As 2012 winds down, it is again time to assess the good and the bad in our unique part of the world in railway preservation. The topics discussed in the various threads on RYPN alert us that even when something is "saved" that is just one part of preserving. Finding a meaningful purpose for artifacts and actually achieving that purpose are what allows a preserved item to stay around for awhile longer.
Here are some of the moments in preservation I have noticed for 2012. Please add to the list so we can recognize the work performed...
- Perhaps the most discussed topic of the year in the East is the Heritage Units of the Norfolk Southern Railway for their 30th anniversary. It is getting so any corporation name lasting more than 10 years is cause for celebration. But with this huge railroad honoring 20 of its predecessor roads, and then capping it off with a veteran appreciation unit, it brought back a lot of "color" to the everyday workings of a railroad.
- Another NS preservation point was their leasing of steam engines to bring a moment of history to their vast system. Nickel Plate Road 765 and Southern 630 rolled back the clock to towns that haven't seen steam power their trains in over a generation.
- Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad, known for its fleet of ALCOs on regular freight trains, preserved a trackside MOW shanty, relocating it to the edge of the Steamtown yard in Scranton and restoring doors, tracks and finally historically accurate paint to the structure by fall of this year.
- The Erie Lackawanna Dining Car Preservation Society has finally gathered all their cars into one yard, newly dubbed "Maple Grove" in Scranton. The plan is to inaugurate some dining car service in 2013.
- Also in Scranton, Steamtown National Historic Site debuted a brand new interactive exhibit in their museum complex focusing on archeology. It features artifacts reclaimed through the years along with a "dig site" for youngsters to discover the thrill of digging for their own artifacts.
- The Anthracite Railway Historical Society / Tri-State partnership of the F3s continued with several repairs in the off season including full re-wiring of one unit. The pair operated out of Scranton in Lackawanna striping and ran a number of flawless trips with Steamtown. By year's end, their Boston & Main B unit was taken into the roundhouse for its eventual repair.
- Out in California, the San Bernadino Railway Historical Society and BNSF coordinated in returning Santa Fe 3751 to the high iron in order to help celebrate the centennial of Arizona. The train left Los Angeles Union Station heading to Williams AZ with a trip on the Grand Canyon Railway. Integrating a steam trip on busy mainlines is quite a rare sight in the 21st Century.
- Central of New Jersey 113 and the Reading & Northern Railroad coordinated in allowing this 0-6-0 to stretch her legs on one of their branch lines. Even lightly used track doesn't see steam too often.
- The Reading & Northern also worked with the Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley Railway Historical Society on a "Hopper Jet" excursion in early May. Using former LV "pups" on Reading Co. coal lines, this also became one of the few passenger excursions to use those tracks since R&N acquired the lines from Conrail 20 years earlier. The trip ran from Port Clinton to North Reading before heading deep into anthracite country of Mahanoy City.
- Black River & Western's no. 60 returned to steam up and down their lines by the fall. These were the first runs for this 2-8-0 since the 20th Century.

Those are the ones I could think of so far. With a big world, and plenty of preservation, please add any acievements you know about. Have a Happy New Year, folks!

The sweeper trade with Rockhill Trolley Museum that brought Capital Transit 09 home to National Capital Trolley Museum deserves mention here.

Wesley

Good: The Trolley Museum of New York had a mile of track rebuilt under a federal grant.


Bad: Superstorm Sandy put the entire TMNY track underwater and 2' of water in the car barn. Most of the NYC transit equipment had water in the traction and compressor motors. The traction motors of Whitcomb loco #9 also got wet. The damage and its cost is still being assessed. Fortunately the operating trolley, Johnstown 358, was not affected. A photo survey of the flood aftermath is here:
http://TMNY.org/Sandy/

The Pacific Southwest Railway Museum completed the acqisition and trucking of two locomotive native to San Diego:

SP 5873 (3709) was part of SP’s last order of GP9’s, and was the second GP9 produced for the SP with a low nose. It was delivered in August 1959 with serial number 25632 and frame number 5608-2. This locomotive was built as a Phase III unit with 48” fans, and painted in the “Bloody Nose” paint scheme. These were among the last GP9s built by EMD for a US customer, and the only order of low nose GP9s built for a major railroad.

Former SP/SD & AE Ry. diesel locomotive No. 5119, a GE 70 tonner.

Also, PSRM purchased 20 acres of prime Southern California real estate for future expansion.

Chesapeake and Western Baldwin?

As part of the crew that worked on restoring Chesapeake Western Baldwin DS-4-4-660 #662, I'd like to say that all of us in the Roanoke NRHS Mechanical Department are pretty proud of how it turned out. It was amazing to see how fast it came together after 2.5 years of cleaning, stripping, and metal repair. For those of you who haven't seen these, here is an image taken right before the 662 was delivered to the Virginia Museum of Transportation this July:

(More images can be seen on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/roanokenrhs No account needed)

We're now in the middle of major maintenance on our N&W Alco T6 #41, including all the brake valves and replacing both radiators (they were leaking badly). We'll have more to share on that project once we get everything buttoned back up and tested.

Thanks again for all the positive feedback on the work we've been doing in the last few years. If anyone has questions about the 662 (or other things we're working on), feel free to ask.

The Bluegrass Railroad Museum, with the help of a Federal Grant, restored to service 1.5 miles of track, regaining access to our terminus at the edge of the Young's High Bridge. The grant also has allowed us to acquire the former Atlantic Coast Line 203, a Budd air conditioned coach.

Furthermore, we've completed a track directly to the station, resulting in direct boarding, and then built a ~400ft display track dead-ending to our station, allowing us to utilize our equipment as exhibit space.

We haven't had any real set backs, just frustration in dealing with the contractors.

