Altoona K4 #1361 Update

[jsmvmd]

Dear Friends,

The "Altoona Railroaders Museum" has a new director who is a ME with project management and marketing skills.  He hopes to take the museum in a new direction to increase contributions and endowments with a national marketing effort.  To that end, a recent newspaper article in the "Altoona Mirror" stated that the K4, #1361 is back in town, in pieces, and much of the serious repair has been down by Steamtown.

The plan is to build a quarter sized roundhouse to facilitate reconstruction and for the public to have a place to view the work as it progresses.

This sounds like a noble endeavor.  I suppose we shall see, as many of the local rail buffs had thought this ten year project was dead.

Anyone can contact me via e-mail for article reprints, etc, or for more information. As always, if in Altoona, you are welcome to meet for a cup of coffee and to talk trains.  We have two nice clubs here with interest in O gauge and scale, S and HO.

Best Wishes,

Jack

[Tom Lapointe]

Jack, would you be able to post a link to that article?  (Tried a Google search & couldn't find it).

I've been following the 1361 restoration process on line for some time, & sorry to hear about some of the recent funding "snags".   With the amount of work that's already gone into restoring it (it looks like they have basically rebuilt almost the entire back end of the boiler! ), it'd be a shame to see it screech to a halt at this point.

Look forward to the day when we can see pictures of 1361 charging up Horseshoe Curve past the GP-9 on her old display track!

                                                                                                         Tom

[SteamGene]

What a wonderful idea!  A living Pacific passing a stuffed and mounted GP-9!  I remember 1361 sitting in parts on a flatcar at Steamtown years ago now.
Gene

[jsmvmd]

Dear Tom, et al,

Here is your link:

http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/502157.html

It is from the Altoona Mirror newspaper, Nov. 25, 2007.

Best Wishes to all,

Jack

[ebtnut]

Some of us here are old enough to remember K-4's in regular service.  Which means we are also old enough to remember seeing her when they got her back into service in the '80's.  Boy, seeing and hearing that loco took me WAY back to summers spent with my grandparents in Warren, PA and the main line to Erie just a block away.  I sure hope they find the wherewithal to get her back on the road once again. 

[SteamGene]

"And the lonesome sound
Of the outward bound..."
Remember that, too?
I got to Virginia too late to hear a K4 in action.  I'd love to have them gather up the four carcasses I know of and put one together again.  Surely the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company could do the job. 
Gene

[ebtnut]

Gene:  Four carcasses??  Are we speaking of the same K-4 (PRR 4-6-2)?  I was aware of only 2--the 1361 at Altoona, and the one over at the museum in Strasburg.  Or, were you alluding to the "other" K-4 with the donut logo on the tender?

[SteamGene]

Other K4? Did you say "Other"?
BTW, the one with the donut on the tender was not a K4.  It was a PM Berkshire repainted by C&O which, for some reason, got the passenger logo added.  I have a beautiful PFM K4, painted by a previous owner, beautiful heavy weathering job, but with the incorrect donut.
Gene

[av8rga]

My Gramps "Hax" William Haxel piloted #1361 for PRR 30 someodd years. I miss him so much.

[Guilford Guy]

What's sad is it would have cost less to buy a new boiler, than to invest as much as they did in the old one...

[ebtnut]

I would like someday for someone to document in print what went wrong at Steamtown regarding the K-4 restoration.  There have been reports of management incompetance, bad decisions, bad workmanship, etc., all of which drove the costs sky-high.  In retrospect, it may have been cheaper to buy a new boiler, but that wasn't the only work that needed to be done.  I'm reminded of an old comment which I think was made about some Secretary of Defense - "They gave him an unlimited budget, and he exceeded it!".