The first big steam I saw was 759 and the Golden Spike Limited, later trips through the Poconos to Scranton and Jim Thorpe. The AFT 1, SP4449, T&P 610 and a blue GG1, all because Ross Rowland had a great idea, planned it well, worked hard, and it worked. He has stated that the Yellow Ribbon Express may work, may not. So what's the problem folks, let's support it!
Alan

It's off topic, but the railroad can't refuse to haul freight for a fair price under common carrier statues, it doesn't matter if it's T-I-H or other nastiness, and a lot of that type stuff is much more dangerous than crude oil. If not for common carrier rules, the companies that want to ship the real nasty stuff would be paying a heck of a lot more, and providing their own insurance.

Your passenger train is not a load of freight, they have no obligation to provide a "fair" price. Passengers also bring lawyers, and the current state of American tort law makes that EXTREMELY undesirable to a railroad.

Let me put it this way. I'm a filmmaker and I own a 35mm motion picture camera and a killer lens package. I want to make my own feature film and so I go out and pound the pavement and obtain financing.
When it comes time to shoot the movie, do I go out and rent a camera?? No. I have my very expensive camera serviced (not cheap) to make sure it's functioning properly and the production happily uses my camera. It's my movie after all.

I like my analogy :)
Stephen

Yes, but let's make the analogy more apt:
You have your very expensive camera overhauled, and factor in the cost of overhaul into the production. After said overhaul, of course, you, the producer, pay yourself to "rent" your camera to yourself, and pass on the costs to the final production accounting.

Don't roll your eyes. This is exactly how Hollywood accounting works.

Meanwhile, the investors are asking you why the #*&!@ you're bothering with this film and camera expense when the damned thing's ultimately going to be digitally edited and distributed anyway. Indeed, they may walk away from your project just because they sense you're taking extra pains to make it more expensive, while enlarging your pay and benefiting your assets. Unless, of course, somehow the whole idea of filming it on 35mm film is part of some "retro" marketing angle or shtick........

This is simple. If this is really about the veterans, then the motive power is relatively insignificant. They can assign any mainline steamer that has flue time to use up, or the couple "veterans locos" out there (UP, NS, etc.), or vintage diesels like the NS or UP covered wagons, or this could even encourage the major railroads to all produce "Veterans' Salute" specially-painted locos.

It's about the Veterans AND steam and being very noticeable. Another diesel, ho hum......no matter what the paint job is. Nobody but foamers care about paint on diesels. Any child knows the difference between a diesel and a choo-choo. Steam IS noteworthy to the most amateur ordinary viewer, simply because they see a lot of differently painted diesels go be every day (if they live near a line).

It's not your proposal, it isn't your concept. Let it fly or die according to its support.

dave

True. How much more press did the Freedom Train get for steam on the point, instead of being pulled by diesels? As a kid, I clearly remember the press coverage of the AFT centered around it being pulled by mainline steam. The contents of the train were purely secondary, something I'm quite sure Ross already knew.
Nothing creates a buzz and gets more press, railroad-wise, than steam among the public.

Amen, Dave.

All true--but in terms of actual injury or loss of life, heritage railroading still has a better real record than crude oil currently does. This essentially is evidence of a double standard against us, along with the double standard that both we and the freight railroads have to be profitable, but it's OK to subsidize highways, airports, and trails.

I can't help but think of some parallels between now and the early 1970s.

I recall not only the problems of bankruptcies then, but of what seemed a distressingly large number of hazardous materials incidents involving tank cars. The causes are different--a big oil shipping boom and the railroads apparently not quite up to handling the traffic as they should be, vs. the problems of deferred maintenance in the past--but the look and feel are familiar.

I also recall how steam, where it ran, was not just a nostalgia trip, but a celebration of railroad heritage, American heritage, a bright star against a decade of gloom. I'm thinking not only of the American Freedom Train, but also Southern's original steam program, UP's steam program, and the Chessie Steam Special. Hrrumph, think of the Chessie special, in those colors! And think of the successor Safety Express, with its grade crossing message (and the 614, too). All of these operations helped to put railroading's best foot forward, including to shippers; those in the know would recognize that slotting a steam train into the other operations was quite an exhibit of operational and technical expertise.

Right now railroading is suffering from a variety of black eyes, including NIMBYism and a perception of being excessively dangerous. Steam operations could help clear at least some of that up, if not all of it, by--hakk, kaff, kaff--bringing a bit of love to railroading.

(Heading for the bomb shelter under the Greenbriar. . .)

I'm just not reading all the ups downs hypes going on in this thread, but to encourage this project to move forward. Putting a focus on American GI's and saying thank you and more and put steam engines on the lead is a total attention getter. Maybe as it travels you can do localized excursions with passengers where it stops.

(did you nudge CSX, ross? heh maybe change their minds....)

There maybe existing engines operable now but there are a few locos on the block for restoration, such as the C&O 2-8-4 at the Hoosier Valley, then there is the NYC 4-8-2 at Elkhart, if this project gets a go, perhaps tag these engines/groups as part of this project, that may boost their restorations with the promise to return the engines to the museums and they get them operational for any excursions they may see fit to run.

Maybe the big boy will be ready at some point to assist. Plenty of ideas and possibilities, maybe nudge the K4 guys on the possibilities.

The 614 may be your mainstay engine, others could pair up to star up with it swapping out as it travels.

The map on the YRE website is hard to read. Is Bethlehem, PA on that map? Can't make out the other cities, looks like King of Prussia is on there. Zig zag route. Would that be mostly NS, or CSX, too? King of Prussia and Bethlehem are on NS.

How about a billion for the people who were "collateral damage" in our proud mid-East adventures?

I agree with this very intelligent and very well thought out comment. We should've only killed the bad guys. None of this effort would've been necessary if we just gave peace a chance. Why couldn't we all just be friends?

We now return to reality and to your regularly scheduled thread.

/Mitch

.

Firstly, this whole " Official Announcement" started because I answered some questions from a reporter working for Trains Magazine, not as the result of us issuing any kind of announcement.

As I've previously stated we're hard at work behind the scenes on getting the critical corporate sponsorships needed to fund ( $ approx. $ 100M needed to cover the entire DBOM budget) the project so that all the ticket and fund raising proceeds from the 3 year tour go into the Billion for the Brave fund to help those who have come home severely wounded and their families. I'm pleased to report that we have made some substantial progress BUT have a long ways still to go.

Finding capable mainline qualified steam engines to do the honors of pulling the YRE is one of the easiest pieces of the puzzle as there are now and will be 3 years from now a surplus of engines ready to go to work. The central reason we will restore the 614 to service to be one of those engines is the fact that she is now owned by the YRE Foundation,Inc. and will stay with the display train after the tour, kept in reserve for possible follow on tours in future years. We are seriously considering converting her to either bio-diesel or natural gas for both environmental and operating economic reasons although no final decision has yet been made.

I'd say that we're about 15% done towards the all important goal of garnering the corporate sponsorships needed to make it " real" and there's a very real chance that we'll not succeed. Time will tell.

If we get the sponsorship support needed the dual purposes of the train are very simple, 1. to mount a national thank you to those now serving and those who have served our nation on the frontlines protecting our freedoms and 2. to raise a pot of money to be used to help those who have come home severely wounded and their families get through life.

Thanks for your interest.

Ross Rowland