In response to the package of information I mailed to the Mayor of Waterville, Maine, discussion of what to do with the static display of Pacific #470 has been place on the City Council Agenda, for September 07, 2004, at 7PM. It is an open meeting and I will be discussing the locomotive proposals with the Council. If you can attend, please do so, otherwise you can email your views to Mayor Paul LePage at mayor@waterville-me.gov . I think the Council needs to know that the 470 needs cover, that it is an irreplaceable treasure of historic value, and that a positive solution is called for.

In short,the package of proposals offered three positive choices; a large railroad museum building be built around the locomotive, to become the focus of an interpretive center; an fence enclosed weather shed, to house the engine for cosmetic restoration and prevent further vandalism; moving the locomotive to a museum where it can be better cared for or possibly restored for operation in the future.

More important than any of these single choices is to voice your commitment towards railroad preservation and the need to secure this locomotive before it is lost to the ravages of weather and vandals.

I want to thank all of you in advance for doing what you can to show that the 470 has friends.

RIchard Glueck

Richard,

Isn't one of your three proposals; the shelter with a protection fence already under construction?

It is too bad that it took so long but a shelter is better than the engine being out in the Northern New England weather for more years!

Ted Miles

I think you may be thinking of B&M 4-4-0 494 in White River Junction.

RyPN author David Woodbury and others have worked to restore that engine, and it just got a new shelter.

To my knowledge, nothing is happening with 470 other than Richard's initiative.

No shelter has been planned for the 470 as of this date. If plans were ever drawn up, they never got past the suggestion. I know tht money is going to be the key issue, and I want to be sure that the Council knows that doing nothing will be the expensive route in the long run.
Again, I urge all concerned preservationists to make your opinions known so that a public voice is heard loud and clear. Undoubtedly, there will be those who will assert that scrapping is the best approach. That opinion should be put in its place by preservationist concensus.
THis could be the start of something very good. If it works in Waterville, it might work in your city as well.