As per Scranton Yard's request, Steamtown's NKP 514 GP9 major overhaul project is progressing right along. The diesel engine was started up and test run on December 11th and some minor bugs were found with the electrical system and those were taken care of quickly. The locomotive was due for its 2 year air brake inspection and all that is left on that is testing. The 514's rear truck ended up under the rear of the F3 664 due to a bearing issue with the 664 truck awhile back. That issue has been taken care of so the trucks will be swapped back to where they originated. This swap is made easy by using the two track Steamtown drop table. The Mars light has been restored to operation. I suspect by the end of the month 514 will be out with a short test train to verify transition and then she will be back in service.


Thank you Doug for your quick action! I for one am glad you felt "refreshed" about defending RYPN.

Mike Tillger

Great progress. Thank you for the 514 update. Hope you can get to the spring operating season without another government shut down. The 514/664 truck swap would be cool to see - can you inquire if it would be possible for Tim O to stream it live on the FB page? Or perhaps post a highlight video?

I see that Matt Carroll is going back to DC on 2-16. Will Dawn be running STEA until the permanent replacement comes in the spring?

Volunteering is one of my favorite things and I've help accomplish a lot while making some amazing friends along the way. Having been involved in volunteer organizations for nearly 40 years I've seen it all.

Keeping a robust group of talented volunteers is a skill, perhaps just as important as marketing, engineering, finance, or anything else. However, sometimes a particular person is just not a good fit or once in a while someone just is up to no good, and sometimes these people need to be asked to leave. On the flip side I've seen volunteers mistreated and abused to the point where they leave for greener pastures.

A wise platoon Sgt. of mine in the Army told me that there's always that 5%. The five percenters are the cause of the other 95% having to endure new rules, etc, that the five percent cause. That's been true all of my life. That's why we have so many laws and regs. Instead of squashing the first five percenter like a cockroach and making an example this is what we are left with.

It's also important to note, while background checks on volunteers may not be a bad idea (what nightmare would it be to have a sex offender alone in a railcar with a child?), there is no place where 'raging asshole internet troll' is going to come up on any background check.....

When I got my cards to coach USA Hockey youth hockey and Little League Baseball, I had to submit to a background check. A screening process similar to that of these organizations would probably be a good idea for any preservation organization, especially if the volunteer will have any possibility of interacting with anybody from the general public while performing their duties as a volunteer or otherwise appearing as an agent of the organization.

As for behaviors that may not show up in a typical background check, informal calls to other area preservation groups and museums can be helpful to find out if a particular person has been removed from the organization or the property and under what circumstances this occurred.

When I was recruiting volunteers, I would first have a phone conversation with anyone that expressed an interest in volunteering. Topics of discussion included their experience, interest in volunteering, interest in our particular project and the basic rules (safety, comportment while on the site, and social media activity), goals, and work ethos of our group. I'd invite questions or comments on what I outlined and, if it went well, I'd invite them to come down for one work session as a no obligation trial run so they could see if it was for them and so we could get to know them a little better. Typical conversation was about a half hour. I brought in several people this way and they all worked out nicely.

Well I again agree to a point where it might be a possibility doing background checks but where does this all stop? The potential for people abusing enforcement of the code of conduct rules and regulations is huge. You watch the news and see how people act towards others with a different political view. This rude behavior crap is becoming normal interaction for some people. So if your in the "in crowd" anything will go, any outspoken person who brings up something that is controversial and current event at said museum will be punished and now removed from the good old boys club. All in the name of protecting everybody from {pick your poison}. This is an extreme that I bring up but I have seen it many times when that power is abused. It cost my museum a pile of money and to many of us embarrassment. It will go to court too as the case I mention. Had a civil suit been filed in addition it might of got much worse. And again I go back to policing ourselves as a starting point for mouthy volunteers like myself.

I was drug tested and had a number of Federal clearances just to haul Hazmat as a CDL. As a nurse working in the HC field we were required background checks. I am or was ok with that. But here I am legally ordering {with doctors orders} and handling narcotics daily but nurses are not required to be drug tested? That never made sense to me other than a lot of people would test positive for pot and would be out of a job. I saw three nurses/CNAs get busted for stealing/using narcotic medications without a prescription. They were stealing. It is watched closely and eventually they get caught like any other thief does. The point is do you really accomplish stopping danger or criminals with any of this? I am not against being careful or proactive in keeping our industry safe but I see as much bad coming from it as I do good. And when the rules don't work we ad more rules that won't work. Just how illegal does it have to be to commit murder? But yet we want to enact more laws that do nothing to stop or thwart crime. So the law abiding get penalized and criminals laugh at the stupid crackers who just don't get it. Yes I am cynical and aware of it too.

Regards, John.

Sadly, I was not aware of this thread until today. I will help out the Loco Shop by streaming the special moves. With the helpful tip of Mike Tillger and Mike Theriault last December, I got good footage of the firing up of the prime mover for 514. That way they could concentrate on the loco, while I spread the word.

As for Matt Carroll, he is not extended in his term as acting superintendent. I believe the shutdown threw off the hiring process. Jessica Weinman is interim superintendent until the next acting or permanent super is hired.