Who and or what is the Golden Pacific Railroad ?http://www.gprr.com/index.htmRichard

I'll be very surprised if anything comes of this. This is NOT the first time that Golden Pacific has shown up with grandiose plans for the 2100. Maybe they'll pull it off, but I'm skeptical.

It IS going to Tacoma within the next couple of weeks. It is currently being prepped for the move at the Elgin County Railway Museum in St. Thomas, ON. http://www.ecrm5700.org . I don't know which route it is taking or the exact date, but it will be leaving soon.

Is the 2100 operational? If not how much work dose it need? They make it sound lik ethey have been running it for years!-Eric

I do indeed have a sense of deja vu here. I hope that Elgin County has been paid in advance. From a quick look at the Golden Pacific website:1. There is no human being’s name or resume anywhere to be seen.2. Half of the telephone numbers are expressed “xxx-xxx-xxxx”.3. A diligent search of Ticketmaster could not find any of their listed events. (Yes I saw where the Golden Pacific Schedule page said “Reservation tickets may be purchased at any Ticketmaster outlet after June 18, 2005” for the Tall Ships event but that restriction was not on the other events and does not appear to impact on www.Ticketmaster.com sales. An inquiry to Ticketmaster also yielded nothing4. The only equipment specified on their site is a locomotive which isn’t there yet. There are no pictures of the passenger cars, no specific descriptions, and all of the pictures of the locomotive seem very similar to ones which have been published elsewhere. 5. The office telephone number has what sounds like a residential recording on the answering system and the fax number is out of service.Until and unless I see something a good deal more concrete I would tend to concur with Steaminfo.GMEWith apologies to Winston Churchill: When you speak of the finest traditions of Railroad Promotion do you mean fraud, chicanery, or the Bankruptcy Court?

Geez, it's hard to believe this, especially since nobody here (I live just south of Tacoma) seemed to know anything about it...Crying shame they couldn't get 2100 on the main down to Portland for the NRHS convention that week it's running...

I was also surprised to see this web site. The picture on the home page appears to be mine, as does one other in another place on the site. They don't credit me anywhere. I have asked them via e-mail to change that.As for the 2100: in the past decade or so, it has been run twice that I know of: once, as a coal-fired engine on the Ohio Central for a few miles, and once as an oil-fired engine in February of 2000(?) for a few miles out of St. Thomas. This engine, for the rebuild it received, has to be the least-run engine out there.This whole thing seems too good to be true for me as well.Chris Jacks.

I knew this whole thing was in the works for a couple of years, but now it seems it is about to happen.The only thing I know for sure is it is being prepped for the move right now. I drove down the main street in St. Thomas today and it was sitting outside the museum with the dome cover off and the smoke box door open. The hydro is scheduled for later this week and steam up next week some time.

You did? How come nobody actually in Tacoma knew about it? That's what seems odd to me. I'd have certainly heard about this long before now, that's the main thing that leaves me puzzled. Man, there's been nothing about this locally anywhere, I can't believe people aren't talking this up! There are a couple of people doubting this, but Ross Rowland appears to have chimed in on the Trains board to confirm it (assuming it's actually him):http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=15478

Look at the date on the post by Ross. Ross got that information from me over a year ago.

It is now June 2nd on the east coast. The first trip they are advertising is on July 2nd. That is thirty days from now. The hydrostatic testing and steam up are next week. Assuming that nothing goes wrong that puts 2100 not leaving St. Thomas before June 10th. That leaves 22 days to get to Tacoma, get the passenger cars ready, do some familiarization runs and deal with what ever else needs to be dealt with or goes wrong. Allowing two weeks across the country that is one week in Tacoma for everything else. Feasible but highly unlikely.If you are Ross’s source, what is your source?It appears that they have credited you but have some trouble with spelling "of". If you do not believe that this is legitimate it might be wiser to deny permission than to be involved even peripherally I have two more questions concerning details that are not covered in the web site and would seem essential -Where is the Tacoma Freight House and where is the train going? One of my associates has made a formal inquiry to Ticketmaster either he or I will post the result.GMEWith apologies to Winston Churchill: When you speak of the finest traditions of Railroad Promotion do you mean fraud, chicanery, or the Bankruptcy Court?

I don't have a dog in this fight, nor do I care if the 2100 moves back south of the border, but I do have one question. If this locomotive has been in Canada since the new Part 230 regulations went into effect, does it meet the new USFRA regulations and has the all the appropriate paperwork been submitted to the FRA in order for the 2100 operate in the USA?Okay, maybe that was two questions.

Can anyone explain (if this thing is real and it would be great if it was) --why ?1) They aren't using one of the big engines already in that part of the country (think 700/4449), considering in particular how much it's going to cost to move the 2100 roughly that many miles !2) This year's NRHS convention did not include a visit to this new operation as one of the convention events3) Why their equipment is not being used as part of the convention.4) They aren't selling tickets themselves....etc etc etcanybody seen an eggress lately?Bob H.

[quote] How come nobody actually in Tacoma knew about it? [/quote]I got news for you... lots of folks close to Tacoma Rail knew. No one was quite sure when, or if, it was actually going to happen.

k5ahudson, Since you are in St Thomas perhaps you would be good enough to let us know when 2100 starts to move? The website says as of right now that it is on the move: If it is still in St Thomas being worked on this statement is a very red flag.The inquiries to Ticketmaster in Virginia Beach elicited no useful knowledge. I had hoped to hear something like "We have it but they are not available yet." What I got was that it is not on their system yet and they really do not know. Ticketmaster may well be holding off on releasing the information until the engine is actually in Tacoma. That would actually be sensible. However, if that is the case Golden Pacific should not yet be linking to Ticketmaster and should be far more clear about tickets being embargoed. At the level to which our inquiry went I would have expected them to know. So tickets are a whalloping great maybe - still a red flag.Nobody running the Tall Ships Festival was aware of a steam train running that weekend, nor did the Chamber of Commerce or the visitors bureau - Very red flag. If the intent is to sell seats and make enough money to pay for running the train why is this thing such a secret from the very organizations in Tacoma which would promote it?The biggest red flag is still the telephone numbers - fax and sales office numbers are disconnected and the main number seems to be a residence. Nothing so far is fatal, just highly suspect. If K5a can give a heads up that 2100 is moving the red flags will be on the way to yellow. If someone will reveal the route there will probably be minute by minute reports on Trainorders and Foamer.net and that will improve their credibility significantly. This is one of those moments when I am torn between my professional instincts and my railfan desires. The other grandparents of two of my significant other's grandchildren live near Seattle and seats on one of these trips would be a great gift to send along when they go out there to visit in July. When somebody in Tacoma reports the engine present and under steam and the questions of where are the cars, where is the station, and where is it going are answered, I will sit down at my desk, call the Seattle Grandparents to work out the dates and then I will give a pair of really neat guys an afternoon's outing that they will not soon forget. The grandchildren might also enjoy it. GMEWith apologies to Winston Churchill: When you speak of the finest traditions of Railroad Promotion do you mean fraud, chicanery, or the Bankruptcy Court?(three minor spelling corrections)