Our initial inspections of the 757 did not reveal any obvious issues. We will be back for a more thorough inspection of the locomotive soon. I don't think there is anyone who knows Berkshires better than Zach Hall does, and both he and Dan Pluta are the lead people in getting the locomotive ready to roll.

We are purposely staying under the radar ( no website,no social media etc. ) until we've secured the corporate support needed so as to avoid having to waste time dealing with the plentiful trolls like Ms. Superheater.


http://www.yellowribbonexpress.com/


2. Yes, we recently scrapped several old coaches whose car bodies were badly rusted out after stripping them of all salvageable parts.

That's not what I'm talking about and you know it.

3. I count Reading & Northern owner Andy Muller as a good friend and always feel most welcome when I visit that property so I have no clue where you came up with that comment. Perhaps it was your bad day of the month???

I'm sure he has a lot of friends he doesn't let run on his railroad.

As for your juvenile playground antics, the late Bob Patterson tried that sort of line with me once because he was used to pushing people around with his 280 pounds. I told him any time he wanted to have that peeing contest, we could go at it, but he should think long and hard about his idea that pounds of flab beats youth and conditioning. He backed down, but he was capable of lucid thought.

This thing is what ten, twelve years old now?

In the software industry, they call this "vaporware".

"They do not want to use the C-415 as a shop switcher since it is not an all weather locomotive, requiring draining in the winter. It was operational when it arrived, the stack has been capped and no parts have been removed. So I would surmise that with a fresh set of batteries and a couple days of prep work it might just start up.
"

What about the Baldwin S12?

Mr. Lynch and Mr. Rowlands - thanks for the additional information. Hope the move goes well. Looking forward to seeing updates.

.

Here's the bottom line with regard to the RRMPA using the S-12 or the C-415 or the NW-2. Our regional director of the PHMC in Harrisburg decreed that we would NOT use any other locomotive other than our Plymouth. His reasoning is that the necessary upkeep on the larger units was not worth it. Instead, when we need something moved that the Plymouth cannot safely handle, we are to have the Strasburg RR bring their SW-8 (they don't own an SW-1200) over to do the job. End of story.

"we are to have the Strasburg RR bring their SW-8 (they don't own an SW-1200) over to go the job. End of story."

Correction noted.

Glad to hear your RD is making good decisions with regard to operating motive power.

Is there anyone anyone who is as perfect as "superheater"? Maybe there is something Ross did in seventh grade we could bring up. Maybe instead of spewing the venom at the people who care and have done something right or wrong. Maybe you should go spew at the politicians that are causing and allowing these things to happy. People need to grow up and
try and work together. DONE!

I like the plan to bring 757 back home on its own wheels and that folks that know exactly how to do this safely and problem free are working on it. I had thought at first that 757 would have to go on a heavy duty freight car like 2100 did but then remembered the little problem of 11,000 volts.
When CP 2816 was moved from Steamtown west for return to service they had a special driver balancer made up so the engine could be towed at 40 mph smoothly. Why aren't these used on moves like this or others?

Alan

In his posts, Superheater has demonstrated a great understanding of politics and an expertise in accounting, auditing, and all things financial. He also has expressed a dedication to holding public officials and elected officials accountable, especially at the nexus of rail preservation and the wasting of public funds. I am eager for the day when the organization he has helped found, The Iron Horse Society at Steamtown, gets its DO 21 approval from regional and becomes the official "Friends of" group for Steamtown National Historic Site. I am confident that he will hold the Federal Government operation in Scranton to the same rigorous accounting standards he has expressed a preference for here and that he will root out all waste, fraud, and inefficiency for the good of all of us who pay taxes to the government in Washington as well as the one in Harrisburg. With the congenial approach he has demonstrated here and his professed finesse in dealing with a gentleman like the deceased Bob Patterson, great things are in the future for STEA. I'm sure that, if Bob were still alive, he'd agree 100% with Superheater's characterization of his behavior.

"Maybe there is something Ross did in seventh grade we could bring up."

Sorry, but people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones and I'm not bringing up irrelevant youthful indiscretions here; but things that directly go to his credibility as a commenter on the place.

