Any updates? Smokebox

Len and I just communicated last night about this. I have my first real free time of the summer coming up in the first few days of August and I am planning on heading out to get it done. It's a bit behind schedule I know, but it's the best I can muster right now.Ryan Parkevich

Update Information: Hi all, I haven’t posted much on this forum in a several months. The Quarry has been put on hold by the State Park commission, their doing a revamp on our letter that was sent in, back in March. Their also looking at the insurance end for liability and for other. I was to the Quarry with a Ranger on Monday Aug. 1-05 around 2:30pm. We both walked around the site and I saw first hand that the quarry is very full of water. The Ranger showed me ruins of the one stall engine house and work pit. The work pit was dated Oct. 11, 1929 not sure if it was rebuilt that year or other. The building is falling down quite a bit. He also showed me the railroad cut coming into the quarry site from the paved road. We are looking at Sept. or Oct. for when we’ll be able to get this project in the water.Thank you all for you understanding.Len.

What engine is this,,,,thanks Pat

It's purportedly a PRR 0-6-0 of questionable heritage, presumed by Leonard S. to be former PRR class B4 #828. The legend has it that it was abandoned in the quarry when the quarry hit an underground spring and filled up, basically drowning the loco in situ, around the late 1940s or 1950s.Len has taken a lot of flack from other fans on this forum and others for his decidedly "unprofessional" appearance online and his approach to the mystery, claiming to have photos and/or videos of the top of the cab protruding from the water during a drought, and newspaper clippings about the incident which have been cited but never produced (and dates from the cites didn't match reality). There are facts in the matter that do match--for example, PRR class R/H3 2-8-0 1187 at the RR Museum of Pa. was acquired from the very same quarry by the PRR for historical display.All I can say is that we will all be happy to put the matter to rest with Ryan P.'s dive, should it ever come off. (And Ryan, I hope you're being properly cc'ed by the park officials as verification that the meetings with the park officials are really happening before you come east.)

Pat and Allex, Ryan was contacted by the French Creek State Park ranger Lori Nyard a few days ago. The same day I was to the Quarry. It`s a PRR B-8 0-6-0 Switcher with a slanted tender. I never said I had photo`s of the locomotive , I stated I saw a Cab and a smoke stack sticking out of the low water in 1999. There was a person that stated on the old Chaski fourm that said he took a connoe up to the locomotive. which I feel he was full of you know what. I was to the Quarry on Monday Aug. 1 and the Quarry is 100% full of very deep water.Len.

A bit of history on this quarry. The Schuylkill Valley Stone Company was organized in 1907, by capitalist of Birdsboro, Norristown and Philadelphia, who established a large crusher plant in Unoin Township, Berks County, Pa. one mile south of Monocacy Station Village, with complete equipment for supplying crushed stone and Belgian blocks in great quantities. A railroad spur and sidings along with engine shop has been extended from the Pennsylvania Railroad Schuylkill Valley Branch to the plant and quarry. Over half a Million dollars has been expended thus far in this enterprise.John T. Dyer Quarry Company bought out Schuylkill Valley Stone Co. in 1911 as part of a consolidation of five quarries in the Birdsboro area. The first locomotive they purchase, for this quarry was Pennsylvania Railroad class H-3 No. 1187 on August 24, 1911. This locomotive was used up untill 1939 when the Pennsylvania Railroad traded class B-8 No. 828 for their former No. 1187 for preservation as a relic and exhibition at the New York World Fair. No. 1187 is now on display at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvanis located in Strasburg, Pa. Since the Pennsylvania Railroad didn`t maintain disposition records for outside companies, there is no record of what happen to No. 828. So it is beleaved that it`s in the bottom of the quarry. Len.

Hello all, We are all hoping that the State of Pennsylvania grants us the premission again soon as it can. So we can get this project in the water and find what is really down there. I was told that there is orther equipment and old auto`s that Kids has pushed into the quarry through the years. If anything we might be able to closes the case on a few drownings that has happen there through the years too. I understand there has been a few bodies they never found. Keep your fingers crossed.Len.