One would think that the NPS could have established some kind of trust fund to refurbish and maintain a servicable fleet of steam locomotives. Even amusement parks can do this without the funding and facilities of steamtown. One has to wonder about its mission statement and management.
I've been posting some questions here on the TRAINS blog, hopefully to spur the professional jounalists amongst us (or the truly knowledgeable readers) to pick-up on some stories that never seem to reach an end. Over on the passenger forum are the first two examples.
Here's a steam preservation question. Why does Steamtown never seem to finish restoring a steam engine?
Steamtown USA has been without a serviceable steam engine since 2012, but realistically its been even longer if you count main-line capable power. In the history of the NPS management at Scranton basically three engines have run "regularly" there, a big CPR Pacific, a rugged CN 2-8-2 and the little former Baldwin shop switcher from Philadelphia which I believe is an 0-6-0 (it really doesn't matter to this question). Other engines have visited, including just last weekend the big ex-NKP 2-8-4 #765 and more often the pretty little Blue Mountain and Reading's 4-6-2.
But what of Steamtown's own collection and other engines they at least began to work on? The CPR/CN power was "non-US", but at least they ran for many years. If we can't get a US engine ready how much work is needed to get either/both of these work-horses back on the road?
Steamtown's work to put the ex-Horsewhoe Curve K4 Pacific back into service dragged on for years before the engine was returned inoperable and in pieces to Altoona. The project to restore the Steamtown ex-Boston & Maine 4-6-2 has been "underway" for over 20 years(!). Supposedly a former Reading T1 was going to return to service--or was it 765's sister #759, which powered so many trips in the 1960s and 70s. But nothing is ever finished.
Did the Baldwin shop switcher actually steam as hoped for last weekend? Is this all a matter of (chose one or all or none) lack of funding, extreme bureaucratic obsession with unreasonable work standards, lack of management follow-thru, bad luck that every engine Steamtown sought to restore turned out to be much more decayed than anyone knew?
Is there any plan to address this? Would it help if all of Steamtown's repair/restoration functions were given over to a non-profit? Could such a group get anything done if it had to work to National Park Service rules? Does the NPS actually impose unreasonable burdens, or is that just railfan grousing? Should all Steamtown operating engines be loaned/leased, as is frequently the case on major British preservation lines.
So many questions. No answers--but this has gone on for decades and I think fundamentally undermines the viability of Steamtown as any sort of true national showcase for the steam rail era.
We know the current effort to restore the B&M Pacific was dealt a real blow when CPR insurance demands forced the cancellation of next weekends' NS trips from Scranton to Binghamton, which were intended in part to raise money for this effort. Could the Lackawnna and Wyoming Valley NRHS (which is fund-raising for the project) give any sort of budget estimate to complete the project?
I'm one of the hundreds not able to ride next weekend, but ticketed on the cancelled trips. I would happily still donate the part of my ticket price that would have supported this effort, but need first to know how much and secondly can find no on-line link to make the donation. Obviously I can (and eventually will if needed) just write an old-fashioned check, but this is another example of the incomplete information (void) that seems to forever hang over all things Steamtown.
A good article on the real story of preservation and restoration at Steamtown would be a real service to the railfan community and might actually help. Silence in this case has hardly been golden!
Carl Fowler
President
Rail Travel Adventures
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