The following copied directly from Trains Newswire at Trains.com:

"ST. LOUIS - The Museum of Transportation in St. Louis has announced plans to sell or give away some locomotives, passenger cars, and cabooses from its collection. The artifacts, all in somewhat deteriorated condition, are considered surplus to the collection.

The artifacts include:
• Porter-built fireless 0-4-0, U.S. Navy No. 7
• A tender to a Great Northern Baldwin steam locomotive
• MARC 66, an ex-Chicago, Burlington & Quincy E8 diesel
• NMOT 2918, formerly Wabash GP35 No. 547.
• U.S. Army 1844, a Fairbanks-Morse H12-44
• M&St.L RS1 546
• U.S. Army 150-hp, GE-built switch engine 7765
• FDS (Italian State Railway) Class E550 electric No. E550.025, a Westinghouse-built engine that runs on 3,000-volt 3-phase A.C.

Several passenger cars, cabooses, and a PCC streetcar are also available.

Interested parties should contact the museum through its Web site, http://transportmuseumassociation.org/. "

Not the 952?

The PDF describing the equipment and the process for submitting proposals is available at:

http://www.transportmuseumassociation.org/RailDeaccession2009.pdf

How did the E550 get to the US? There must be a story behind it.

--
Will

Darn shame for all concerned that the 952 didn't make the list. That matter is set to go to trial soon where more money will be spent on trial lawyers by both sides.

I'm no collections professional but it would seem to me that a DL&W loco. would be outside the core collection of a St.Louis based museum???

I'm told the trial should commence in the very near future so perhaps it will finally get resolved one way or 'tuther!!!

Ross Rowland

Their mission and collections policy is not regionally based, but seems to be a broader overview of technology instead. It includes Winans designed early steamers, an Elevated engine - there's not a lot that was that there isn't something representing there. My only complaint is not enough time to really explore it. Lackawanna or any other heritage is immeterial from that perspective.

dave

I do not know who Mr. Rowland's "sources" are, but, he is wrong.

A check of the PACER (online case management system) for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri indicates that this matter is not set for trial, nor is it set for trial in the immediate future.

In actuality, it appears both parties have filed cross motions for summary judgment. This is a procecdural move by both parties attempting to have the Court decide the issue before it proceeds to a full-blown trial. Like a trial, it is a decision on the merits. Summary judgment is used when issues of law, rather than issues of fact have to be decided. Of course, the court previously granted summary judgment in favor of St. Louis County, only to be reversed. So until the court rules, it's anyone's guess.

With regard to the other equipment, all I can say is "good luck" trying to find anyone else to take items that are too large for highway transportation. Right now it is very difficult just to get the Class 1s to haul a locomotive that has just come out of service and has up to date documentation, and the recently adopted coupler restrictions make it even more difficult.

If that E-unit is deteriorated it might make an excellent candidate for removal of the battens and side panels to create a "visible" locomotive along the lines of EMD's verious display units of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. That would create truly interesting and unusual display. But we have talked about that concept before and nobody seems to be very interested.

PC

When I finally had a chance to visit the Museum in 2007, I had a "field day" checking out the wide variety of rail relics on display. I even got a look inside the storage barn where electric railway cars that are mostly St. Louis-related are stored. The locomotive I was most interested in seeing was Southern Pacific 4460, which I photographed nearly 50 years ago when it was passing through San Luis Obispo CA en route to St. Louis. Back in the 70's and 80's, when SP 4449 was so much in the news that the host of an informal railfan group finally put an "embargo" on 4449 slides, I often wondered why there was very little comment on the other preserved "GS" loco. Although it's highly unlikely that 4460 will ever steam again, at least it's under cover in a relatively secure location. The SP "Daylight" locomotives were and are an iconic piece of American railroading and it's fitting that they be represented in such an eclectic collection.

The E550 was shipped free from Italy, Genoa I believe, to New Orleans, then up to St. Louis on a flatcar, also for free. Shipping lines and railroads were quite generous in those days if you had the right connections. It was obtained to have an example of an electric with jack shaft and side rod drive, no American examples of which were available. The only US survivor was the Pennsylvania DD1 now in the RR Museum of Pennsylvania. All the other PRR, N&W and Virginian examples had been scrapped, along with the few New Haven experimentals using that kind of drive. Even though it ran in Italy it was a Westinghouse design, and reflecting the international nature of the industry its principal designer was Hungarian. It was built by the Italian Westinghouse subsidiary. The only other surviving example of this loco is in the Leonardo daVinci Engineering Museum in Italy. Not using it to illustrate the drive system is a foolish mistake, IMHO, but I wasn't asked. I'm sure some folks in Italy would love to have it, but in this economic climate I don't know how they will make it happen.

This will be good news to some Italians. They had previously approached St. Louis with an offer to repatriate the E550 to Italy. See http://www.blainestrains.org/E550/

Note the engine is a 3 phase electric, like the early Great Northern 1st Cascade tunnel. In Italian this is "trifase". Note the deaccession description refers to tunnels and smoke as the motivation for electrification. A more significant reason was the high cost of coal. Italy has no coal. It was an issue of national pride to electrify with hydro power and reduce imports of coal.

Thanks for the E550 info.

I would add "good luck" with the E550, as well. I doubt there are many (any?) rail museums in the US interested in European equipment.

How much does the E550 weight? It might be interesting to see how much it would cost to send it home.

--
Will

I've checked again with my sources and they state that they're optimistic that the matter will finally get tried "soon" and that based on the findings of the Court of Appeals (that sent the matter back to the trial court) they have a strong chance of prevailing. Of course that's their admittedly biased opinion.

Hopefully the court will resolve it one way or 'tuther soon???

IMHO-Ross Rowland

is the picture on tere website of 952 real? Did they just restore it just so they dont have to return it to Steamtown?

Oh goodie, we've managed to awake the 952 claptrap again. That argument is like Herpes, it just won't go away. Get over it!!!