Hi, All:
News today at Steamtown is that Canadian National 2-8-2 No. 3254 has a fire and is under steam in the roundhouse. Crews are working feverishly on the last details in preparation for a 104-mile round trip to East Stroudsburg, PA this coming Saturday. Plans are to break her in both in the Scranton, PA yard and possibly run to Moscow Friday. I have no word on the scheduled time she will be out and about.

This Mikado's firebox inspection required more work than expected, and the reassembly took a while. The Steamtown operating season begins in mid-April, during National Parks week. This is the first year in quite a while that steam was not available on day one. The last run for her was on January 14, making the work time that much more constrained.

I just want to tip my hat to the fellas who work without much recognition on getting us back in working order as quickly as they can.

Excellent news, Tim. I think a lot of folks don't appreciate the fact that Steamtown has offered winter steam the past few years. Seems like three months off for the Mike isn't such a bad deal given the need for the repairs.

Can't make it up this weekend, but we'll be seeing you soon, especially knowing steam is up.

Rob

Tim,

Thanks for sharing. Steamtown is still one of the best places to get that mainline steam feeling.

Tom

This is excellent. The 2006 NRHS RailCamp at Steamtown is coming up soon and what's a RailCamp without a little coal fire?

Best wishes to the feverishly working crew.

Kelly Lynch

Just to catch up. The first excursion of the season, May 20 to East Stroudsburg, ran with Nickel Plate GP9 no. 514 in tandem with CN no. 3254. 514 was in the lead. The trip ran well, but the only time you heard 3254 was for about 1/2 mile on the arrival into East Stroudsburg. When running solo, she puts on a good show.

The next appearance of steam outside the park is on May 28, with an excursion to Tobyhanna, and May 29 to Moscow.

Am I correct in assuming that the 3254 was at the end of the train coming east, and headed the train going back west?

514 led the eastbound train with 3254 right behind it. On the westbound 514 also was in the lead with 3254 right behind it (backwards as there is nowhere out on the line to turn a locomotive).

I understand that they were concerned about 3254 being just put back in service and not wanting it out on the railroad alone. My question is why did it not lead the trip, except for the 1/2 mile "show" into the station at East Stroudsburg? One NPS employee told me this was because they didn't want the diesel to suck in 3254's smoke and shut it down. Is this true? Sounds crazy to me.

There were only 72 passengers on this trip. There was no first class offered but the LIRR "parlor" car was on the train but appeared empty.

It would seem that whoever is making the decisions at Steamtown is doing all possible to discourage the support of the steam enthusiast community. On the Sat. trip to E.Stroudsburg not only were there zero runbys(by now a Steamtown hallmark) but they put a dismal on the point for the entire trip(save a short final entry into E.Stroudsburg).
Is it any wonder why they sold less than 100 seats(one report says there were about 60 fare paying pssgrs.)???
What a shame!!!
Ross Rowland

Congratulations to Steamtown for getting 3254 back on line. I wish them a successful operating season, and will make an effort to get to Scranton this year, and buy a ticket.

Oh, and offtopic: the nice Milwaukee Road 261 folks, in addition to their operations to Milwaukee and trips from Milwaukee to Wisconsin Dells at the end of June have just announced that they'll be running on the Twin Cities and Western from St. Louis Park, MN to Cologne, MN on July 29 and 30. Tickets will be available on the website at some point this week.

The 261 folks have some more trips in the planning stages for later in the summer, so I'm guessing we'll see the 261 stepping out on a couple of Class 1's later in the summer, too.

I'm really looking forward to seeing 3254 in operation too. The last time I was out there was the winter operations in 1995 or was it 1996? When 261 was out there in any case.

Regards,
Doug

My guess is they did not intend to work steam on that trip, and just wanted to rotate the bearings at speed and see if any ran hot. They wanted the lead engine to be the primary working engine for safety and control reasons, and that is why the diesel led.

You know, I've always wondered whether Mr. Rowland's snarling hositility towards Steamtown has any basis in fact or is simply a result of the fact that they are doing what he no longer can: operate and maintain steam locomotives.

614 sits under a tarp somewhere waiting for the "right opportunity" to justify its restoration, and 3254 is running, albeit not in the way Mr. Rowland believes it should.

It was SOP on some roads to have the diesels lead in a diesel/steam doubleheader. Although I doubt that the diesel would actually shut down (at least not right away), air filters do last a lot longer if they are not sucking in soot. The radiators can plug with soot as well, and require more frequent cleaning.

For those who can remember that far back, Steamtown Foundation operated excursions to Pocono Summit on a daily basis back in 1987--using diesel helpers to alleviate the need for a watering facility at Pocono Summit. SF ran the diesels regularly trailing the steam locos in both directions, and the diesels suffered no ill effects as a result. #3254 (then ruuning as Lackawanna #1271) and #514 teamed up on numerous occasions back then--so there's no question in my mind that steam can lead today without the diesel behind suffering serious consequences.

For anyone so worried about the diesel sucking in cinders and smoke, there's a definite workable solution if the diesel's tractive effort isn't needed: shut the diesel down! With the size of train that they went to East Stroudsburg last Saturday, it should have been child's play for #3254 to pull the consist including a dead diesel.

The other solution is to shadow the steam train with the diesel, running the steam train in a positive block all the time--but when they tried that a few years ago, the diesel managed to run into the steam train!

Unfortunately, it appears as though, except for Moscow trips, that mainline steam at Steamtown is now a dead issue. As poorly as the trips are being supported, it doesn't make much sense to run them anyways.

Frederick G. Bailey

I've often thought that trips to Scranton from Pocono Summit, or Tobyhanna, would be much better. I realize that this would involve a deadhead move each way. The advantages are:

1. During summer months there may be a bigger marketing base of vacationers in Pocono Summit.

2. There is something to do an see at the destination. This would showcase Steamtown. But downtown Scranton also benefits.

3. Steam engine could be turned, and serviced for all to see and provide a great educational opportunity. Steam engine can be properly oriented for both legs of passenger carring excursion. Diesel on rear of train tows deadhead move to Pocono before excursion and tows back to Scranton at end of day.

4. Runby can be held at Steamtown next to the mall. Yes that gets old, but it's better than what is happening now.

Does the added expense and crew time justify this concept? Are there adequate parking facilities at Pocono Summit, or Tobyhanna to make this work?

Tom

I can only relate from my experience with many diesel/steam excursions with NYS&W 142. On several occasions we had diesels either fore or aft. I can't recall any RR that we dealt with ever expressed any concern for what a steam engines exhaust/emissions etc did to the intake whatever, of a diesel locomotive.

In any event, I would hope that eventually we will see Steam locomotives back on the Pocono Main.