I am quite willing to entertain skepticism about Steamtown, but not cynicism

Ross has spent a good many years heaping scorn and abuse on Steamtown with his supersecret plans to bring in a private operator that defy financial reality-and he seems not to understand that a National Park facility's programs are directed to the general public, it's not meant to be a railfan paradise. What is interesting to me in my now two plus decades there is that I've never seen Ross show up for anything other than to scope out a parking place for 614.

Sustainability is sort of a corporate buzzword du jour now, and the meaning of that word as it applies to 150 South Washington Avenue is now being debated internally, because of certain challenges presented by a workforce that increasingly presents the risk of "mass superannuation" and stagnant funding. It took me fifteen years to understand the staffing challenges presented by being unique in a system that generally preserves national, military or natural places that don't have operating machinery.

At times, dealing with the bureaucracy drives me bats and I'm a master bureaucrat-I write policy documents in addition to my ordinary financial responsibilities. There's a project that I've been working on for three years that never seems to run out of obstacles. At times, it's like making a tower out of ball bearings.

The Iron Horse Society managed to be incorporated on Aug 7, 2015, do the necessary preliminaries and get out IRS letter in three months. We unfortunately picked a time when the NPS was revising DO-21 and so we waited for the revised document until we could wait no more-so we are pursuing an old format agreement.

Apart from that, there are good things happening. A few I'm at liberty to discuss are the ACL 1901 and NYOW 105. No, they aren't steam, but they will allow us to interpret the end of steam and provide the dynamics that the digital-from-birth visitors require for engagement.


Both things happened because their project "champions" were indefatigable-without quit buttons. One of our younger teen volunteers won a prize for the best teenage volunteer in the country. Unfortunately, he's relocated-but he did more at 15 than Ross ever did.

Ross' complaint as best I can see is that nothing runs-well guess what-nothing he's touched in running either. He complains about a $5.8 million dollar annual operating budget and then tells us he's going to raise $100 million for a one-off deal, something he's been saying for over a decade now.

Ok, lets either get back on thread or face the possibility of the thread being locked.
We're are supposed to be enjoying this.
Alan

In his posts, Superheater has demonstrated a great understanding of politics and an expertise in accounting, auditing, and all things financial. He also has expressed a dedication to holding public officials and elected officials accountable, especially at the nexus of rail preservation and the wasting of public funds.

Well thank you.


I am eager for the day when the organization he has helped found, The Iron Horse Society at Steamtown, gets its DO 21 approval from regional and becomes the official "Friends of" group for Steamtown National Historic Site.

Stay tuned. It's not far away. We just need to pick a date and time for maximum exposure.


I am confident that he will hold the Federal Government operation in Scranton to the same rigorous accounting standards he has expressed a preference for here

Well first of all, they aren't subject to the same standards-the federal government's standards are issued by FASAB (Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board) where as state and local governments are subject to GASB, (Government Accounting Standards Board) so that wouldn't be professional.

Secondly I'm a volunteer who serves at the pleasure of the Superintendent and her managers; I'm not the GAO or the DOI IG. I have offered my comments to the Superintendent on both a solicited and non-solicited basis and expect to continue to do so-mostly because I don't have a quit button either. I will not however, be disclosing the existence, nature or extent of my comments here.

As far as the present situation (757) goes, so long as federal disposition rules are followed, I would not have a professional problem with 759 going to that same group-because the Park Service is National and Ohio is another state.

and that he will root out all waste, fraud, and inefficiency for the good of all of us who pay taxes to the government in Washington as well as the one in Harrisburg.

There's only 168 hours in a week, and that's inadequate for Harrisburg, let alone a two front war. You attribute far greater powers to me than I possess.

With the congenial approach he has demonstrated here and his professed finesse in dealing with a gentleman like the deceased Bob Patterson,


Your sarcasm is duly noted-but don't worry about Bob. He gave as good as he got, and was just as much a bull in a china shop as me, but didn't whine about it either. He mellowed out in his last few years, and we generally got along. It's not "congenial" to just follow the heard and clap like a damn seal. You want congeniality, you need to get a charm school graduate, not an MBA.


great things are in the future for STEA. I'm sure that, if Bob were still alive, he'd agree 100% with Superheater's characterization of his behavior.

Probably not, there were damn few things we agreed upon, until we both mellowed out a bit. Two hard-headed bulls in the same pen are going to snort and lock horns. Nonetheless, he was a part of Steamtown, to quote R M Nixon, an SOB, but our SOB and unlike Ross contributed to the place.

