Pittsburgh's Post-Gazette weighs in on the continuing delays to the restoration of PRR 1361, now at Steamtown, including quotes from Ross Rowland, Gary Benson, and Steve Lee:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05101/486284.stm (also posted to Flimsies)

Let's see how long it takes this thread to spin into lockdown.

Perhaps Mr. Mitchell or someone more computer capable than I could link us to the Altoona newspaper which ran a long story on the K4 project yesterday?? The paper has had a reporter working on the story for a number of months, and I hope it turns out to be both comprehensive and written so the average person can understand the many twists and turns this saga has taken?? Thanks, Ross Rowland

Well, it's not a matter of computer literacy, Mr. Rowland.

In order for me to link to this Altoona Mirror article, someone has to POST said article online. And it appears that the Altoona Mirror, at http://www.altoonamirror.com, chose for whatever reason NOT to post this big story on their website. (The Altoona Mirror is one of those "barely functional" newspaper websites where one is lucky to get the lead story of the day posted--see the Cumberland (Md.) Times-News for a similar "bare-bones" site.)

I have been searching online for a good half-hour or more in the "usual" places and have not found any record of said article. Short of either appealing to one of our readers to get the paper and transcribe it for us, or someone paying me to drive up to Altoona and buy yesterday's paper or dig it out of a recycling bin, I'm at a loss as to what to do. And I want to read said article as much as you probably do.

There IS a possibility here--at least one regular reader of this forum is a newspaper reporter in Pennsylvania and MAY have access to some database we don't--but that would require the Mirror to be a participant in Lexis-Nexis or some such service, and somehow I view that as improbable.

Let's see, I *could* just say I'm visiting that brewpub in Duncansville on business, and drive up on Thursday if I get my taxes done by then.......

From the Pittsburgh paper website. Note that the byline is Associated Press with a dateline of Altoona. Most likely this story was picked up off the wire from Altoona as-is.

Wesley
--------
Restoration of locomotive is delayed again
Monday, April 11, 2005

By The Associated Press


ALTOONA, Pa. -- A Western Pennsylvania railroad museum's centerpiece, the last working K-4 steam engine in the world, may be falling further behind schedule.

Efforts to restore the vintage K-4 locomotive, designed and built in Altoona 87 years ago, have already taken five years longer than expected.

The locomotive, which broke down during tourist trips in the late 1980s, was moved from the Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum, about 80 miles east of Pittsburgh, to the Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton in 1997 for three years of expected repairs.

Officials with the museum say the locomotive could be repaired and return to railroad tracks by fall, but some steam engine enthusiasts and experts are skeptical.

Among the skeptics are Ross Rowland, who has been called "America's Greatest Railfan," and Bill Benson, who has restored as many as six locomotives, including a steam engine that pulled American Freedom Train for the U.S. bicentennial.

Rowland, of Ringoes, N.J., who is credited with starting the tourist railroad industry in the 1960s, claims the restoration of the K-4 shouldn't have taken longer than two years. Rowland claims the museum didn't hire one of a handful of people in the country experienced enough to restore a steam engine.

"The long sad story of the K-4," Rowland said. "A story of well-meaning people who didn't know what they were doing."

Crews worked on the K-4 for six years with little money and few parts before museum officials discovered reportedly poor workmanship. Museum officials in 2003 found several problems, including corroded bolts in the firebox, where coal is burned; they also said a portion of the steel plate making up the firebox was too thin.

The museum switched crews in 2002. Officials let go a team working under an agreement among the museum, Steamtown and the University of Scranton, and hired Bill Frederickson, who had been working to restore "The Constitution," a former Boston & Maine Railroad locomotive, until the project started running out of money.

Benson, from Akron, Ohio, claims crews working on the K-4 had no reason to tear it apart. It was repaired in 1986 and, when it broke down after a year, it was because of main-bearing and drive-axle failure, he said. That meant crews only needed to fix those parts and improve the locomotive's lubrication, he added.

But museum Executive Director Scott Cessna said Rowland may be critical because he wasn't hired by the museum to evaluate the engine and said the two have "a contentious relationship."

Meanwhile, Cessna and other people who have worked on steam engines said the K-4 should be repaired from the wheels up.

"Yeah, it takes longer and costs more. But what would it cost to take it apart four or five (more) times?" said Steve Lee, manager of the Union Pacific Railroads steam program in Cheyenne, Wyo.

Little work appears to have been done on the locomotive since August. The big barrel of the boiler still sits on jacks over a work pit and pieces are spread around the shop.

But museum officials say work should move quickly after the museum gets approval from the Federal Railroad Administration to repair the steam dome, a reservoir for steam on top of the locomotive

First, the article was NOT picked up "as is" by the AP. It is a horribly paraphrased version of the complete article that ran in the Altoona Mirror on Sunday.

Second, the publisher of the Mirror does not believe in publishing complete articles online. I have asked for them to send me the text so I may post it a number of places. They have yet to do so. If they don't then I will need to retype it tomorrow.

You will find that the complete article paints a completely different picture of the project than the abbreviated nonsense published by the AP.

In the Post-Gazette article, there is a section (which was probably paraphrased) stating that "officials with the museum" said that the engine "could be repaired and return to railroad tracks by fall". Is this accurate? Have "officials with the museum" really said this?

My concern is: putting aside the controversy over the restoration effort, I think that if the Steamtown shop worked 24/7 on the engine from now until September that they couldn't have it back together and FRA-certified for this fall. That's no criticism of the Steamtown people, that's just reality. I think it hurts the credibility of the museum (which is already strained on this effort) when statements like this are made every year. Your thoughts?

Chris.

Rowland, of Ringoes, N.J., who is credited with starting the tourist railroad industry in the 1960s,


They can't tell the difference between a public excursion and a tourist railroad. I think the tourist RR industry, as a ongoing, self-sustaining economically viable organization was pioneered by Strasburg and a few others.

The sponsored public excursion, with foreign equipment is not the same thing.

Small thing but big difference.

The people in this saga I feel for are the Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley NRHS guys. They have done a fantastic job raising money to restore B&M 3713. Yet Steamtown is always putting them on the back burner. Every time work starts moving on this engine the workers get pulled and go fiddle around on the 1361. They ran the concession stand at Moscow only to have Steamtown bypass stopping there (and not having the courtesy of even telling them!). They applied for and got over $500,000 in TEA money with no support. Yet they still keep plugging away. 3713 will steam again in spite of, not because of the NPS.

Not quite sure where you are coming from on this post. There isn't anyone working on both the Boston and Main and 1361. The restoration of 1361 is funded and staffed by the Railroaders Memorial Museum. My crew only works on 1361 and gets no additional manpower from the Park Service or anyone else. The NPS has NO oversight of the 1361 restoration. They simply provide us the shop to do the work in.

It is indeed the hope and opinion of "officials at the Museum" that 1361 can be finished by the fall of this year. There are many things that need to happen to make that a reality, including a number of pieces that are out at third-parties being rebuilt, but we are still confident it can be done. I know I'm climbing way out on a very thin limb everytime I make a public declaration of a completion date but that is the chance I must take. My crew knows when I want the locomotive done and they are doing everything they can to meet that date. My problem has been hiring people. Trying to get qualified welders, etc, to take a job for less than a year is not an easy task. We do have some very qualified people who are going to start spending their Saturdays away from their regular jobs to help as well. We have spoken to the local Union people in Scranton and they are just not all that interested and frankly are outside of our budgetary constraints if they were interested. I am still waiting for the complete version of the newspaper story that ran in Sunday's Altoona Mirror in electronic format. The paper says they are sending it to me so everyone can read it.