Clearing around 385 was done last week and Supor posted http://www.jsupor.com/385.html in the last day or so.

Well, this is pretty neat to see. 385 comes back to a place where she gave lots of people a good time and becomes a great exhibit at Whippany.

Steve Hepler and his crew have, rather quietly, methodically and competently, put together a very nice New Jersey railroad museum using both rolling stock and smaller artifacts. With all the goings-on about URHS and storage sites and lost museum sites, etc., the Whippany group have created something they should be proud of.

You hang onto those Nehru jackets and bellbottoms long enough, they become fashionable again-- nice to see 4039 and 385 back together at Whippany, just like 1968. Well, minus the Nehru jackets...

Howard P.
-panong, NJ

But what if we wear naugahyde?

:-)

Rob

As we explain to our passengers, the Naugas were all hunted into extinction by about 1960. There is a rumor about a stock car (used for shipping them to market) still inside a building at the US Rubber complex at Naugatuck, but we've not been able to gain access yet.

HOW many days until April 1?

Back to Whippany, please!

Howard P.

I thought that the now extinct Naugachuck was only native to the Naugatuck region of West (by God) Virginia. Didn't know Y'all had them up there in Yankeeland too.....................

So this explains the "midnight move"?

I think we had them up here first (commercially discovered about 1855). It was an introduced species in WVa a bit later. Thanks for NOT sending us KUDZU!!

Howard P.

Well not what I was expecting. Jim Wrinn had been working on getting her moved to North Carolina Transportation Museum. But she is close by and I can still go work on and see her.

So she'll be fired and operated?

I think she needs a new boiler. Al Briegel looked at her a few weeks ago and said the boiler bolts???? are loose and need to be replaced.

I'm going up on Monday to see her come in. My two boys are excited too. Yes they are skipping school to see the delivery.

Supor is a heavy moving outfit. When I went up to see 385 the first time you should see the cranes, trucks, and recovery vehicles he has.

I think Whippany needs a building to start working on its fleet!!!

A definite big THANK YOU to Joe Supor III for donating 385 to the Whippany Railway Museum along with the crane and hauling services (centainly not a small donation in itself). It will be great to have "The Old Lady" (I'm old enough to remember the Varney [later Bowser] HO scale kit of this basic engine that wore that moniker) back on public view. Definitely great that she will be "back home" at Whippany and in the company of MCC 4039. The only regret is that Earle Gil didn't live long enough to see it happen.

Elsewhere on the web I hear that the other ex-Bergen Tech display locomotive, a 0-4-0 Fireless Cooker that Joe Supor had moved to his yard at Harrison along with 385, was also moved to the M&E at Cedar Knolls (I assume) to join 385 at the museum. This ex-Texaco Porter Fireless was the engine listed (I guess by Mr. Supor) on Ebay a few years back. Bergen Tech got this cooker as a donation from the refinery where it last worked after it was discovered when some of the Tech students went to the refinery to salvage the steam plant's whistle.

Back to 385, eventually "The Old Lady" will get a paint job and perhaps lettering for the MCC. While black is fine (and is what she wore early at Whippany and later at Newfoundland), here's hoping the museum considers that (if she gets MCC lettering) she get her beautiful Southern green and gold paint job back again. Don't know if I'm alone in thinking THAT would be nice.

Regards,
Jim Robinson

JIm, you going to help with her?

Definitely want to throw some dollars towards 385's restoration, no matter what color they paint her! I'm sure many others will do the same. The MCC and 385 still have a lot of fans, including some that aren't old enough to remember the railroad and this engine when they were in operation.

Regards,
Jim Robinson

It sounds like you have been around New Jersey for a good long time.

I take it that the Begen Tech High School steam program is history? The locomotive had a bunch of stationary steam items and whistles for company shen she was there.

If I recall the program got a good write up in Railway & Locomotive Preservatiom magazine back in its day.

And some of the article was about the Whippany Railroad Museum; but I think they moved the museum since that time. Perhaps to some other piece of abandoned railroad branch line?

Ted Miles