Hello All

Does anyone here have details on the restoration of Wabash 1009 and Richmond Fredericksburg and Potomac 1002.

Note, to the best of my knowledge they have been in this disassembled state for at least two years.

Specifically

Who started the restoration?
When did the restoration work begin?
What was the original time schedule?
How was it funded?
Why did it stop, or is some work still ongoing?
What are the current plans for the locomotives?
Would the Virginia Museum of Transportation entertain offers to acquire one or both?


Follow the link below to a 11/26/04 image of the units:

http://railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=85981

Not sure which one is the Wabash unit in your linked photo, but clearly a long way to go on the restoration.

But the link below shows the possibilities.. Though it is an E7 in the photo, the E8s were also used on this daytime domeliner. Short train, domes and a diner, no sleepers, the ideal nostalgia run. I'm told enough Wabash Budd cars exist to recreate this train..

http://www.railwayclassics.com/wab01.htm

With todays "project" dome cars bringing in near six figures, it would be hard to replicate this train for anything less than 1 Million Dollars.

Smokebox

No a restored Bluebird train would be costly, but what else should we do with this stuff, just let it rot? Tons of money is sunk into the AOE and other tour trains and they aren't authentic. Personally, I'd rather see scarce funds spent on putting together an authentic streamliner rather than these fancy corruptions of history. If in a protected location, the train could be just a static or rollable display to begin with, with fundraising begun for operational restoration. Given the amount of glass in the domes, however, it would have to be a fairly high security location for display or storage.

Besides the Nebraska Zephyr at IRM, only the UP has come close to replicating a historic streamliner, with their excursion/business train set. Yes, I know it now has HEP and the cars have been renamed, but from a slight distance it still looks very much like the "City" trains I remember as a kid.

Remember that AOE is a for-profit operation. Most of its cars would have been scrapped if not for them. The positive experience their passengers have can only be a plus for railroad preservation.

We at ELDCPS have been slowly putting together a circa 1960 passenger train. We have 2 diners (one Erie and one DL&W), one Lackawanna "Phoebe Snow" coach, one NKP 10-6 sleeper, and one 6-6-4 ex-CN sleeper (to represent an Erie "American" series car). We would like to eventually acquire a baggage car (several are out there). The Phoebe Snow Tavern-Lounge cars certainly exist and have been on a recent fantrip. E units are out there as well. Besides running on the ex-DL&W in the Poconos we could have them on Track 8 in Hoboken ready to depart. True, it is not a perfectly matched "streamliner", but we can ride the original cars on their original route (eating maybe a little healthier food!).

Hi All
Here is the basic story of the E-Units as related to me by a frined
of mine.

1009, the Wabash unit, has been in the museum since 1964. 1001, the
RF&P unit, was donated by Amtrak around 1988. 1009 was very rusty
then, and 1001 was getting that way fast. The then Executive Director
of the museum arranged the donation of some surplus stainless steel
from some government agency. Cycle Systems volunteered to remove the
old sides from the units, giving rise to rumors that the museum was
scrapping them. After they came back from the scrapyard, the units
were sandblasted, along with a couple of other pieces in the
collection. Meanwhile, the new sides were being cut, also a donation.
When the new sides came back to be installed, it was discovered that
they were 3 inches too small in both directions. It turned out that
the museum employee who had made the measurements on the units had
used a tape measure that had had been damaged and had its end
replaced, making it 3" short. (said employee was terminated a couple
of years later) About that time, money got very tight around the
museum, and the units sat. Nothing has been done since, and there has
been no mention to my knowledge about when work might resume on them.
At one point, there was a deal in the works to transfer the RF&P unit
to the Roanoke Chapter NRHS
It is unknown what the status on restoration is at this time
Andrew Martin

I know this is a very old thread. Is there any more current information on the status of RF&P E8A 1001? What other RF&P diesels exist, especially E's?

Tom