PRR GP9 display, looking as bad or worse as its K4 predecessor, in 2005:

http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?j ... R_7048.jpg
http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?j ... 605_PA.jpg

Not fair Bob. The following link shows the CURRENT state of the GP-9 at the Curve. Spring will see it get stenciled.

http://www.railroadcity.com/gallery/index.php?id=36

It does look better in that later photo, but without shelter, will probably look like the previous photo again in just a few years.

I guess that's why GOD made paint!

The one exhibit that sits in the middle of the symbol that has definened Altoona for over a century got to look like a junker ready for the torch. Someone fell down on the job. You have done a lot of good things but like all railroad museums there is always more to do than time and manpower will permit. An exhibit located in such an important place should always be kept up. However, I give you folks in Altoona a lot of credit. You came back from the brink and turned things around. Blame the neglect on past poor practice and put in place best practices. if something has to rot let it be on the back lot, not the middle of The Curve.

Sounds an awful lot like you're volunteering to go up and drag barrels of paint and lots of paint tools up those long steps, Tom. (^_^)

Yes, it is in a prime location, and it deserves regular maintenance. But having actually been ON the Curve in the middle of a ferocious snowstorm and its aftermath one weekend a decade or two ago, I must say that if I were planning to stuff and mount any piece of rolling stock, I can think of few less hospitable places to "preserve" something in the open. And given the "unmanned" status of the Curve, I doubt a glass-and-brick shed will "cut it" with the public; the fencing is bad enough. There would be no real hope for anything that was not truly "expendable" in a historic sense--maybe someday we'll be replacing the 7048 with a Conrail B40-8? Or better yet, one of the now-classic SD40-2's that were pushers for years?

That is why GOD made access roads.

I did not mean to touch a nerve here, though some have obviously taken my posting of the photo links as a personal insult. My intent was to simply point out that no matter how much paint one puts on something, if it is exposed to the weather, it will be a mess again in fairly short order. As a movement, we have a good supply of volunteers now, but as we age, that should drop off and there will be less and less of them to apply paint and complete restorations. If we're really serious about saving things for posterity, they need to be protected first, then repainted.

And even paint isn't cheap anymore. Modern hardened paints can cost upwards of $100 a gallon, and they should be applied on by people who know what they are doing, lest the materials be wasted and/or the workers be made very ill from the deadly fumes. If I recall from my days in the enginehouse, a complete paint job on a GP9 requires about 35 gallons if sprayed.

Well Bob, maybe that's what you meant, but that was not what you said in your initial posting. Your point is well taken now that I understand it.
However, I must say that I grow very tired of people throwing stones at us for whatever their particular pet peave (or peeve which ever is correct) with us is on any given day.
You will have to pardon us for being gun shy, perhaps stone shy is a better term. I would like to see how well the stone throwers on this and other internet boards would react if the stones were flying toward them......my bet it that they would duck and fire one back..

I dug back into my archives. We painted an RS-3m in 1990, and here is a quotation for prices on DuPont Imron. Prices are for "sprayable" material, i.e. paint plus activator:

White, 1 gal., $83.95
Black, 1 gal., $74.79
Maroon, 8 gals., @ $93.41
Yellow 1 gal., $83.95

And 10 gals. of primer at $34.08 / gal

This comes out to roughly 21 gals of (primer + sprayable paint), for a total of 1300+ in 1990 dollars.

Below is a link that describes the restoration:

http://www.rgvrrm.org/about/railroad/lv211/restoration.htm

JR

The GP9 at the Curve was prepped and painted and now looks spectacular (less the appropriate and still to come stenciling). All the work was done by volunteers from the Kittanning Trail Volunteer Fire Department - the department responsible for the area surrounding the Curve.

We really appreciate it. Look for an addition to the rolling stock display at the Curve in the upcoming season.

Thanks