We just moved our 1914 Panama Canal ship towing locomotive out of storage and placed it on a piece of track in the center of our parking lot, where it will be cleaned and repainted. It was built by GE as part of the original equipment for the canal. There is one other in the US at Roanoke. See it on the link below, along with the latest update on the restoration of the Lackawanna 4-4-0 camelback.

Museum of Transportation
rdgoldfede@aol.com

The Museum of Transportation is really looking great these days. It appears that the Museum is lucky to have Molly Butterworth and Ron Goldfeder plus many others who give TLC to the collection. It is one of the best transportation vehicular collections in the country (my personal favorite). With limited money and resources, MOT proves that in the railway museum field a lot can be done with a little. They are taking a rotting scrapyard and turning the place into a showpiece.

> We just moved our 1914 Panama Canal ship
> towing locomotive out of storage and placed
> it on a piece of track in the center of our
> parking lot, where it will be cleaned and
> repainted. It was built by GE as part of the
> original equipment for the canal. There is
> one other in the US at Roanoke. See it on
> the link below, along with the latest update
> on the restoration of the Lackawanna 4-4-0
> camelback.


http://rrmuseumpa.org

Thank you for your very kind words. I was fortunate when I was hired to inherit the stewardship of an outstanding albeit neglected collection and extraordinarily fortunate to be surrounded by dedicated and talented volunteers and staff. Don Richter,our restoration tech, has singlehandedly changed the look of the collection over the last several years. It's regrettable that under previous administrations during his 26 years here he was relegated to grounds maintenance (I can only dream of where we'd be now if he had been painting instead of mowing grass for two decades), but the collection is beginning to thrive again thanks to Don and the volunteers.

Museum of Transportation
Molly_Carsten@stlouisco.com

Molly-

I echo Kurt's comments. I was there as a kid (yes, all of 15 years ago) and found the collections amazing but in sad shape. Its wonderful to see the changes, and I believe your website is a wonderful testamonial to your work. Thanks for giving those of us in the field hope for the the future of such an amazing collection.

TJG

Port Huron Museum
tjgaffney@phmuseum.org

Molly,

Thanks for your very kind response. BTW, one of my colleagues is a former MOT staffer, Eric Castle, who worked there for several years. Castle is now Curator of Collections at Old Economy Village near Pittsburgh. Anyhow, keep up the super job at MOT; I hope to make a visit during the ARM Convention in 2003!

Kurt Bell
RR Museum of PA

> Thank you for your very kind words. I was
> fortunate when I was hired to inherit the
> stewardship of an outstanding albeit
> neglected collection and extraordinarily
> fortunate to be surrounded by dedicated and
> talented volunteers and staff. Don
> Richter,our restoration tech, has
> singlehandedly changed the look of the
> collection over the last several years. It's
> regrettable that under previous
> administrations during his 26 years here he
> was relegated to grounds maintenance (I can
> only dream of where we'd be now if he had
> been painting instead of mowing grass for
> two decades), but the collection is
> beginning to thrive again thanks to Don and
> the volunteers.


http://rrmuseumpa.org