I was thinking the other day that as a novice kid and as an adult volunteer I've been bumping into what we now call "railway preservation" for better than 35 years... seems there are certain urban legends or myths that are eternal. Here are my favorites. Enjoy and add yours. jim

"A ______ (fill in the blank with type of locomotive) is _____ (buried, hidden, stranded, lost, fill in the appropriate blank) _____ (in a river, in a ditch, on a mountain, in a swamp, fill in blank as needed)."

"The ____ (fill in name of railroad) was going to donate a ______ (fill in name of premier type of engine on line) to ______ (civic group, town, NRHS chapter, museum, etc., fill in as needed) but it was turned down."

"All she needs is about $2,000 worth of work and a fusee to run again."

"Somebody wants to buy the steam locomotive that's been in the junk yard for 50 years? Gosh, it's worth a million bucks. Maybe the Smithsonian will want to buy it."

And my all time favorite... "It was shopped just BEFORE it was put in the park."



http://nctrans.org
Wrinnbo@aol.com

> I was thinking the other day that as a
> novice kid and as an adult volunteer I've
> been bumping into what we now call
> "railway preservation" for better
> than 35 years... seems there are certain
> urban legends or myths that are eternal.
> Here are my favorites. Enjoy and add yours.
> jim

> "A ______ (fill in the blank with type
> of locomotive) is _____ (buried, hidden,
> stranded, lost, fill in the appropriate
> blank) _____ (in a river, in a ditch, on a
> mountain, in a swamp, fill in blank as
> needed)."

Jim:

Whenever we are digging on our property (for whatever reason) and we hit something, invariably someone will say "it's the buried steam locomotive!" We ARE on old railroad property of course and this has really become the "inside joke."

> "The ____ (fill in name of railroad)
> was going to donate a ______ (fill in name
> of premier type of engine on line) to ______
> (civic group, town, NRHS chapter, museum,
> etc., fill in as needed) but it was turned
> down."

Funny, but unfortunately this DID happen on occassion. Saddest one I know as fact is Soo Line 2-8-2 #1025 which the Soo cosmetically restored for donation to the City of Rhinelander, Wisconsin only to have the city turn it down when they found out that the Soo wouldn't maintain it once it was in the city park. This was especially sad, since Soo #1025 was a former Monon steamer and would have been one of only two surviving (the other WAS saved by the Soo, Mikado #1024, ex-Monon # 504.)

> "All she needs is about $2,000 worth of
> work and a fusee to run again."

This is especially sad for our museum, and I don't even want to talk about it!

> "Somebody wants to buy the steam
> locomotive that's been in the junk yard for
> 50 years? Gosh, it's worth a million bucks.
> Maybe the Smithsonian will want to buy
> it."

> And my all time favorite... "It was
> shopped just BEFORE it was put in the
> park."

Again, very funny and so true. BUT, some locomotives probably WERE shopped just before steam was put into storage. How many of those were actually preserved though is the question.

Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum/North Judson, Indiana)

midlandblb@cs.com

"This high-speed passenger engine........" said of a 2-10-2 or 2-10-4 or 0-6-0 or 0-4-0T or Shay.

"This famous, historic locomotive......." said of every non-descript loco, steam, diesel or electric.

"This engine pulled the (fill in the blank with your favorite politician) funeral train."

"My grandpaw ran this (N&W 4-8-4) in Alaska in 1920."

"This is one of the largest, fastest engines in the world" Said of almost any locomotive.

"It's just liek new under all that rust."

"My kid has the paper route where the railroad CEO lives, and I just know they will let us run it on their line as soon as we get it running."

"All we have to do is get it running. The railroads are aching to have something like this to bring good publicity to themselves."

"I'm the engineer." Spoken by one who did a "Engineer for an hour" thing, and has Trainsim.

"Of course I can restore this engine for you, and talk the railroad into letting it run, as long as I am the guy in charge. How much money do you have now and how much do you hope to raise?"

"I remember these things running behind my house in Florida in the late 1960's. Those were the days!" Spoken by a docent of a 4-8-8-2.

How about the tale of the B&O EM-1 that was supposed to been cut up in 1972. Story goes
that it was being stored in some undisclosed location, but that some dolt in the upper management had it cut up out of spite as a result of an argument with the motive power department.?

captbuck@comcast.net

When discussing just about any rusting steam locomotive 'Why don't they just give it to Steamtown, they'll have it running in a year'.

> I was thinking the other day that as a
> novice kid and as an adult volunteer I've
> been bumping into what we now call
> "railway preservation" for better
> than 35 years... seems there are certain
> urban legends or myths that are eternal.
> Here are my favorites. Enjoy and add yours.
> jim

> "A ______ (fill in the blank with type
> of locomotive) is _____ (buried, hidden,
> stranded, lost, fill in the appropriate
> blank) _____ (in a river, in a ditch, on a
> mountain, in a swamp, fill in blank as
> needed)."

> "The ____ (fill in name of railroad)
> was going to donate a ______ (fill in name
> of premier type of engine on line) to ______
> (civic group, town, NRHS chapter, museum,
> etc., fill in as needed) but it was turned
> down."

> "All she needs is about $2,000 worth of
> work and a fusee to run again."

> "Somebody wants to buy the steam
> locomotive that's been in the junk yard for
> 50 years? Gosh, it's worth a million bucks.
> Maybe the Smithsonian will want to buy
> it."

> And my all time favorite... "It was
> shopped just BEFORE it was put in the
> park."


belpaire@aol.com

Not sure whether this is urban myth or tall tale, but it's one or the other.

