that afternoon.......... because the EBT was only running weekends, and we had another special outing the previous weekend, and Erie was the closest/ONLY "mainline steam" we could pull off anywhere........

The RR Museum of PA is a fantastic museum, but I want to see things operate so it's not a place I need to re-visit on every trip through Strasburg. I'm pretty sure I didn't go through the place when I was up there for an entire week for the Pete Lerro 611 charters.

There’s also photos of it in service carrying the yellow, silver and blue East Wind in the early 40’s.

But seemingly the whole point of this Gedanken experiment is to figure out how someone from afar--say, west of the Mississippi--could do both Steamtown and R&N in the same trip. And, possibly, Strasburg/RR Museum of Pa. the Friday before.

I used to hear from people that kept "putting off" EBT for another day--until it was no longer running.....................

Well the museum is usually open on weekdays, not hard to plan a day to see it if you desire. It would be very easy to do Steamtown and Reading and Strasburg on a 3-day weekend. Heck... you could chase the 2102 1-way and still catch a few sunset shots over the Amish farmlands of Lancaster county very easily.

Lots of conjecture and misinformation here, but I'll try to dust off some facts about 3377.

Reportedly, 3377 had been shopped with just 500 miles (not 5k) on her when she was put on the deadline. Some say she was hit by scrappers en route to Bellows Falls, others say all of the trinkets were removed prior to the trip, but in either case she wasn't operational when Steamtown VT received her.

Once Steamtown moved to Scranton, CP 1278 was traded (along with cash) to Gettysburg for CN 3254. While not identical, 3254 and 3377 share many of the same components, and compatible parts on 3377 started migrating over to 3254. Supposedly all of the cast-off parts from 3254 are or were still on site somewhere.

CN 3254 had a hard service life, resulting in a bowed frame and some other issues. At one point there was a plan to swap the boiler from 3377 to 3254, but that was abandoned. In 2010, 3377's tender body was scrapped and a new stainless steel tender body was built for 3254 and placed on 77's frame.

About seven years ago it was announced that the park wanted to have four operable steam engines on site. 3254 was already cold for a few years and it was making more and more sense to consider reversing the flow of new or good used parts from 3254 back to 3377, including the new stainless tender that never saw service.

The big unknown here was the 77's boiler - what could be seen looked promising, but as 3377 was not included in the 2008 asbestos abatement project she still had all of her lagging in place. A monetary request was submitted internally roughly 5 years ago for the abatement and a formal evaluation of the boiler. I don't know if we are finally seeing that request come to fruition, if another request had to be submitted, or what.

Theoretically, if the boiler is sound, 3377 would be a good candidate for restoration and park operations. Would I like to see her back under steam? Absolutely. Do I think it'll happen in the near future? No. Your mileage may vary.

That's interest that their end goal at one point was four operational steam locomotives. I mean, it could happen someday, but the overall goals and supervision of Steamtown will need to change for that to happen. Out of curiosity, what were the four that were considered for operation? I'd assume the Baldwin 26 and probably the CN 3377. I forget when the B&M 3713 project started, but that would be three. Any ideas on what the fourth would have been? I've personally always wanted to see the CN 47 run again, but I've seen posts related to the records being lost in a fire complicating things; not sure if that's true or not.

That was in 2015 and the world has turned a few times since then. 3713 was the priority. If the goal was to have two mainline engines and two yard goats, CN 47 would have been more than plenty to fill out the fourth slot. IC 790 and CP 2317 were also discussed, but consider it took seven years to get around to testing the boiler on 3377 (assuming that what's been reported here is even accurate).

I'm sorry, but that statement didn't come with conditions or a time limit, and it was repeated in 2018.


No, nobody will ever forget the lockdowns.

Now, the most experienced mechanical staff has departed or is about to depart. In the meantime, the Reading and Northern and others are creating a highly competitive environment and developing customer loyalty that present a "barrier to (re)entry" in the heritage/tourist space.


https://apnews.com/article/5f7288a3b721 ... 2492089691