“A lot of our visitors have the idea that we should throw all of our money into the 1309’s restoration, but that would bankrupt us,” Executive Director John Garner tells Trains News Wire.
In explaining why the project is short of funds, Garner says that grant requirements and personnel issues are partly to blame. News Wire could not independently verify Garner’s specific claims Friday afternoon.
Garner does say the railroad has “done a poor job of communicating” how operations keep the railroad in business and that the railroad considers No. 1309 to be a special project, akin to other projects, such as landscaping.
“Those special projects come to a stop when money runs out,” he says.
No. 1309’s restoration has received at least $400,000 from the State of Maryland to help fund the restoration. News Wire confirms with Maryland officials that that money is nearly gone.
Garner says that it will take at least an additional $530,000 to complete No. 1309’s restoration, an estimate Garner says he received from the railroad’s contractor on the steam locomotive project, Diversified Rail Services. Documents Garner provided to News Wire show that the running gear and the boiler would require $120,000 and $115,000 to complete, respectively.
In April, Garner said the railroad had spent $800,000 of its own cash on the project and had expected to spend the $400,000 state grant. In August, Garner told News Wire that the project’s total cost sat at $1.8 million.
Follow-up calls to confirm the latest totals were not answered Friday afternoon.
Garner also says that funding issues alone, not any ongoing mechanical problems, were behind the railroad canceling an early November hydrostatic test on the articulated locomotive’s boiler.
“We filled the boiler with water up to the crown sheet, and repaired a few leaks around the stay bolts,” Garner says. “Then we ran out of money.”
Garner says Western Maryland Scenic is actively pursuing alternative sources of funding, but railroad officials’ attempts so far have been insufficient to keep the project moving forward. Garner says that the staff are pursuing additional grants from various donors, but those funds are unlikely to arrive until late 2018 — if they are approved at all. Special photo freight charters held in October did not bring in as much money as anticipated.
“Those trains brought in a modest amount of money for the 1309, but there weren’t as many people as we hoped,” Garner says. “I don’t think that we fully understood what was going on in the region on that weekend, there were several other railroad-themed events going on around the same time.”
Garner says that the railroad will hold another round of freight photo charters in February 2018. In the meantime, he says that railroad officials hope to bring in funds through a letter writing campaign. He says that this week, staff members are preparing to send out about 1,600 letters to potential donors in Virginia.
If the WMSR volunteer personnel were customer friendly instead of cranky and obviously unhappy volunteering for the railroad, perhaps more customers like my wife and I would contribute to the WMSR. It’s mystifying why unfriendly personnel are given customer-facing jobs.
Friday afternoon is not a good time to call anyone, for the record; they’re either nailing things down for the weekend or already gone. I thought this project was being overly ambitious–and now there are fewer and fewer places to run Big Steam especially with Harrison now running CSX….
The railroad has jumped the gun big time. If the railroad hadn’t have made promises of her running by a certain time, the railroad wouldn’t have lost much faith from it’s supporters. Also, if the railroad wouldn’t have put all of their time into 1309, 734, which many people have seemed to forget about, would have been disassembled and could have even been under her 1,472 rebuild.
How do you blow 400,000.00 of State of Maryland taxpayers money? using volunteer labor?
@Roger Cole: I’m mad that L.I.R.R. #39 is NOT going to run where it was supposed to, LONG ISLAND! I played a small part in working for the return of #39. I went to various train shows on long island back in the ’70’s. I was sad to read that it be restored and run at Strasburg. But, not on Long Island. Very sad!
@Jesse: The answer is slim and none. With none leading the way!
Very sad to hear.Is this a first for this type of project?
Mr Fisher, UP is actually restoring a 4000. 4014 is in Cheyenne as I write this.
Sad example of over enthusiasm. It would be nice to think we can restore and preserve anything related to railroad history. Howver, this is a rather small hobby in the grand scheme of things. Somehow, we need to learn to prioritize and focus on realistic and significant projects. Obscure locomotives while intrinsically interesting, end up being sudeshows of disappointment and frustration. It all reflects badly on the hobby as a whole.
