Maine Central Steam Locomotive #470 Discussion

THe City Council will undertake discussion of restoration plans for steam locomotive MEC 470, at Tuesday night's meeting, September 07. The meeting will be on the third floor of the old Serns Department store building in downtown. If you can attend, your presence will be welcomed. If you are unable, an email to the Mayor's office is the next best thing. This is probably our last, best hope to see this locomotive given proper attention, so please become a participant.

To all of you who have written thus far (and I'm told that an amzing number of you have), my most sincere and deepest thanks. Perhpas we will model a change in locomotive preservation status in America. It's a nice goal for which to shoot!

I also wrote to each of the individual City Council members. Their e-mail addresses can be found here:

http://www.waterville-me.gov/city_council.htm

Article in today's Morning Sentinel:

http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/n ... 6093.shtml

Well this is a tuff question to ask right now, for the soul fact that there are no strong efforts right now to even restore the engine in the 1st place, but I do believe it will happen... (Sometime soon I hope). So my question is... Are they going to restore it for display use only or are they going to restore it for possible tourist use?

Sadly,Guilford & Waterville are NOT on the best of terms,mostly over taxes. Guilford,other than when it first commenced operations,is NOT known as a philanthropic company,and the same for its interest in/cooperation,in historic preservation. Perhaps the best approach is to emphasize to Waterville that the MAINE CENTRAL HERITAGE needs to be preserved;the City of Waterville,WAS the Maine Central!!!! The shops were located here(OK,I know,Guilford still has a remnant of them)and thousands of well paying jobs were created here. The station had to go due to highway relocation,the roundhouse & backshops are "off limits" and "outta view",so there is not much left of this 142 year history! Waterville(and Winslow),while not unique in this,have lost thousands of well paying "blue collar jobs";their attempts at "revitalization",pathetic! The leveling of the sprawling Wyandotte Woolen Mills,next to the river & the Lower Road,in the 60's,is still a vacant lot(sorta like Bangor's "Riverfront Park",where the MEC yards & roundhouse were until a decade ago). There isn't even any mention,that Colby College was IN "Downtown Waterville" until the World War Two era and the move to Mayflower Hill on the outskirts.(1 or 2 former brick dorms remain (other owners & uses)near the Guilford yards). So,Waterville had better preserve its heritage,and here is a chance,with what seems to be financial aid from railfans and probably the Maine Historic Preservation Comm.(who is starting to realize that original railroad structures & artifacts are rapidly vanishing-and published the book,"Along The Rails"). Bud

Hello
I've been keeping track of whats going on with the 470 recently, check out the Railway Preservation and go to there fourm (Interchange) and you'll see a topic about the 470. The article was also in the KJ here in Augusta. I can't see it running again becouse a)Guilford, b)the engine is in tough shape. A lot of damage has been done by it being outside all these years in the. For one thing there is no cap on the stack (from what I can tell) so water and snow would have been able to get in the boiler and do some damage. Not to metion the parts that are bent, bashed, broken and lost from the locomotive. Alot of the cab floor as well as the bottom of the tender have rusted away. God only knows what else. So could it run again, well anything can happen You just need the cash (Dose any one have a Million bucks that they want taken off there hands). In reallity however I don't see it running anytime soon, if ever.

-Justin Franz

Oh and heres the web address to Railway Preservation www.rypn.org

The Waterville City Council meeting was held as scheduled with 6 counselors and Mayor LePage present. It was attended by a Morning Sentinel Reporter, and broadcast on local cable access. The room rapidly filled with about 25 attendees.


Prior to my introduction, the Mayor and several Counselors held up a file folder which was easily 1” thick, with hard copies of letters of support for preserving the 470, from all over North America. Besides me, Stephen Hussar and Brian Hebert, from Massachusetts’s and New Hampshire were in attendance. Stephen provided some excellent graphics of well preserved locomotives from around the nation, including the recent housing of B&M 494 in Vermont, and the Nashville 4-8-4. I made my presentation regarding the 470 and the three possible courses of positive action developed for review. Everyone listened attentively while Stephen’s photos were distributed. When the floor opened for discussion, 16 local people identified themselves as being present to lend support for putting the locomotive under cover and giving it a proper restoration. Speakers included several men who rode behind it 50 years ago, widows and adult grandchildren of retired railroad men, and two young boys, one about 14 years of age, who had already gathered and donated over $300 to the city, and a third grader who had taken it upon himself to write to the Mayor to request action, long before our proposal! It was firmly asserted that restoration would have to be done by qualified, locomotive restoration personnel, and not city personnel or local people meaning well. All restoration would be monitored by appointed individuals who represented the City and concerned railroad preservationists.

