Richard,

If the Steam Whistle Brewery, which inhabits the John Street Roundhouse, which is also the site of a Toronto railway museum (they keep changing their name) wanted to sponsor the restoration of a steam locomotive, they already have CNR 6213 parked right in front of them on the turntable.

Bear in mind that the John Street Roundhouse (ex CPR) is landlocked and no one in these parts can ever imagine a steam locomotive running anywhere in the GTA. Mind you the CPR brought 2816 to Toronto back in 2003 and 2005 or thereabouts.

2816 certainly ran a one-way trip from Toronto to Milton (hauling GO double deck stock that returned to Toronto behind a diesel) in June 2004 as I was able to travel on it whilst on vacation in Canada.

Trains.com Newswire has more details via Chase Gunnoe:

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/20 ... m-virginia

Locos to the operators of Prairie Dog Central, but not necessarily to operate there........

Five cars--three ex-GTW coaches, B&O diner, and Army diner--to North Carolina Transportation Museum.

Three ex-RF&P heavyweights to Va. Museum of Transportation.

More at the link.

You have to be a subscriber to see the whole thing. I can see very little of it.

Prairie Dog Central is located in Ontario???

ETA

Manitoba... it'll be pretty interesting to see where the Pacifics end up.

Steve Hunter

Bottom line- Somebody in their native country is paying good money to bring them home and operate them, instead of leaving them covered after twenty years on a siding in a neighboring country. Two proven locomotives have yet another chance to display what they were built to do. Let's hope they continue to be kept clean and serviceable.

The operator of the Prairie Dog Central is the Vintage Locomotive Society, but I can't see them having the kind of money it takes to acquire and move two steam locomotives. They put a brand new boiler on their 4-4-0 #3 a few short years ago. It was out of service for many years due to limited funds.

This is unverified, but this afternoon I heard the buyer, who wishes to remain anonymous, is actually from Alberta but the two G-5s will be stored at the Prairie Dog Central. This potentially makes sense since PDC, as Rob mentioned above, isn't any richer than the other museums up here.

We'll know a bit better once the flatcars start being traced... speaking of which, has anybody traced them recently?

Steve Hunter

Car hasn't hit a reader since my last update showing Staunton, VA on 7/14. I will keep checking daily.

Does anyone have numbers and/or links to photos of these cars? There have been few photos of these cars and roster information is even more scarce. It seems like they are heading for good homes, which is great news!

Gary Southgate

(The Saskatchewan Farmer)

Bought CPR 3101 and lots of other Canadian Railway equipment. I guess he is going to store the engines at the Prairie Dog Central (Vintage Locomotive Society) untill he figures out what he will do with all his equipment.

Mystery solved I think.

http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=35346

Could be... this is the fellow I was thinking of, although my addled brain couldn't come up with his name and yes, he's from Saskatchewan rather than Alberta. Oh well, at least it's the province right next door, LOL.

Is there any confirmation that Gary Southgate is the buyer? This could certainly explain the silence, since the man tends to operate outside the preservation community... as is his right, as a private collector.

I haven't seen any progress reports on his other equipment since he made so much news in 2013.

Steve Hunter

None of this is really any of our business as long as everything gets appropriately cared for and restored, but some of us are definitely curious about how the deal was brokered.

The Showalters had had their equipment up on the market for many, many years now--on the order of two decades. I myself made serious approaches to them on behalf of others, via a mutual associate and business friend. The B&O diner. The GTW coaches. A steamer, or both steamers. The diesel. All got the same answer: All, or nothing. I gave up even passing on expressions of interest.

It's possible that Jack's passing changed the circumstances somewhat, but I had long heard that Jack wasn't the one insisting on selling everything as one lot.

So, as happy as I am to see this outcome, the curiosity is high: Did this one buyer broker a massive deal involving a purchase and then tax write-offs by donating the cars to good homes? Did a prime negotiator manage to convince them to break up the set? And I'm sure members of the NCTM and VMT are asking if money was involved in acquiring the equipment, and whose. If an "angel" (or several) was involved, we'd like to thank him/her/them. If there was a change of heart, we should thank Sally Showalter.

This is keenly reminiscent of a couple massive trolley cars/parts divisions engineered by Bill Wall. We "heavy rail" guys desperately need one of him in this field. I'm wondering if he or she has been found.......

I'm guessing the three (3) ex. GTW cars are the former VIA Passenger Cars Jack acquired his last winter in Cumberland. They were never put into service on the WMSR.

Does anyone know what happen to the ex. Hospital cars and the wealth of spare parts that Jack owned. One car in particular had a row the length of the car of nothing but spare air compressors. We built platforms over them so other parts could be stored for the trip out of Cumberland. It took the better part of 2 months to clear out the shop and parts-room in Ridgeley.

The Hospital car being used as an idler car in the attached photo has loaded with the Air Compressors on the left side floor. The car had a large door on the left side where a "trolley" beam was hung and a chain fall was used to load the compressors.