Besides the FP45, IRM's diesel shop: restored GP-7R Rock Island 4506 to its Ingram blue scheme from a mid-seventies rebuild; continued work restoring Alco FA L&N 314 (photo is of the recently completed electrical panel), the unit is lucky to retain its 244 while used as a Long Island cab car, L&N had a line across southern Illinois; are restoring a Milwaukee Road E9; worked with donors to keep Alco C424 TP&W 800 from being scrapped, it is in the long process of being transported to the museum by rail.

The bankrupt blue geep is a big deal to someone who became a railfan in central Illinois in the mid-seventies (e.g., me) and the Alcos need no explanation of their significance. Despite all of this, they still continually need to politely respond to "When are you going to restore [unit X]?" questions on their facebook page (photos from the IRM diesel shop facebook page).

We at Kentucky Steam had a great year of accomplishments

Here's an 8-minute video on what happened with us:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_g1kmW3ZNQ&t=180s

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They had two complete restorations (AT&SF FP45 and RI 4506) which required major mechanical and body work this year, and the FA and E9 possibly on track for next year? I suspect they pick units to restore that are interesting to the restorers rather than simply the easiest jobs. Some of their unrestored collection was in running condition when donated, as will be the C424. One unit that keeps being asked about, the ex-ATSF "alligator" while impressive looking would require a lot of hard to find parts for its trucks.


Do you know if the stacks were capped on any of these units, or the roof plated over etc. while on LIRR? Not sure if IRM has tried to bar it over yet. When retired and sold to LIRR these units were probably very tired so it is possible the 244 will need work.

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Well, here in Calgary Alberta at Heritage Park Historical Village, we completed a 2-1/2 year restoration of our CPR Colonist Car. In 1964, Heritage Park received an original 1912 Colonist Car #2658 from CPR Ogden Shops for the Parks grand opening, and has been called by that number for 52 years. Built at Montreal’s Angus Shops in , the history of this coach is intrinsically tied to the development of our nation. Colonist cars populated the country, they facilitated the war efforts and they united Canadians during peace time. In addition to immigration, the cars served many other roles from shipping cattle East, harvest excursion cars, mobile hospitals and troop carriers during both the First and Second World Wars. Although 1,000 CPR colonist cars were built between 1884 and the 1930s, only two are known to still exist. During the first part of the restoration process, we discovered it was really CPR #1202 built in 1905, which makes it one of the first cars to come out of the Angus Shops. Using archival photographs, 3D imaging, Master Craftsmen, our Curatorial Staff and the impute from a very well versed CPR Historian, the car was restored to as new condition, complete with authentic canvas roof, varnish exterior and 24K gold hand painted lettering.

Brian Manning
Chief Engineer

That is quite the transformation Brian. Congratulations to you and your team!

In October 2018 the last tiles were placed on the roof of the Keokuk Union Depot, completely restoring the roof to its 1891 appearance. I reported this in a separate thread, but these are different photos (taken by Neal Vogel of Restoric LLC, the firm managing the project).