The Flying Yankee

RRFAN wrote:If the hobo or Clarks wanted it, it would most likely go to the hobo because Clarks is all about small logging steam locos. It wouldn't look right there.

It is at hobo and they don't want it.

atsf sp wrote:

RRFAN wrote:If the hobo or Clarks wanted it, it would most likely go to the hobo because Clarks is all about small logging steam locos. It wouldn't look right there.

It is at hobo and they don't want it.

I know I was just saying if the clark family did want it, would most likely not go to the WMC.

Looks like the Clark family wants the Flying Yankee off the property and now the state is looking at Concord, NH for storing it. This whole thing has turned into a sad joke; with little work done to it at HOBO all these years, it looks as though the end is nearing for this project. Considering it was supposed to be finished at the HOBO, it's a terrible sign, when they want it off the property.

Correction:
It's actually the FY restoration group that wants to bring the train to Concord. If the money is not raised, the FY will move to another site in Lincoln.

The Concord site (B&M shops) has a lot of the attributes one would hope for in a new museum site. Also, its proximity to southern NH and northern MA will improve volunteer participation.

Honestly, I'll be just as happy to see her stuffed and mounted in a nice museum, than I would running from Concord to Lincoln.

And quite a bit was done to it in Lincoln. Restorations do not get done overnight, rarely come in under estimate, and take way longer than planned, making the uninvolved think nothing is being done.

Whatever the plans are for moving the FY to Concord, if they don't have a fully enclosed, secure building
to store it in on the day of arrival, you might as well kiss the Flying Yankee goodbye.

This reminds me of the issue at the Bush41 compound in Kennebunkport Maine.
The compound was/is protected year round by the secret service. There was a
major coastal storm well in advance predicted with extra high tides and shore
damage. Government red-tape apparently was so thick that it prevented the
boarding up of the main house. The house was badly damaged and many of
the priceless contents were lost. Watch out who is involved with the move
of the FY. The devil will be in the details.

The HOBO railroad is owned by Benjamin Clark ,grandson of Edward Clark of the Clark's trading post, and white mountain central railroad.

If the Flying Yankee is the property of the State of New Hampshire, and the property owner at the present location needs the space the train is occupying, it seems as if moving it should be the financial responsibility of the state, not the Flying Yankee Restoration Group.

And it isn't as if they have nowhere to take it, if the location in Concord turns out to be impractical, the state has a number of highway department storage yards where it could be moved to, provided the cars were stored side by side rather than lined up.

But to preserve the work that has already been done, it needs to be in a building, protected from sun and weather exposure degrading the work already done and adding to the restoration cost.

RAS

One thing worth noting .... as the economy continues to improve funding for this project is going to get easier to find.

I think we have all to an extent minimized the effect of the economic downturn on this project.

Since the state owns it, maybe they should have state mechanical employees rebuild it. Hire the skill sets if you need. States are always happy to increase the size of fiefdoms, I mean payroll.

Without a viable plan, a wretched record of accomplishments and perpetual bickering while wasting dollars with little or no accountability, barring a rich rail fan devoting a ton of no strings attached funding, I don't think that there's very much of a chance for any state or federal funding of any kind. Unless a suitable protected stationary site looms large and quickly for a static display, it should not be surprising to find that the quasi restored skeleton has been reduced to a pile of industrial mush succumbing to a combination of mother nature and vandalism.

kilroy wrote:Since the state owns it, maybe they should have state mechanical employees rebuild it. Hire the skill sets if you need. States are always happy to increase the size of fiefdoms, I mean payroll.

The state of New Hampster doesn't have the funds to complete the restoration. Even if it did, it lacks the inclination. Unless you can convince the governor the trainset is addicted to opiates, no help will come from Concord.
The only way this project will ever be completed is through the private sector. Find a competent engineering firm, show them the specs, sign a contract, and get out of the way. Consider Strasburg RR and Steamtown, compare their respective track records (no pun intended). Who do you really want doing this restoration?

Why the belief that this is a binary choice- either the FY gets restored right now or she should be cut up for scrap because she'll rot away? I can think of more than one "park engine" that spent a couple decades sitting unprotected, outdoors, only to be brought to life-- and those are steamers, i.e. not built of stainless steel. And didn't the Sunbeam-- the wooden Pullman at Hilldene-- spend something like 40 years sitting as a hunting shack in the Carolina woods?

As long as she's watertight, she should be fine for a long time.

MEC 470 is probably one of the very best examples of this kind of thinking.

Put a cog on it and send her up Mt Washington.