After giving the "FA" / "PA" discussion some further thought, one of the members mentioned the CRP ( central railroad of Pennsylvania ) Jersey Central "B" unit... that stayed back in New Jersey while the "A" units moved over to the Jim Thorpe PA area. The mention of the Anthracite Roads Historical Society was mentioned, and it made me wonder what exactly this group is doing at the moment ? It would appear to someone not overly familiar with the group, that 15-20 years ago, an idea existed to gather some unique pieces of fallen flag roads history, and attempt to preserve them. However, it would be nice to get a current mission statement from this preservation group, as at least from the outside looking in, it does not seem like a tremendous amount of restoration or preservation has been completed under their banner,... Just curious, as when does it make more sense to part with an item ( such as the FA ) or any other piece of equipment for the sake of seeing some other group, or proven entity, get an opportunity, in lieu of the opportunity being lost be vandals, the weather, and time exposure. i attempted to view their website for information, however I could not get their website to properly open .

This is not mention to diminish their efforts over the years, however for the sake of seeing a specific or multiple items preserved, is it not perhaps best, to choose a direction to go ( either lets deal with our collection and attempt to stabilize each item, or find a better more suitable home, that has the desire, financial support ) ....

Would be nice to get a current report at to what the Anthracite Roads Historical Society is up to.... It is my take, based upon the condition of the items I have witnessed, that the "preservation" angle of the group, might be lost... as if significant items in the collection, have been neglected such as the "FA" and this "B" unit, then the passenger cars etc etc, are truly fairing far worse.

Just an opinion... would like to hear more.....

I attach a few photographs of the "B" unit.. complete now with its fair share of rust, spray paint from the local youths, and the like...

Dean Levin

Dean, I can speak to this matter, being the President of the ARHS.

Most of the work lately has been confined to 3-4 people who live 50-75 miles from each of our units. Also, most of the money lately has gone into non-visible items, such as batteries for the F3-A 56 ($4k) and wheels for the B-unit ($10k), which were purchased from the M&E.

My travel schedule for work vastly increased last year, which just about cut out any time I had for restoration work. Not having a permanent work site with a shop has also hampered our efforts, which is part of the reason why we had to move out of Jim Thorpe. We have been unsuccessful to date in our seach for a permanent site, which has lasted 15+ years so far.

I am planning to be in Winslow on June 27th to continue my slow efforts on our parlor/tool car, which has badly cracked paint and lots of rust.

We'd love to do more, but haven't had the people available to get 'new' projects off the ground. Keeping 56 in good shape has been the biggest challenge- we repainted the nose in '07 and buffed out the blue paint (which was a *lot* of work) in preparation for going to Steamtown. That fell through, which didn't do a lot for our morale. We are doing what we can at the moment.

Also, the head covers and engine handhole covers were stolen from inside the FA, along with some HV cabling. This also served as a damper on getting that project moving along.

If anyone is interested in working on the FA or helping to clean-up the B-unit, please let me know and we'll start scheduling some work sessions in Winslow.

Walter

Walter

thank you so much for sharing whats new with the anthraciite group... you deserve alot of credit for keeping the initial vision alive... as difficult as that may seem at times... the hard work of your group ( and many groups ) is sometimes difficult to see when hidden inside an object ...( such as the locomotive batteries and wheelsets ) ... however you certainly have two very special objects there to take care of ( among many others ) ... how serious was the wire theft in the unit .. and did that happen in Jim Thorpe ?

just curious.. how many active members do you have that assist you ??.. and if you don't mind me asking, any future possible plans for getting these special objects to a common home, where you might get some more assistance... ( seems like the Reading group sure has alot of vintage diesel's, an occasional place to run a few... and continue to make progress with a number of projects... ) although I am just speculating.... seems groups with common themes could do well working side by side ??

Keep the faith... and I certainly do appreciate you sharing ( because isn't that what it is supposed to be about ) both the good and the bad... of what has happened....

Would love to help in Winslow.. .however I escaped the high property taxes and grief in New Jersey...


D.A. Levin

Can't speak much for the inner workings of the ARHS, but they've taken some positive steps, in my opinion, by signing off their two RS-3 units to the DL here in Scranton for the time being. I won't go into the specifics of the deal, as it's not my place, but the long term future of these two units is looking very bright.

The Reading RS-3 is in decent cosmetic shape, having been displayed by the DL at Steamtown for some time now. The CNJ RS-3 is somewhat rough inside and out. An unfortunate victim of work being started and then not finished from what I'm told. See the posts about this engine coming up to the DL from the forum a few months ago.

Both will run again in revenue service, in their original paint schemes and that's pretty darn cool.

For those counting, that'll be 5 RS-3's running in Scranton, including our 3 D&H units currently in service.

Dave

The vandalism to the FA happened in S. Jersey, about 2 miles or so south of Winslow. Other Alcos stored in the same location were also vandalized. Info on these has been posted here previously. The location was both isolated and easily accessible, which made the vandalism that much easier to accomplish.

I think our deal with the D-L is the best thing we can do for those RS-3s at this time. Don has the know-how, shop, people and parts sources to do the work that we've been unable to accomplish on our own.

We are hoping to get the F-3's running again on the M&E- sitting around is the worst possible thing for old electrical systems. We are still dealing with administrative items before the units can be moved from JT- they have been pronounced road-ready by NS.

We have also talked with Reading Tech but nothing has come about to date. P-Burg was a big hope for us, but since that has fallen through and the URHS has their own large collection to deal with, our options there are limited.

We are still trying for a site, though, even though progress is slow. There are some possible sites around, but each has their own peculiar challenges to overcome.

Many Groups and Museums are in the same boat as us-lots of equipment and not enough time and $$ to finish everything......Maybe our FA would be a good candidate for a 'visible' locomotive- we wouldn't have to spend mega-bux to try and reproduce the aluminum head covers!!!