There isn’t enough money out there to save everythibg.
It sucks that they are in a Catch-22. Without a steam engine ridership and revenue suffers, but to finish their steam engine requires more ridership and revenue.
I donate a measly $20/month. Please donate a little if you desire a big steam comeback. You’ll be helping the local city also.
When will Boston & Maine No. 3713 be finished?
NRHS Heritage Grant Program
Tom E. Dailey Foundation
AMAZON SMILE
goodsearch.com
Whole Foods 5% Donation Days
Entertainment Book fundraiser
John H. Emery Rail Heritage Trust
H. Albert Memorial Railrroad Preservation Award
TRAINS Preservation Award
I think Mr. Turner nailed it.
Mr Fisher, I think the problem in this case is the railroad over-promised bigtime. They actually sold tickets for trips featuring the 1309 that were supposed to run in, what, July? It’s now November, the engine is partly assembled and they’re out of cash.
Any project like this can take longer than hoped, and fundraising is obviously a challenge. it’s just that when you generate a lot of publicity and make unrealistic promises, and then fail to keep them by a wide margin, it makes it looks like the situation is out of control. It shakes peoples confidence in the organization. When people make a donation, they want to feel sure the money is going to really accomplish something.
I have no doubt the WMSR can restore the engine, but they’re going to have to work really hard to rebuild the public’s faith.
Interesting comments. Before streaking off on the negativity train, consider the impact that your comments may have on future restoration projects. The 1309 will be returned to operation at some future date. I admire those individuals and organizations that dream the impossible. How and when, I don’t know. What I do know is that just a short time ago, the 1309 was sitting in Baltimore a rusting hulk. The next thing that you will be telling me is that the UP is restoring a 4000 class. Or, St. Louis will allow the transfer of a Class Y to Roanoke. Crazy talk. To the folks in Cumberland, keep your chins up and dream the impossible.
Here’s a thought. TRAINS has over 90,000 subscribers. If we each sent $5.00 to WMSR, they could complete the project and have a fund to maintain it. If we can support the subscription cost, I would think we can, or at least the vast majority of us can, afford. $5.00. I just sent 20.00 to cover a few others. What do you think? I would sure love to see it run.
As for the guys that want to build the Pennsylvania T1 from scratch, they’re smacking something that’s legal in Colorado.
90,000 subscribers sending in $5.00 each? Might as well step up to the nearest commode and flush your fiver. This project has been mismanaged and over-hyped from the start, and shows no signs of being worthy of any further support. Put a coat of paint on it and send it back to the museum, where it belongs.
Hey about the guys who want to build a Pennsy T1 from scratch?
About the same time as LIRR #39, PRR #1361, C&O #2716, Reading 2100, yada yada, yada.
You would think my buddy EHH could throw them a bone for PR after lining his pockets with CSX money.
Funny that you are out of money after you spent it on Private Car trips (to examine how to do first class service–from their Facebook page), painted freight cars, repainted passenger cars, bought cabooses, bought and moved a wood-sided car from Colorado, acquired and moved bus stops, fired your own staff to replace them with contractors, and the list could go on and on. Mismanagement is the exact issue. And yes, the CMO (Kevin Rice) was just fired and yes, the letter going around is the real letter; misspellings and all.
Well replacing the “in house” $15 an hour help with $80+ an hour outside contractors doesn’t help things at all!
If it was easy every stationary steam locomotive would be rebuilt. These guys have taken on a monumental project. Just getting the locomotive moved was colossal effort. Support the rebuilding. It will eventually pay off.
This is a tough story to read. But anyone who has followed the SP 786 saga as long as I have shouldn’t be surprised.
I’m sure there’s also some 2926 folks in Albuquerque reading this and nodding quietly to themselves. This stuff is really hard, but enough good people scraping enough dollars together and eventually it can get done.