Around 1969 I was a college student riding a Penn Central passenger train on the former PRR main line, heading to Penn State at the beginning of a term. As it passed the Altoona shops, four of the PRR's preserved steam engines were parked outside (M1b 4-8-2 6755, G5s 4-6-0 5720, H6sb 2-8-0 2846, and H10s 2-8-0 7688).

PC had pulled these four from the Northumberland, Pa., roundhouse where they'd been stored with the rest of the PRR historical collection. They were brought to Altoona to be repainted as a preliminary step toward being sent to Strasburg for the eventual creation of the RR Museum of Pennsylvania. (Kurt, you listening?)

Aboard the train, the sight of the steamers actually caused a stir. Several passengers remarked to a trainman, who blithely explained: "Oh, the Government makes the railroad keep 100 steam engines on hand at all times for national security."

(Right. Like a K4 would do anybody any good with the US and USSR then pointing nukes at each other.)

The passengers nodded at this bit of insider knowledge, swallowed it whole and went back to what they were doing.

I was tempted to ask the conductor how PRR/PC kept so many engines hidden so well that the railfan nation couldn't find them. Knowing that I still had more than an hour to go before my station stop, I held my tongue.

But most of all, I wished that it were true.

Dan Cupper
Harrisburg, Pa.



cupper@att.net

D&H Myths I've heard-

-They found a camelback hidden behind a false wall at the Colonie shops!
-The sharks are for sale or availble for donation.
-DL going rebuild part if not all of the Penn Division.
-Or the challenger and/or northern "hidden" in the Oneonta rounhouse for a time in the 1950s in an efford to save it until the bean counters came up short. Sure!

Joshua, waiting for the DL&W engine to emerge from the Delaware River.

You know Jim, I think you can prove a lot of those engines were shopped right before they went into the parks.....But I guess there is a difference between the paint shop and the back shop.....

Some of my favorites,
- from a shop tour I gave, after going past the dead line and explaining why it was there
"You should send all those engines to steam town, they're the government and they restore 3 a year"

-"A steam engine turned over in that field right there" 1/4 of mile from the nearest grade

- "There's a (skidder, shay, log loader) out in the woods near (where ever)and my (friends, uncles, cousins, brother) took the stack off and rolled it a mile on the ground to get it out"

-"The last time I was here all these engines burned wood" told to me by a passenger while standing at the Cass Depot

While not a ledgen my favorite line from a passenger was taken by a friend of mine
passenger- "do they let people ride in the caboose?"
Friend- "We don't have cabooses"
Passenger- "well that black thing with the smoke..."

How about anything having to do with the destruction of almost all the modern NYC steam power, i.e., Hudson, Niagaras, etc.

Better yet, how about anything having to do with some party building a REPLICA of a NYC 4-6-4 or 4-8-4 ?

> I was thinking the other day that as a
> novice kid and as an adult volunteer I've
> been bumping into what we now call
> "railway preservation" for better
> than 35 years... seems there are certain
> urban legends or myths that are eternal.
> Here are my favorites. Enjoy and add yours.
> jim

> "A ______ (fill in the blank with type
> of locomotive) is _____ (buried, hidden,
> stranded, lost, fill in the appropriate
> blank) _____ (in a river, in a ditch, on a
> mountain, in a swamp, fill in blank as
> needed)."

> "The ____ (fill in name of railroad)
> was going to donate a ______ (fill in name
> of premier type of engine on line) to ______
> (civic group, town, NRHS chapter, museum,
> etc., fill in as needed) but it was turned
> down."

> "All she needs is about $2,000 worth of
> work and a fusee to run again."

> "Somebody wants to buy the steam
> locomotive that's been in the junk yard for
> 50 years? Gosh, it's worth a million bucks.
> Maybe the Smithsonian will want to buy
> it."

> And my all time favorite... "It was
> shopped just BEFORE it was put in the
> park."


newhaven0401-NOSPAM-@verizon.net

If you've been connected with the Southern/NS Steam Program, then you've undoubtedly heard about the locked building in Roanoke that only the Claytors had keys to. Supposedly inside were an A and a J.

And, a variation of one of Jim's...

From an old timer, "Yep, I (ran/fired) this engine when it was the (different number) but we burned (different fuel) back then."

Another good one...

"It'll take up when it gets hot"

Finally...

"They buried all the spare parts in the turntable pit"

G. Mark

Look at our Revamped Website
aw90@comcast.net

good stuff!
here is a similar thread on another forum.


More urban legends
sscotsman@yahoo.com

How about "that guy over there was the LAST person to run that engine before it was retired" (heard more than once on the N&W regarding the 611).



The Ultimate Steam Page
whodom2001@yahoo.com

How about the occasional sightings of that Erie Pacific in South Korea?

I also have been told several times that one of the ex-NYS&W ACF streamlined "Motorailers" ended up in South America and is still in use.

Erie Lackawanna Dining Car Preservation Society

> Funny, but unfortunately this DID happen on
> occassion. Saddest one I know as fact is Soo
> Line 2-8-2 #1025 which the Soo cosmetically
> restored for donation to the City of
> Rhinelander, Wisconsin only to have the city
> turn it down when they found out that the
> Soo wouldn't maintain it once it was in the
> city park. This was especially sad, since
> Soo #1025 was a former Monon steamer and
> would have been one of only two surviving
> (the other WAS saved by the Soo, Mikado
> #1024, ex-Monon # 504.)

Are there any photos available on the web of the ex-Monon #504/Soo #1024 or the other ex-Monon then Soo #1025?

Where is Soo #1024 now?

Charles T. McCullough
CMBY RY

HA!
At least there actually WAS an Erie Pacific in South Korea. Hal Carstens was looking for it. A 1970 KNR roster showed 2 Pacifics-both PaSi-5, built in Korea.

Electric City Trolley Museum Association