James

Expanding a bit on Lewis' (CBQ483) comments, I would have to say that all in all, we had one helluva good year in Roanoke. There were a lot of small and medium sized accomplishments, as well as a few biggies.
Besides 662, which won a restoration award from the Roanoke Valley Preservation Foundation, "Trains Magazine" Preservation grant winner N&W 1776 debuted the same weekend. In May, operating steam returned to Roanoke with New Hope Valley #17's visit to the Roanoke Railfest at VMT. Our GP30, N&W 522, went on the road as an ambassador to Spencer's "Rail Days" and the NS Heritage Unit party on July 4th. SR 630 visited for NS employee & public trips in June & July.
At 9th St, there are 4 restoration projects underway and making good progress. One passenger car, two cabooses, and a freight car which is an Eagle Scout project. Also, 41's major maintenance is nearing completion. Similar work has been started on 522, still at VMT.
The Virginian Station project saw the release of a large chunk of previously awarded grant monies, and phase one of the restoration (structural stabilization and a new roof) are now complete. The bidding process for phase two is now underway.
At VMT, 6 locomotives and one caboose have been repainted this year, and the Chapter Mechanical Dept. is involved in a lot of "detailing" work on the steam locomotives. We have operated train rides on 6 days this year at VMT. Total ridership has been 6384 passengers.
For the second year in a row, VMT has won significant funding from several local foundations which had previously only contributed to "the arts". VMT and the Link Museum are the largest tourist draws in the Roanoke Valley. Their demographics are the strongest on on overnight visitors, and their visitorship (each individually) is more than double that of the 65 million dollar art museum that was built a few years ago. VMT's attendance is over 47,000 so far this year, up from a low of 13,700 in 2005.
Not a bad year at all. We're looking forward to 2013

The Shoreline Trolley Museum in Branford, CT faced flooding, yet again. Though, it looks like they are on track to be building new car barns to prevent this from happening again.

The East Broad Top was relatively silent this year.

The volunteers in Scranton working on DL&W 565 have made amazing progress.

The Greenbrier Presidential Express exists only in O-Gauge form, still. Though, we got to see 614 return to her native territory, and wear yet another interesting paint scheme.

Speaking of Mr. Rowland, he gave a very good review of Iowa Pacific's Pullman service on Amtrak's "City of New Orleans." Iowa Pacific seems to be doing interesting things.

The Iowa Traction Railroad changed hands, though electric operation appears to be safe for now.

Volunteers at the Museum of Transportation completed a cosmetic restoration on the "Black Diamond" inspection locomotive. It looks very sharp!

The Kentucky Railway Museum appears to face a number of challenges, but things for now, have appeared to stabilize a bit.

The Historic Railpark in Bowling Green, KY is moving right along with an impressive restoration/reconstruction of the Glasgow Railroad jim-crow combine.

IRM announced that it will be building Barn 14, pending ongoing fundraising.

The volunteers at the Railroad Museum of New England largely completed the removal of their equipment from their old site, and had enough time to dabble in synthetic coach roofs and nice CN 1950s paint jobs.

People foamed on message boards about restoring a Big Boy.

The Lehigh Valley SW1 is running at BR&W.

That Pennsy 0-6-0 may or may not be at the bottom of the quarry.

I got to meet RYPN'er and Pennsylvania Trolley Museum stalwart Art Schwartz.

On a personal note, after being just rules qualified for a number of years, I qualified to run straight air streetcars at IRM this year. I realize that I look like Ralph Kramden in my dark blue Ike Jacket, and 8 point hat with the CTA badge on it.

I also took the afternoon off work, and watched UP 844 glide through Kirkwood, MO. A friend from out of town came in to see it. Had he not asked, I probably wouldn't have. I'm glad I did, what a mesmerizing sight!

As always, some good, some bad, some ugly, but overall, 2012 was a good year.

David M. Wilkins
Pow! Right in the Kisser, MO

The Western Railway Museum completed a 1-mile line extension of their trolley wire, from Shiloh Road to Birds Landing Road.

The Southern Michigan Railroad has acquired 90 acres of land for a future museum site, adjacent to the 13.5 mile railroad it already owns. The scenic site includes nearly a mile of frontage along the railroad, an office, workshop, 22,000 square foot shop building, and industrial sized water, gas and electrical connections.

Also can't forget IRM's two days worth of Nebraska Zephyr excursions in September. It's not too often you see 70+ year old equipment operating at the maximum passenger speed of 79 mph.

While not as big as many of our brethren, the Alexander Chapter-NRHS and the SE Narrow Gauge & Shortline Museum had one hellluva year as well:

a) Located and rescued two narrow gauge passenger cars that were rotting in the woods near Webster Springs, WVA, and with the aid of an NRHS grant, moved them to our car shop near Hickory, NC.

b) Discovered and were donated an 1890 Harrisburg Car tank car.

c) Laid 300 feet of dual gauge track and by the end of the year should have it completely covered with a carbarn influenced heavily by this board.

d) Obtained Alexander Railroad Alco S3 #7 and subsequently transferred it to the Craggy Mountain Line for operation next years.

e) Returned ET&WNC #2 (motorcar) to operation along the Craggy Mountain Line.

Matt Bumgarner
http://www.newtondepot.com

Orange Empire's UP E8A, restored with both original prime movers made cover girl on the ARM/TRAIN quarterly.

Rio Grande Southern No. 20 continues to be restored, at a slow and methodical rate, at the Strasburg Railroad in PA. When it's done, it should be a real show-stopper!!

No one has said anything about 261 back together and moved under her own power. Westside shay 9 back under steam working hard at Georgetown Loop.
And though non operational, D&RGW 318 is finally back together after YEARS of being apart.

Dan