A while back there was a thread about the locomotives rusting at Oaks, PA, including the narrow gauge "steam" engine in front of the station. I accidentally stumbled upon this http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=ame ... de=overlay . It looks like it was from Lakview Park in Royersford. I can't confirm or disprove whether or not it is actually steam, but it is near its original appearance.http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=oak ... de=overlay

That is not steam. It is one of the trains from Kennywood Park. They were originally used at the New York World's Fair, and built for the Gimbels Department Store.

http://collections.mcny.org/Collection/[Gimbels-Flyer-train,-Children's-World,-New-York-World's-Fair.]-24UAKVVTH3Z.html

Kennywood acquired them after the fair ended, and they've run there for years. They're definitely internal combustion, probably gas, but could be diesel. The frame at the end of the cab has the manufacturer's name cast in it, I -think- it was Plymouth, but I may be wrong on that. Definitely one of the well known small locomotive manufacturers. Basically just a mine loco masquerading as the Daylight. ;)

Check out the stainless steel "boat" cars. They ran like that for years, and I always thought they were quite classy. During an upgrade the cars were converted to more conventional looking cars (or they may be totally new cars, not sure.)

At one point Kennywood sold one of the locos on Ebay. Always wondered where it went, now I know. I rode many a mile behind those engines. Always a great view of the full size railroads in the valley below on the trip.

Wow--relics from the 1939 World's Fair! Are they still in decent shape? Here are some photos:

http://www.worldsfaircommunity.org/topi ... wf-legacy/

The World's Fair locos that came to Kennywood Park were built by Vulcan with a steam outline shroud supplied by (I believe) Cagney. Kennywood had 3 of them originally. Two were rebuilt by a local firm with automotive engines and automatic transmissions. The third one was still original with a big slow speed gas engine and hand shift gearbox into the 1970s, maybe 1980s. I never saw any sign of that one moving, it was just a display at the boarding area. At some point they got two completely new sets of cars, perhaps around the time the locos were upgraded. That loco work was done by Keystone Light Railway Products of Herminie, PA., who may also have been the source of the new cars.

Thanks for the clarifications David. I recalled the name being cast into the frame (as shown in one of the photos you referenced) but as I mentioned I wasn't certain of the manufacturer.

You're right that one of them was parked for many years. They sold it on Ebay, a google search shows a posting from 9/23/2007 saying "Only 3 hours left to bid!" Since they were a big part of my childhood, I gave some serious thought of buying one and maybe putting a track up on the family camp in NW PA, but then the whole "How much will this all cost and what would you do with it once you have it?" issue brought me back to reality.

I was wondering if the cars were new, they were definitely a lot different than the old ones. I thought that they had possibly re-used the frames from the original cars. Wonder what happened to them? To me, those cars were a lot of what made the train special. Stainless steel, which fit into the region well, and a rather unique design.

They also redid the scene at the end of the line, I think it used to be cowboys and indians, and in an early example of "political correctness" they changed it to some figures honoring the steel making heritage of the area.

I only ever saw them run two trains at a time, and that was only on busy days, but I think when I was a kid they did occasionally use three, and they rotated the engines in service. The line has (had) working signals for multi train operation, though it was a dogbone shape so they didn't have to worry about head on collisions.