Virginia Museum of Transportation are stating that their will be a news conference held at their institution Friday morning at 11. Trains Magazine is stating "Keep your eyes on Trains' FB page Friday for news you'll want to know the moment it happens!" Who knows if the two are related, stay tuned. No matter what it is, there's a lot of good things happening there in the past few years.

Joshua

They're going to restore Virginian 0-8-0 4 to operation?

Okay, N&W 2-8-0 6? To join the 2-8-0 fleet/tradition?

[ducks into foxhole]

Actually Sandy, we were over there today charging the 0-4-0F up with air off #41, so we can blow the whistle....... :) We got a couple of bells to ring also. The press conference will be about a new & hopefully effective fund raising campaign.... We've been working on some stuff similar to Ft. Wayne's "Headwaters Junction". This will be a step in that direction

Thank you for working on what is most important. Best wishes with it!

dave

maybe a better museum site? Are there still some offsite cars in storage at a nearby yard (where a wooden car got smashed up)

Speculation from various sources site an announcement on 611. With VMT now owning her outright, they could open her up to various organizations for restoration and return to service. IIRC, she is more intact (serviceable and was/is moved often to keep the drivers from seizing) than the 1218, and was built to handle the grueling rigors of passenger service better than say SOU 630 or SOU 4501, not to say that TVRM has done wrong with either locomotive.

Also, if you think about it, if VMT got her back out on the mainline with the help of an organization such as TVRM or FWRHS, it would and very well could be a cash cow for them, so to speak. The 765 Group is already seeing the benefits from last summers excursions across OH, IN, and PA in free publicity. Not to mention the first public trip of NKP 765 on her former home rails between Rocky River and Bellevue in atleast 20 years will see even a bigger boost in memberships, donations for her eventual rebuild, and sales of souvenirs to fund the society. They will need the money to work on their new expansion project as Mr. Gray stated, and it would be a great investment for the Museum.

Certainly are many who are very optomistic about Friday's conference....

http://www.wdbj7.com/news/wdbj7-roanoke ... 3930.story


Martin

I will quote Ross Rowland: "Patience is a virtue." We have only a day to go, so take it easy until then; no need to get worked up about something that might or might not happen. Don't need to spook people, either. . .

It would be interesting if there were a locomotive to come back--and it would be interesting if the engine were either VGN No. 4 or N&W No. 6. Wouldn't mind seeing those two run--along with 611 and 1218, of course. And since we are in dream mode, and it doesn't cost anything extra, let's also toss in three SY's to replicate some VGN MB 2-8-2s.

Hey, Mr. Mitchell, never mind that foxhole; come on over here and drop down into my cellar. Nice library down there, lots of rail books, and old magazines, too, and plenty of other stuff. Only thing is there isn't very much on diesels. . . .

Maybe someone could tell me now? I'm going to be indisposed tomorrow getting my wisdom teeth removed, so no worries about me spilling the beans, although someone must have already said something to channel 7 ;)

I hope it is something like the N&W 1580 and/or SOU 3170 have both secured homes at VMoT. the VMoT if you guys have been watching their activity recently have been selling off some equipment from the yard.

The 611 would be great as well, as I never got to see it run. Mainly because I was born a couple years too late. Whatever the announcement is, hopefully it is something that we can all agree is a good thing for the VMoT and preservation.

I was kind of hoping they'd decided to launch that rocket they have out back.

One of the "Altoona mob" jumped the gun three minutes early on Facebook:

http://www.fireup611.org/main/index.php

I wish them all possible success. Don't need a study, just lots and lots of$$$$$$$$$$$$.

Ross Rowland

This is the "money quote" (literally) from the Trains.com news story:



The "reading between the lines" I'm sensing from the story and the website is that anyone who thinks that NS will simply lease the engine for a decade and fix it up themselves in their own shops will most likely be sorely disappointed. It appears (and Bev, Jim, Bob, Gary, or others can correct me if I'm off base) that the strategy is to make the 611 a feasible alternative for NS to come to and lease, short-term in the same fashion as 765, 630, and Mid-America's rolling stock are being leased, for any excursion program on whatever terms are feasible in 2014 and beyond.

One interesting approach, though it may rub some the wrong way, is to establish a membership in the "sub-committee" with benefits in keeping with the level of membership--first crack at excursion tickets, an opportunity to ride in the NS business car on a trip, special keepsakes like a belt buckle cast from brass from a replaced journal or section of flue tube, etc. If someone hands them $1,000 or $10,000 to the cause, don't they deserve something in return, like the public TV pledge-a-thons?

I think they do need a study; but not a mechanical one.

I'd be very surprised of the old NS program didn't leave good records, and any legitimate expert as credible as Scott Lindsay can certainly take another look based on those and inspect for any static deterioration from that benchmark in a couple weeks of work. Mechanical work is the easy part. Givie the guy a contract for a resurvey and call that good.

The difficult part - and the one that needs to be more intensively studied - is "Where do we run her if we get her up and running, and how do we do so in a fiscally sustainable way?" These questions are much harder to answer....and even if you do answer them, the results are much harder to actually create.

The press release reads as if that has already been done.....but doesn't explicitly indicate that's the case. I'd be very intereested in knowing more about that part of it.

dave