Unfortunately 349 is not operational. I remember when she first arrived at TVRM you could still see the faint markings on the firebox sheets where, at least according to the story, CofG started to rebuild the boiler as part of the sale. The new owner found out and told them to stop, the engine was just going to be a play toy for his kids. If the story is true what a shame.

I do not know if a boiler study has been done on the 349. I am sure she would need firebox work but am unaware if an entire new boiler would be required. There are several memebers at TVRM who would love to see 349 run in our lifetimes but she just does not fit into the current, more important, needs of the museum. The 349 could certainly be used in a limited roll but is not big enough for the day to day operation. We need a sugardaddy.

John Bohon

From the way CofG 349 was displayed in 2004, at the opposite end of the line from the shops, I assumed she was merely cosmetically restored:

Gentlemen,

If I may, I'd like to mention that the "discovery of a redwood block carved into the shape of a journal brass in an ex-IRCA caboose" is not representative of the kind of work done by FIdeCA, FENDESAL, or FEGUA. The admitedly bogus repair was done by well meaning folks who were desparate, and only needed to move that caboose enough to sell it after the death of the owner. If you look at the end of the axle, it should be obvious that the car had derailed (not so obviously that it happened here in USA), and then been moved without the original brass being properly inserted between the journal box and the journal. You can be sure that rail workers of all crafts in Guatemala and El Salvador were well trained and properly equiped, and to this day fix things right when at all possible, when anybody has a chance to fix anything, anymore....

I could claim a few bona fide discoveries in Guatemala, but only by taking credit for the information given to me by the employees.

I just started volunteering at TVRM, but have been around there for a long time. I know there's been talk of wanting to restore the 349 in the past, but there was concern on how much she could carry. If she ran on the local, she could only haul a two car train instead of the normal three. The 349 is also completely different than all the other engines TVRM has. It has Stephenson's Valve gear, a narrow firebox, and quite a bit of other appliances that are totally different from the 610, 630 and 4501. Though, I don't think this was a concern, but it's definitely something to consider. I think there's currently more interest in getting the big engines running again (4501 and 5288), so that we can have one of the consolidations on the local and the others on Georgia trips.

Kyle Shannon

Kyle -

Thanks for the info. Perhaps TVRM might consider donating her to some museum where her modest tractive effort wouldn't be a handicap.

One question I asked back when I wrote the article on CofG steam survivors, was whether the 349 might have been the last American type in regular service for a U.S. railroad. The Chicago & Illinois Midland had finally received permission to abandon their passenger runs out of Springfield, Illinois which used their modern 4-4-0's right up to the end in May of 1953. The 349, along with a lightweight 4-6-0 numbered 240 built in 1890, a year BEFORE #349, had been held by the Central of Georgia to provide service on two extremely light rail short lines that the railroad owned. One of these was the Talbotton Railroad. In July of 1953, the CofG retired both the 240 and the 349. It is not known when the 349 made her last run on the Talbotton, but it COULD have been after the C&IM engines were retired. But was there a Pennsy D16sb American Standard working on some forgotten branch somewhere? Or did a short line still have a 4-4-0 in regular service after July of 1953? Somewhere, somebody might have the answer.

Les

In 1998 I got a call from a gentleman in southern Lancaster County that he had a barrell in his attic used to store grain and thought perhaps it came from a railroad. We visited the gentlemen's house and much to our surprise it was the wooden water tank from the three-foot gage Lancaster, Oxford & Southern Railroad! It once stood on the owner's property and was taken down in the 1920's after the railroad had been abandoned and placed in the attic of his house. It is now safely stored in our museum at Strasburg.

Another interesting experience was visiting inside George Hart's tool car at Jim Thorpe in the late 1990's. He still had a sealed drum of graphite from the N&W's Roanoke Shops, circa 1950s, a drum of valve oil for RDG shop switcher No. 1251, a set of air pump resevoirs for CPR No. 1286, a 19th c. P&R caboose stove, among other gems.

Another real rail history discovery was walking into the attic of the Stewartstown RR station in the 1990s. All of their original records were still there, undisturbed, including the records of the New Park & Fawn Grove RR, a line that connected with STRT until the 1930's. There was even a steam locomotive air pump compressor sitting inside the freight portion of the depot (which was remarkable since they their last steam loco departed from the property in 1939)! Pieces of coach doors, link and pin couplers, ticket shelves with unissued tickets neatly stacked inside the pigeon holes--everything was left as it was, like an unsealed time capsule the likes of which you only see at the EBT.

Then there was the time I got to see inside the EBT's office vault in the attic of the Orbisonia station...wow, that was something! A story that will wait for another time, for sure!

~K.R. Bell

During the early stages of the restoration work on Erie Lackawanna dining car 741 we had to remove the wall between the kitchen and the aisle that runs alongside it. We found a number of Delaware & Hudson baggage claim checks pinned under the wall and adjacent floor. Now in the late 1960's the D&H leased coaches and E8's from the EL for its passenger service but to my knowledge never a dining car so it remains a mystery as to how or why they got there.

Some or all of these may qualify as rail history discoveries-and I don't claim to have "discovered" any of these-but they're thrilling to me, so here goes:

1. In my Navy days I spent a fair amount of time in Athens, GA (Navy Supply Corps School). On my first weekend down there, I met someone (a good friend now for 25 years) who took me on a wild ride down the back roads, so he could show me 2 Georgia RR passenger cars (steel) out in a farmer's field. They may well be there now;

2. Again in the Navy, now stationed in South Carolina-I borrowed a copy of Tom Fetter's book "Logging Railroads of South Carolina". He provided directions to an abandoned logging skidder from the Holly Hill Lumber Company, which was terrific to find, on an isolated stretch of track, in the woods, on a private hunting preserve (we got permission);

Also from Fetter's book-an abandoned Shay near Rimini, SC. While we never found it (a picture exists on shaylocomotives.com), we found:
a. motor handcar wheelsets in the swamp;
b. I came within 10 feet of stepping on a big snake. Don't know what kind, and don't care to find out.

