Ok folks, what's this rumor? I live about 40 minutes from the creek and would like to go see it if it's true.

Thanks.

You're about 2.2 days early for the annual tradition, friend. <:-)

(Actually, given the "fun" here last time someone suggested a still-sunken locomotive, as soon as I saw the subject line, I started screaming and smashing the keyboard, desk, monitor, etc. Just so y'all have been warned.)

WOW! Sorry Alex didn't mean to open up that wound! My boys, 10 and 14, thought the adventure would be fun. Heck they had a blast finding SR 385, going to see her, and we tried to chase her down when they moved her. Still say she should be with her sister engine in NC.

Hi,

This lost loco story seems to have some validity, though unlike the sunken steamer down the CNJ Southern Division near Farmingdale, I don't know of any visual confirmation.

All I can tell you is, for sunken locos around Monmouth County, the two out in the Atlantic are really there (except for what has been raised so far), the one near Farmingdale is really there, and the Matawan Creek loco is 50/50 at best.

Rob Davis

What one by Farmingdale? I thought that was CNJ 113?

Hi,

CNJ #113 is being restored in Minersville, PA.

There is a steam locomotive sunk in a marl pit next to the CNJ right of way aouth of Farmingdale. There is a lot of supposition as to what it is. The dreamers say it is a small CNJ camelback switcher used by the marl company. The feet-on-the-ground guys think it is a small industrial lokie. In either case, everyone agrees it is there.

Parts used to be visible, but last I heard it has sunk further into the muck.

There were many brick and marl haulers in the area. Sharp eyes will find grades and even ties while riding the back roads. Those without fear of ticks will find even more deep in the pines.

Rob

Also the 2 Mikados and their tenders on the Arundo, sunk off Sandy Hook in Feb., 1942. I'm posting this on the 31st, to avoid confusion with the 4/1 messages.

Jim;

This is the first time I have heard details of what steam locomotives are aboard the wreck of the Arundo. Are they narrow gauge "MacArthur" 2-8-2s, or something else? Any details?

Rob;

I have lost track of what is happening with the two 2-2-2s sunk in the "mud hole" off New Jersey. Could you please provide an update; sounds like some parts have been raised? Thanks in advance.

A little tounge in cheek here, but here's hope to all of those who have visions of retrieving lost locomotives. Check out the condition of this tank that was removed from a lake after 62 years! It is a Russian T-34 that had been captured by the Germans and were using it when it was lost. Pretty neat stuff!
http://www.12mbdragoons.com/panzer/

Steve

I went to the web site at looked at the photos. Indeed, the tank is in remarkable condition. One of the photos was captioned that they were able to service the tank and start up the diesel engine!!
I speculate that the lake where the tank was abandoned was very oxygen-deficient, perhaps related to the description that says the tank was buried under three meters of peat. I wonder if there are any locations where steam locomotives ended up in a peat bog?
Dan Rohrback

Rob, I'm only a hour from Farmingdale. Can you give me some more details? My two sons would love another adventure.

I haven't been on the Arundo yet, my details of the wheel arrangement were from a photograph alleged to be of a page of the ship's manifest. It didn't specify gauge, make, or whether new or used. No one has claimed to have found the bells. I wonder if the "jewelry" was in crates in the tenders. They were loaded on the other end of the ship.

Parts of the 2-2-2's have been raised and are secure (water) storage. The project continues to roll on. Every now and then the guys take some parts out of the vat for public display. Still no idea of what the engines' provenance is.

Rob

The engine that is in the marl pit is actually a steam tractor. Just got done talking to Mr. Crawford at the Farmingdale Museum.

Perhaps a different perspective but an important counterpoint to the tank raising activity (and potentially locomotive raising activity) is the question of WHY SHOULD one undertake recovery. This tank example shows a tank in an anarobic environment (minimal dissolved oxygen in peat) with a fairly neutral ph. This yields great preservation. Now that this tank is pulled out, it is subjected to air, elements, etc. The only way to keep this artifact from deteriorating is to:

repaint, store under cover, regularly inspect, etc.

Sounds familiar right? Philosophically, if our mission is to preserve an artifact, sometimes is it not the best course of action to leave something in a preservative environment which is not subject to the hubris of humans (organizational collapse, competing agendas in museum groups, loss of property, etc?) As long as this tank was where it was and people could protect the resource from scavenging, I think it might have been better off where it was. Now it is just another restored tank of which there are probably a number. In the peat bog it was an undisturbed, protected, completely original artifact from the era.

I am not one of these folks who says stuff and mount everything, but in some situations I think a detailed action plan is required before disturbing an irreplaceable find.

Stathi