The Athearn Trains announced on Sept. 28 that for every HO scale EL No. 3639 or Conrail No. 6670 sold, the model train manufacturer will make a donation to the Youngstown Steel Heritage Foundation, an Ohio-based non-profit trying to save the EMD locomotive of the same number. Earlier this year, the group reached an agreement with the Virginia Museum of Transportation to purchase No. 3639 (currently painted as Conrail No. 6670) located in Roanoke, Va.
“We pulled measurements off the locomotive (when) developing the SDP45 product, so there’s a little bit of the No. 3639’s DNA in every model we brought to market,” he says. “Helping the (Youngstown Steel Heritage Foundation) reach their goal is the right thing to do. We hope that future generations will be able to witness one of these monsters rolling on the rails again.
The Youngstown Steel Heritage Foundation has already raised more than $10,000 — halfway to its $20,000 goal — to purchase the locomotive. The group has also purchased new doors and windows for the locomotive. The group plans on eventually moving the locomotive to the Marter Yard Railroad Museum, operated by the Mahoning Valley Railroad Heritage Association, in Youngstown.
No. 3639 was built for the EL in 1969. At least one other six-axle EMD from the EL has been preserved. EL SD45 No. 3607 is currently on display at the National Museum of Transportation near St. Louis. In 2015, Norfolk Southern repainted a former EL SD45-2, No. 1700, into EL colors for service in New Jersey.
More information is available online.
Brick & Mortar hobby stores are also being victimized by manufacturers who advertise ‘products’ which they have no intention of making unless we hobbyists foolishly ‘pre-order’. It’s like paying in advance the guy who promises to come and clean up your backyard trash.
I understand that we enjoy a niche hobby, but this situation is ridiculous
Once upon a time in America wasn’t there a train store chain that operated in malls across the US? Like you mention Joseph, high costs (in this case the lease probably) forced them to close their doors. Even Toys’R’Us is unable to compete with online sales and the high cost of leases.
Sad but true, the cause in most cases is indeed one word: GREED! Ditto with affordable housing for the working class, who in the eyes of the POTUS, doesn’t exist!
On the subject of the disappearing brick and mortar hobby shops, it’s notonly online business that is putting these stores out of business but greedy landlords and real estate owners who see more potential and big bucks in high priced and trendy fashion boutiques, coffee houses,designer apparel stores and other retail businesses which cater to a younger generation who are not interested in model trains or any model craft kits or collections
This is the generation that can summed up in two words electronics and technology and the same goes for the new generation being born as well. Do you ever see a hobby shop in a mall or outlet center? No because in the eyes of today’s generation and owners of real estate and greedy developers who are destroying towns and cities across America and running Small town America to extinction with their big buildings and malls and condos and being swept away is the hobby shop. Here in New York City, the city that claims to have it all, hardly any hobby shops remain and if there are any left, their time is running out and will be gone forever. High rents, leases not being renewed or just being forced out by these greedy landlords and of course an indifferent generation who don’t have the interest or patience to really enjoy a relaxing hobby but rathersit in front of a computer screen or play with a cell phone or tablet. Online sales is only one of the many factors pushing out and destroying whatever remaining brick and mortar hobby shops that still bravely hangin there and serve their loyal customers.
I’m certain the donations will be of a reasonable amount. My wooden nickel diddy was just poking fun and not intended to be taken seriously. Remember, a penny saved is a penny earned and one hundred pennies makes a dollar and if every E-L fan will contribute just a buck to the cause another historic Diesel will have been saved from the cutting torch.
The two hobby shops listed above who are making these donations should not only be commended for their efforts to save 3639 but be patrionized as well to insure that they remain in business and not fall by the right-of-way like so many others have done in recent times due to online sales.
Though not currently living in my native Texas, I still miss Miss Hall and her hospitality at Hall’s Hobby House in Dallas. There was always plenty of free hot coffee brewing in the shadow of the Coke (Reg.U.S.Pat.Off.) machine in the rear of the store across the aisle from the magazine rack!
Don’t cry if you visit your home town hobby shop and find nothing but a vacant building with a notice on the door thanking all of the loyal customers for their business over the years but online sales forced them out to pasture…even if it was in the city!
It’s fairly obvious that since those models are $10 more than other road numbers with the same options, the donation will be for at least that amount.
Great News! I may need a 3rd EL now.
Mr. Pins: After giving it some thought you just might be correct in your assessment. A wooden nickel donation perhaps? Gads, what is the world coming to?
Public Relations at it’s Very Best! Athearn as well as Maine Model Works and Hobby Express are to be commended for their interest and participation in this historic preservation event. Now where is Kalmbach’s donation?
I certainly don’t want to rain on this parade or any effort at preservation, but when I see that Athearn will make “a donation” for every sale, I’m not running to the hobby shop. How much? A dime? Fifty dollars? Crucial information needed to stimulate this fund drive.