The F3B and/or FB-1, if one doesn't survive, is about the only nominee. The only other possibility I might come up with, not knowing whether one has been officially preserved or not, is a CN/NAR GMD1 (101 built--just over your threshold). The other potentials have survivors--the PA, the Sharks........

I have to ask the reason why? Why can't we find the big, big money? We have a great story to tell? We have great artifacts to show off.

I think we can find the big, big money. Museum of Science and Industry just buried the U-505. They brought in the Pioneer Zephyr and the 999.

For the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, a replica of the Godspeed was built. How much does Jamestown have to do with the mid-west and the west? Not much. Yet railroads crisscross the country.

Our first step is organization. I posted this last January:

I found this on another British web site:
UK Heritage Railways - The Facts & Figures

Railway preservation is no longer a movement of dedicated railway enthusiasts; it is a big and growing industry and a key factor in tourism programmes in many areas. (My emphasis) From the Great Little Trains of Wales which feed hundreds of thousands of visitors into the remoter and lovelier parts of the Principality to busy commuter lines such as the Paignton & Dartmouth Railway, so called Heritage Railways are thriving and thrusting in all directions.

This page sets out little known facts on the strength of the industry which is keen to co-operate with other organisations for filming and PR work, movement of freight and special traffic, hospitality and simple days out. Special catering arrangements, from neo banquets to cream teas, are available on the trains of many railways. Heavy engineering workshops are available for outside work and the railways themselves are often able to provide facilities for main line manufacturers and operators for tasks and tests which would be impossible or at least inconvenient on the main system. The Heritage Railway Association promotes its members and ensures the safety of all its operations.

Secondly get a load of this:
Note how they are going to DOUBLE their route miles. Also get check out the facts and figures on ridership and dollars. How do we get this type of information in the US?

There are 108 Operating Railways and 60 Steam Centres
operating throughout the UK and Eire.
Total route mileage is 384 miles with 279 stations.
This is greater than the London Underground system
and would exceed the distance between London and Glasgow.

New railways & planned extensions to existing
railways could increase this total to 600 miles.
During 2002, heritage railways received 5.4 million visitors of whom 4.6 million rode on our trains.

This resulted in 12 million passenger journeys and 1.7 million passenger train miles.

Heritage railways earned 39 million pounds, 60% of this being from trains journeys, 15% from catering,14% from shops and the remaining 11% mainly from workshops and charter trains.

We can very well go after the big money until we organize ourselves and play well with one another. I know it can be done, it is not rocket science. It starts with rules we learned in Kindergarten.

So to get the big money we need to organize. And we need to communicate both electronically and in print. I have what I call the tattoo test. On every trip to the big city I try to stop at Barnes and Noble, I count the railroad magazines vs the tattoo magazines. The last time I did this the tattoo magazines won by like three to one. That’s right three different tattoo magazines to one railroad magazine.

So we need a print magazine. Could it be done, yes. Will it be successful, again, yes. The big 4 haul about a million passengers a year. And lets face it, those people are not your traditional railfan. If only 10 % of those people subscribed a year, then that’s 100,000 possible subscribers per year. Could it work, yes! The History Channel magazine is up to 200,000+ subscribers in just a few years.

The interest is out there we just need to capture it. Am I dreaming, no, I have seen it work in other fields, we just need to roll up our sleeves.

We have the opportunity to create a renaissance in rail preservation. The demographics are on our side for the next 20 to 40 years. The boomers (who have the money) will be looking for something to do and support. They have the last warm and fuzzy memory of railroading as a large group.

But for this to happen we need to get our act together and learn to play well with another.

I have to humbly disagree. Look at the History Channel, the other historic magazines, the Singe Action Shooting Society, the National Trust for Historic Presevation. The interest is out there, I bet over 1.5 million people rode Hertiage Trains in the US last year. That's a nice market to tap into and we really need to do so.

[quote] I have to humbly disagree. Look at the History Channel, the other historic magazines, the Singe Action Shooting Society, the National Trust for Historic Presevation. [/quote]

But as an unfortunate footnote to the above, it was just today announced in the New York Times that American Heritage Magazine is suspending publication, perhaps forever. Another victim of competition with the internet and changing times.

David

Some quick internet research shows at least one F3B in preservation (an ATSF unit at Sacramento). In addition there is apparently an SP&S FB-1 in New Jersey.

So that leaves us with how many mass-produced diesels that are extinct?

Did the F-M Erie-built make it past our arbitrary threshold of 100 units?


This brings us back to my original theory that, perhaps, there is no need to reproduce any diesels, since at least one of (nearly) each model has been preserved.

However, as previously noted, lowering our threshold to 50 units produces a few candidates (DL-109, possibly the Erie-builts, perhaps certain yard switchers from the secondary builders).

Maybe we have it better, than we thought we did.

JR