Fetter's new book-'Logging Railroads Of the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains'-while not having references to abandoned rolling stock, has tips on abandoned roadbeds in the area.

One area I hope to investigate some day is an abandoned narrow gauge slate quarry along the Buckingham Branch RR in Virginia. I read an account of it years ago, and it fascinates me. Another is the abandoned facilities of the Nelson & Albemarle RR, also in Virginia.

Another area I investigated once-not a "discovery", perhaps-was the abandoned facilities of the Virginia Blue Ridge Railway. The enginehouse and other buildings were still standing, but in use by some locals repairing a large truck (circa late 1980s). I struck up a conversation, and things got very friendly. In fact, one of the locals mentioned that "there used to be a lot of moonshine made in these hills". Sensing an offer was imminent, I mentioned that I'd never had any...and out came the miniature Mason jar, complete with white lightning.

One discovery-if I can call it that-occurred when I went to the Amherst Railway Society's winter railroadiana show some years ago. I met a railroadiana dealer who happened to be the last station agent at the depot in my hometown. Some years later I met up with him again, but this time I was armed with a 50-question list and videotaped the interview, ultimately for the local historical society's benefit.

Les,

TVRM's long excursions to Georgia are on old Central of Georgia track. It would be difficult to find a place where 349 would be more at home. To find such a place that would be more likely than TVRM to run the engine would probably be even harder. With Chattanooga being in the middle of several Civil War battlefields 349 at least gives them an engine that resembles a locomotive of that era and helps tie the attractions together. She is generally well kept and is an important display for the museum. For all these reasons I think the departure of 349 is unlikely.

As Kyle and I have said, her size makes rebuilding the bigger engines far more important to the museum. I think 349 could probably pay for her year to year expenses by being used on the local train ride during months with lower ridership when 3 coaches are not really needed. She would also undoubtedly earn some money making video productions. Unfortunately that is not nearly enough to pay for the major repairs required to get 349 back into service. As I stated earlier, as much as some of us would like to see 349 run the only way I can see it happening in my lifetime is if TVRM found a suggardaddy who insisted the money be spent on 349. In the mean time she is cared for, important to the museum, and very well thought of. All things considered that is pretty good for the old girl.

John Bohon

About twenty years ago my son-in-law and a friend of his were exploring the Reading's Bethlehem Branch. On a side road near the north portal of the Perkasie Tunnel His friend caught a glimpse of what he thought was a boxcar in the woods. When they went back to examine it it turned out to be a wooden, European-Service Army boxcar complete with the USA number on the end.

For myself, at least in this country, it was while wandering around Anniston Alabama on a Sunday morning about 1985 and finding the the former L&N depot and realizing that it was sitting on an one side of an oval of track that would lend itself to a model layout. The mainline curved from the northeast to the southwest with two wyes, one northeast of the station and the other southwest with track connecting the tails. The depot actually sat on this connection rather than the main.

GME

One that might have run later was the Ma & Pa 4-4-0, which I think was kept available as the protect engine for the line's one daily round trip passenger train normally operated with their only motor car. I think the passenger service lasted into 1954.

Peter -

According to George Hilton's book on the Ma & Pa, the last 4-4-0 on the railroad (number 6) was laid up in November of 1951 and was scrapped the following year.

Les

If I recall my Ma & Pa history correctly, when the diesels began to arrive, the railroad quickly learned it was less expensive to haul the gas-electrics and the RPO cars with the diesels than to run the gas car's engines. The steam locomotives were even more expensive to run than the gas cars. Photos from as early as 1949 show the diesels on the passenger train, especially on Saturdays when there were no freight operations. The SW-1, no. 70 pulled the last passenger run on Aug. 31, 1954, pulling both gas-electrics and a PRR P-54 coach.

Kyle Shannon[/quote]
Thanks for the info. Perhaps TVRM might consider donating her to some museum where her modest tractive effort wouldn't be a handicap.
Les[/quote]

As far as TVRM's concerned, the 349 isn't going anywhere. The commercial value of the locomotive alone is too significant. Furthermore, as John points out it is one of the handful of locomotives that has any local historical connection. Funding the restoration might not be as difficult as one would think. The key is to perform a comprehensive evaluation and firm up an estimate, then go looking for the funding. A good bet would be to minimize campaigning for individual donations and look for grants to cover the costs. Here in Arizona, our street railway has received restricted state historical preservation grants to restore two of our Warren-Bisbee Bus Lines Coaches. The completed coach is W-B No. 8-a 1938 Yellow Coach. The coach currently undergoing restoration is a 1928 Twin coach.

When I was more active with TVRM, one proposal that was put forward was to evaluate the condition of the 349 and shop her simultaneously with the 4501 or the 5288. That was a reasonable suggestion at the time, but I must submit that the 349 could probably qualify for historic preservation grants from the State of Georgia to cover part of the restoration. Unfortunately, I don't see any way that either the 4501 or 5288 could qualify for state historical grants since they have very little historical association to either state-5288's Canadian heritage is a major problem there.

The old Virginia Blue Ridge Railway enginehouse at Piney River, VA, burned to the ground a couple of years ago and has been replaced by a non-descript metal building of similar dimensions.

A portion of the VBR right of way is now a walking trail. The depot stands at the trail head, and while it may be less obvious, a brick residence immediately behind the depot was the railroad's corporate office building.

Alan Maples