Hey Y'all, I was at my local train hobby shop in San Antonio, TX, Dibble's, and while discussing matters of Texas Railroads, 0-6-0 SLSF 3749 came up. They claimed she went under the scrappers knife the other week and is no more. She has joined her sisters in that great steam locomotive graveyard in the sky. Sad day. Manny
Oh, forgot to mention. The cars that were with her have also met their demise. These came up as a discussion of several different recent scrapping events that have recently happened. Among them include two F units that were FRA compliant and had their blue cards. No one wanted them, so they were completely sold for metal. These were in Alabama.
It is odd the the Florida Railroad Museum would go to the expense to purchase and move on February 18, 2012, to its site the 0-6-0 SLSF 3749, and then scrap the thing four months later. I have sent an email to the museum's contact address, and I am awaiting a reply. See: http://www.bradenton.com/2012/02/17....com/smedia/2012/02/17/16/51/12qUfS.St.69.jpg
The sad reality is that not everything can be preserved. When I was a kid in St. Louis I remember going out to the NMOT, and it seemed then that there was more junk on the property than anything else. The same is true to a degree at the Illinois Railway Museum. There are some wonderful exhibits that are in good shape, operable even, and a lot more stuff that is likely to sit there until it returns to the elements. On a recent trip I photographed Frisco steam on static display in three locations, and at least one of them was beginning to look a little ratty. Absent financing, and the cost to restore some of these artifacts is staggering, I suspect in the future more will be lost than saved. GS
Everybody can stand down. Whoever started the rumor is full of BS! A friend of mine is heading up her restoration. He said she is still in the same place and he is starting to gather replacement parts. Sometimes I hate Al Gore's invention.
Hey Don, Okay, that is good news. I will talk to the individual who spoke with me to make sure he has the right locomotive. He is involved with many restoration projects himself, so I have no reason to believe he is lying or spreading a rumor. He was disheartened to hear of the steam engines demise in Florida. I apologize, if I have offended anyone with this post. Manny
One of the tragedies of the modern preservation movement is that it got started quite late. So much has been lost, railroad and non-railroad. In the case of railroads: locomotives, equipment, strutctures, paper, etc. Rumors will still be spread without concrete facts from time to time but it is good to see there are watch dogs to make sure the facts are made public and at the same time be made aware of the danger of loosing another historic piece of history. Sadly, a lot of railroad items were deemed un-needed or too costly to retain and instead of offering same to others at the cost of removing them from private or public property, went to scrap instead. When it is gone it is too late to determine if said item could have been saved or not. I know my thread regarding saving a Frisco GP7 might not spark enough interest at the moment, but while there are still geeps that the Frisco purchased and operated, now is the time to consider saving one! There are quite a few diesels across America that have been beautifully restored but are not representing their original owners. It is a pity that some groups will go to the pains of organizing funding to purchase and restore a "foreign" diesel while other organizations have absolutly no interest in preserving a piece of their very own heritage. As attractive as some of the heritage diesels are that are decked out in one of the schemes of predicessor lines, be it UP, NS or any other railroad, there is still nothing like the "Real McCoy"! If Frisco.org can work with any regional or shortline carrier to preserve a Frisco GP7 and the funding is set aside in a special account for same, I will still donate $100.00 in good faith to see that a Frisco geep gets restored to its as delivered Big Beautiful Black and Yellow color scheme! This is much more valuable to me than investing in another model regardless of scale from Z to G! I honestly and sincerely hope that we will see a recovering of the economy in order to orgainize such a project. If every modeler or railfan can sell his or her unwanted models, books or what have you, and donate a portion to this cause I know Frisco.org "Can-Do" and every member who contributes to the project can pat each other on the shoulder and say, "A Job Well Done"! A special plaque should be produced with each contributer's name included on same. It should be mounted in a secure place like in a restored Frisco depot, as an example, with a framed "Builders Photo" of the GP7 to show the world that Frisco Folks care about their railroad and the flag did not fall in vein! Joe Toth
