Trains Magazine's website reports that U.S. Army 2-8-0 No. 612 has moved from the Cass Scenic RR to a new home at the Southeastern Railway Museum in Duluth, Georgia. Steam Services of America, which bought the engine from the state last February, completed the move earlier this month. The company "plans to restore the engine to operation at its new home for service on a tourist railroad," according to Trains.

To operation?!

All I can say is, "wow!"

Well, took them long enough.

What took whom long enough?

The 612 has been up for sale for the better part of a year. I guess I should be grateful someone found a home for her.

In case you hadn't noticed, historic rail equipment has kind of a limited market and doesn't turn over particularly quickly. Stuff is frequently on the market for a good while before it sells. One year is a fairly quick sale. It took us over 2 1/2 years to sell a rather nice round-end observation.

Could be a very interesting job - hope whoever is doing it will keep us appraised on progress, standards and practices.

Agree with Gary - finding a qualified buyer for this old hulk with a real plan and resources to carry it out might well have been a decade long proposition.

dave

Not only that, but it takes a LOT longer to get everything in order than one may think, even if you have a lot of money to throw about.

I'm currently working "behind the scenes" to rescue one of those "save these things NOW or they get scrapped next week!" propositions that we just spent a while complaining about. The offer was made towards the end of last year or the beginning of this year.

I was able to get a serious and capable party to say "we're interested" within about 72 hours of the initial news. The potential donors have been very nice and understanding about the whole delay, but here it is mid-April and the target STILL hasn't been moved to safety. (No, I'm not saying which one yet, lest we jinx it.)

Among the delays (as I'm hearing things):
*A lot of it is the truckers' schedules. I think they've missed three windows so far.
*They were all ready at one point, and then one of the states screwed up the paperwork for the truck permits.
*After all the initial contact, certification, and approval, the legal department demands a printed letter on the non-profit's letterhead making a formal request.
*Then someone else steps in and demands an appraisal for tax purposes--which, of course, has to be done by a third party, not the receiving non-profit.

Again, as we say, "You can have fast, good, or cheap; pick two at most." Most of us don't have the money for "fast and good."

The part of this story that fascinates me is all the experts who were saying that there was "no way" to get that steamer out of there because of light bridges and tight curves.

There was also a C&O diner up there that was supposedly "land-locked"...what happened to it?

T7

There were two "diners" there at one time. One was a table car that I think was saved and moved. The other was a "Tavern" series heavyweight that was scrapped. One of our members salvaged a number of parts off it for the Pullman he is restoring.

The 612 was moved from Cass to Duluth, GA and was unloaded at the Southeastern Railway Museum (SRM) on April 7, 2011. The engine was moved on three trucks. The boiler and cab (33,000 pounds) was on one truck, the frame and wheels (81,000 pounds) on the second truck and the tender (42,000 pounds) was moved on the third truck. The engine was moved in three pieces to reduce trucking and permit costs and because Cass was in a remote location there were issues getting it to the closest interstate.

The engine was purchased by Steam Services of America (SSOA) from the State of West Virginia in February 2010. SSOA was one of four bidders that bid in a sealed auction and the other three were scrap salvage companies. Over the past year, SSOA has been prepping the engine for movement by truck and working out the logistical details. SSOA picked the SRM because they were willing to allow it to be stored at their facility and they were willing to provide shop space so it could be eventually rebuilt. The engine is still owned by SSOA and it is for sale with a rebuild to operate or a cosmetic rebuild. In the mean time, SSOA will continue working on the engine as time and money permits to make it operational.

Robert Franzen
http://www.steamservicesofamerica.com

Thank you Robert. I take it there is no time frame or specific operation in mind, just sort of a long term spec project for your company? This is an interesting new business model and might help a lot of people maintain momentumwhile looking for an ultimate purpose.

dave