They have done a fine job running SP 2472 on the Caltrain line for years. Looks like out on Long Island the #39 will be running at LEAST from Riverhead to Greenport if they get the turntable in place at the RMLI site. Maybe even Jamaica-Greenport or Montauk.

They COULD run a Mohawk from Harmon-Albany, but then again it is a very busy mainline with CSX and other freight, Amtrak (to Albany, Vermont, and Chicago), and Metro-North as far north as Poughkeepsie with very high mainline speeds. Plus I don't think MN would like idea of steam.

I don't car for MN in particular, I think the LIRR is probably a lot easier to deal with when it comes to steam.

I remember they were going to run the LIRR #35 on the Black River & Western in NJ in the 70s but that never happened. She's getting a rebuild as time and money allow, and there isnt too much green I understand with Friends of 35 in Oyster Bay.

-Ed Kelley

GTNGRR@aol.com

With all due respect to Mr. Ledbetter the facts are that the recent K4 restoration project was set up as only government types could do!

It was structured so that the University of Scranton was the overall "General Manager" of the project(Lord only knows what they were supposed to add to the effort?), Steamtown was to "Supervise" the actual work in the shop and to insure that everything was done in compliance with the FRA regs. etc. The Altoona group was responsible for providing the $$$ and the laborers.

To date the effort has burned through somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.3 MILLION, 7 years time and the engine as we speak is still in a thousand plus pieces!!!

In the same time period the OC shop has completely rebuilt a 4-6-2(1293) a 4-8-4 (6325) and is a couple of weeks away from outshopping a total re-build of a huge 2-8-0(33).

When if ever the K4 will be "done" is an interesting question. Unless I were under 45 years old I wouldn't count on it in your lifetime if it stays in Scranton!

Ross Rowland

rrowland@weidel.com

> With all due respect to Mr. Ledbetter the
> facts are that the recent K4 restoration
> project was set up as only government types
> could do!

Granted, the structure of the project is a little more complex than I remembered, thanks for the reminder. But the point I was trying to make--that Steamtown bears only tangential responsibility for this project--is still, I think, more or less on target.

eledbetter@rypn.org

> Not to pick nits, but didn't Steamtown
> restore BLW #26 to operation?

Not sure how much operational restoration work Steamtown did on 26 to put it into regular [yard shuttle] service, but it was Jerry Jacobson and friends who first got it running back in 1981. This was while it was still at its former home at the Jackson Iron & Steel mill in Jackson, OH. Later, Mr. Jacobson traded it to Steamtown in return for ex-CN 4-6-0 1551. I'm pretty sure Steamtown did the paint / lettering work to restore it as BLW 26.

See below link for a photo of that first steam up at the steel mill.


BLW 26 (aka JISCO 3) under steam @ steel mill

Thanks Jim, I hadn't realized it came to Steamtown in operating condition.

> Not sure how much operational restoration
> work Steamtown did on 26 to put it into
> regular [yard shuttle] service, but it was
> Jerry Jacobson and friends who first got it
> running back in 1981. This was while it was
> still at its former home at the Jackson Iron
> & Steel mill in Jackson, OH. Later, Mr.
> Jacobson traded it to Steamtown in return
> for ex-CN 4-6-0 1551. I'm pretty sure
> Steamtown did the paint / lettering work to
> restore it as BLW 26.

> See below link for a photo of that first
> steam up at the steel mill.


belpaire@aol.com

> Not sure how much operational restoration
> work Steamtown did on 26 to put it into
> regular [yard shuttle] service, but it was
> Jerry Jacobson and friends who first got it
> running back in 1981. This was while it was
> still at its former home at the Jackson Iron
> & Steel mill in Jackson, OH. Later, Mr.
> Jacobson traded it to Steamtown in return
> for ex-CN 4-6-0 1551. I'm pretty sure
> Steamtown did the paint / lettering work to
> restore it as BLW 26.

> See below link for a photo of that first
> steam up at the steel mill.

I noticed that Jerry is pictured on the tender and that is Gary Bensmen walking toward the camera. Jerry talks about that loco often.

That is the locomotive that got Jerry involved with restoring steam locomotives, he owns 10 and still counting.

Jason


jmjohnson@ohiocentral.com