I recently spent several hours on layover in Harrisburg and checked out #4859. She had chalk marks all over her that reminded me of a chart showing how to butcher steak. There was also the work scrap chalked on her nose. Upon talking to some Amtrak staff we were told she was to be: 1. sold for scrap because they did not want her in Harrisburg any longer, 2. Cut up in big chunks and welded back together at RRMPA, 3. towed out of there to RRMPA. It seemed each time I asked someone I got yet another story.

Does anyone here really know what is going on with the old girl?

The RRMoPA scenarios sound a little unlikely (especially the one about cutting up and welding her back together), considering they already have a couple of GG1s in the collection. Eliminate those options out of the three you mentioned, and we're left with scrap, which would be a real shame. I suppose some eventual culling of the herd of GG1 survivors is more or less inevitable, sad to say, but isn't 4859 one of the better examples, condition-wise?

I have no idea what the plans for 4859 are or what the chalk marks mean, but I noticed them when I saw the locomotive about 2-1/2 years ago. They've been there a while.

Dan Cupper is on this board. He would know. Or maybe he was one of the people that has also given up on RYPN.

Why couldn't the locomotive just be moved to Strasburg Railroad trackage? Why the change of heart about the locomotive? Everyone was quite happy to put it at the station at one time.

A few years ago, the state Historical & Museum Commission contracted with an environmental hazard remediation firm to clean up the latent PCB traces lingering in the GG1s that it owns. It did so at the insistence of the federal EPA. The 4800 required a complete stripping; hence the sandblasting of the carbody exterior. On the 4859, the concentrations were not so high, so it was cleaned up inside, but the exterior did not require remediation. The chalk marks were placed as an aid to the workers, who did not bother to remove them when they departed. As to the future of the engine, I can't speak specifically, as a change of jobs doesn't allow me to stay in as close contact with the project as previously. The Harrisburg NRHS chapter, which spearheaded the project in the first place back in the early 1980s, has met with Amtrak and the state to discuss the future of the engine. Nothing has been decided, so what was reported here was exactly as it was characterized, rumors.

Background: At one point, a planned Central Pennsylvania commuter rail system was going to require more track and platform space in the station, which would have forced the engine out. The 4859 still may have to be moved, but the impetus for it is no longer as urgent as before. In the last few years and at present, the county commissioners of Cumberland County (west shore of the Susquehanna) have declared open warfare on the commuter rail proposal. The feds have taken notice and told the promoters of the proposal to get everyone on the same page or they're not going to supply the federal share of funding -- which, if it happens, would pretty much torpedo the idea.

--Dan Cupper, Harrisburg, Pa.