A small correction here. He was on site on or about June 12, 2010 walking around with a nationally-known steam mechanic. Evidently, according to Kip, he was looking at 759 to possibly restore to operating condition for his new venture in West Virginia, GBX. So he has had other reasons to be in Scranton.

Also, recall that Ross was involved with the Steamtown Foundation at the time it was struggling. Maybe there is some bitterness there because he could not or did not make it work back then. Maybe it is time to put all the baggage aside, reach out, and get him on the team. Better to have everyone in preservation pulling the same way or at least not pulling against you. If everyone makes it about the preservation first and not personalities, there is a much greater chance of success.

My spouse and I know many CPAs, MBAs, lawyers, and a few docs. Some are even under our very roof. You can be good at those professions and be congenial, as a matter of fact, most professionals are better because of it. It just takes a bit of extra effort and skill. Your new venture with the "Friends of" group may depend on your ability to finesse things without rubbing folks the wrong way. Paula Franzese, legal scholar, has said to never mistake an act of kindness as an act of weakness. It often takes a mentally stronger person to hold back than it does to jump on someone's neck right away. She is a very smart person.

My concern about your original passage about Bob, a man who was always generous with his time and patient with my stupid questions, is that, to a person unfamiliar with him, it could read as you stating he was a 280 pound bully and you had to put him in his place. That would be a very unfair characterization of Bob. Please show more care in speaking of people when they have been dead for three and a half years and can not speak for themselves.

The "Friend of" thing has been long needed in Scranton. Kip and I discussed this at length and we had agreed to a plan but circumstances intervened and we never reached our destination with it. I hope Sup. Conway is dedicated to this and not just checking off a box on her "to do" list.

A note regarding your FB page: The grades are expressed as a percent and not in degrees because, as the angle goes to zero, the length of the adjacent side of a triangle approaches the length of the hypotenuse. As a result, the value of the sin of the angle (opposite over hypotenuse) approaches the value of the tangent of the angle (opposite over adjacent), which, as you pointed out, is equivalent to the grade expressed in percent. That is why, for small angles, the gravitational force parallel to the slope, expressed as mg times the sin of the angle, approximately equals mg times the percent grade.

"My concern about your original passage about Bob, a man who was always generous with his time and patient with my stupid questions, is that, to a person unfamiliar with him, it could read as you stating he was a 280 pound bully and you had to put him in his place. "

Bob isn't here to defend himself, but just like the rest of us, he came with "quirks". We all favor people we like, and disfavor those we do not. I won't damn him and I won't canonize him.

All I am going to say that on particular day he made a gratuitous and unnecessary insult and backed it up with a threatening posture, one that I had seen before, and didn't want to see again, so I put my cards down and called his hand.

That particular interchange was apparently sufficiently persuasive enough to preclude similar incidents after the fact. Had I been more forceful, I'd have endeavored to persuade him that one of our fellows was also named Bob, and not "The Putz".


"It often takes a mentally stronger person to hold back than it does to jump on someone's neck right away."

This is not anything of the sort. Ross has made a career out of criticizing Steamtown, but hasn't lifted a finger to help.


Had Ross not dropped his juvenile insult that I believe people with military experience describe as something other than an egg that emerges from domestic fowl, I wouldn't have relayed the story. It's not the first time he's done it, and I doubt it will be the last. Having nowhere to take his show, he sits, in the words of George Bailey "a warped frustrated old man". Consumptive use is not preservation. I'm not a roadie and I won't supplicate.

You may not remember that he threatened people involved with the creation of this site with frivolous litigation, not me. Challenged to bring forth his supersecret plan to "fix" Steamtown (that I assure you, if it wasn't vaporware, I would take apart like a cheap Happy Meal toy-because it is what I do), he insisted that I secure the presence of the Mayor of Scranton before engaging in a public debate.

As for the Superintendent, she has been most helpful in forming this group, and secured the assistance of LaSalle University's Non-profit (how I hate that misnomer) Group and met with us several times, including weekends. Our discussions have been candid, both on an individual and group basis. There is absolutely no reason to believe that she's "checking a box", not even a reason to suggest it is possible. Now what was that your were saying about jumping on somebody's back, right away?


"I came here to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and I'm all out of bubble gum"

-Rowdy Roddy Piper