Pere Marquette 1225 will not travel to Virginia this fall

PMC · **Joined:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:55 pm **Posts:** 2876

https://railfan.com/pere-marquette-1225 ... this-fall/
No reason is given, but I can only guess that it may be due to a change in policy regarding moving steam at one of the Eastern carriers.

NJDixon · **Joined:** Mon Dec 06, 2021 4:36 pm **Posts:** 364

The Newswire article off of Trains Magazine had more details and mentioned that a deciding factor was that by the time the trips at VA wrapped up and they got 1225 back to Owosso, it would be getting too close to the start of their North Pole Express season.

Quote:

“We eclipsed the deadline for the critical path planning in transporting our equipment to Virginia and back in time for our North Pole Express excursions," Randy Paquette, SRI’s interim executive director, told Trains, while also giving high praise to the Buckingham Branch, the Virginia Scenic Railway, and Norfolk Southern

SRI provided additional comments from Operations and Facilities Manager Aaron Farmer. “There was no ‘ban’ on steam locomotives or outright refusal by the railroads to move the equipment that led to this decision. The reality is that we needed sufficient lead time to properly announce and market the excursions, as well as firm commitments from all of the railroads involved before we could responsibly move forward. Every railroad involved viewed the proposed operation positively and expressed interest in seeing the venture come to fruition.”

BnOTolSub · **Joined:** Mon Dec 18, 2017 11:41 am **Posts:** 161

NS was agreeable to make the moves, just not on the timeline for the SRI group to do what they needed to do.

PaulWWoodring · **Posted:** Sun Aug 16, 2026 7:11 am

The logistics of having to get a crane at both ends to remove and reinstall the main and eccentric rods for a dead-in-train move probably had something to do with it, if not the time involved, certainly the costs. It's going to be an issue. Maybe the RDG 2100 folks will actually have a shot at operating on the CVSR if Ft. Wayne doesn't want to go to the trouble of doing all that to bring 765 to Cleveland next year?