I hear the National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for a certain underworld region, and apparently it's affecting maritime preservation as well as railroad preservation. First the Norfolk Southern announcement, and now this...

Famed Liner Steers Clear of Scrapyard (Wall Street Journal)

Lenfest gives millions to save SS United States (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Of course, as I'm sure we all well know, acquisition is the easy part, and the real challenges lie ahead. Still, it's encouraging news, congratulations to all involved!

Putting this in some perspective, the amount of money being mentioned in the article as a donation for the purchase of the SS UNITED STATES is just about the individual (per boat) purchase price of the Chessie System tugboats CHESSIE and SEABOARD built by Jakobson Shipyard back in the 1980s.

I think this amount of money is also pretty close to the price of one solitary New Jersey Transit PL42AC locomotive back when they were built a few years ago.

PC

Fantastic news, but a daunting task ahead to restore and make the "Big U" into a self-supporting enterprise of some sort. I'm not aware of any similar venture that's had a great deal of success. The Queen Mary in Long Beach seems to just limp along, passing from one operator to another, and much of her space is neglected or under-utilized. I hope the SS United States group succeeds- I still remember how magnificent she looked from the air last time I flew into Philly.

You think rail preservation and restoration is a tough gig try this one on for size!