In conclusion, it was concurred that the City would form a Committee including city designees and members of the concerned public, to review the options and make a recommendation to the Council. Once the recommendation was decided upon, the Council would determine the best manner in which to access funding to carryout the plans. No disassembly or actions would be taken until funding resources were secured from outside the city budget. Not one negative comment was made from the community or the Council.

As the meeting broke up, one Counselor told me that the presentation left her tearful and ashamed of how their predecessor had allowed the locomotive to fall on hard times. Another pledged to secure grants in any way available to get this job done.

A short list of volunteers with railroad employment or preservation interest from the gallery amounted to about 12 individuals. The City Counselors will convene a meeting of these individuals in the near future, and we’ll go forward from that time.

I came away feeling assured that we can expect action towards meeting the goal of preserving the locomotive. I will continue to be part of the ongoing discussions.

I cannot offer enough praise to those individuals who took the time to write a letter and make the City of Waterville aware of the treasure in their front yard. Emails made a huge impact on the governing body. We will try to live up to your good wishes and good will.

Glad to hear that all went well. Now it remains to hold their feet to the fire until something materializes... I'm sure everyone is well-meaning, but look at the total lack of progress on the other Maine Central locomotive (#501) at North Conway, in spite of years of (supposed) restoration work. It's the same hulk it was 25 years ago... perhaps even worse. I'm sure all involved in that project were/are well-meaning too.

Hopefully the "committee" will take immediate steps to at least arrest the continuing deterioration while a plan to restore the locomotive is formulated.
Good work on the part of all involved in making the city aware of the need for action. We all will be watching closely in the months/years ahead.

Can they get some sponsors to help pay for restoration? That way, there would be people/companies with a financial interest and perhaps it would keep the project from stalling.

By the way, when you say restoration, do you mean cosmetic only? Maybe a state/town park could be put together and rides offered. That could pay the bills as well, though I don't know the area and can't comment much because of it.

Jonelle

While the committee hasn't yet met, the proposals to be studied and recommended on include two buildings and a complete cosmetic resotration, also possibly leasing or lending out the locomotive for operational restoration, with an eye towards eventually returning her to Maine. I think the latter is less likely, but a comprehensive locomotive evaluation will be undertaken, no matter what.

I am collecting grant applications for review at the present. Certainly grant and sponsored funding will be needed to make this work. If you are close to the President or CEO of any large Maine company, please have them get in touch with me!

Those of you who play the Powerball, keep us in mind. We are not planning to utilize City money for this project, as the budget is already pressed. Should the Prop #1 go through, you can bet that things will change for the negative with this project as well.

And I suppose it would be a waste of breath to even suggest that the committee approach Guilford for a small donation, considering that Guilford has been late paying its taxes lately.

Approach might be undertaken; response is the difficult part. But not to worry, as all avenues will be discussed and entertained. Guilford might suddenly do something nice. And while it is out of character, one can never tell.

BTW, the committee has yet to be convened for a meeting, but I am gathering grant applications. Anyone who has corporate connections or knows agencies who would be able to contribute funding, skills, materials, labor, etc., should get in touch with me. [email protected] .

I have contacted the Mayor's Office with regard to convening a meeting of the 470 Restoration Committee. I have been told that the Mayor has contacted one of the Councilors who express interest in the program, as well as the City Engineer. I have telephoned the City Engineer and left a message, but no repsonse as of yet.

My hope is to start investigating a plan for the locomotive and start applications for grants immediatly. Until the city gets back to me, I have nothing new to offer. Believe me, I AM NOT GOING TO LET THIS MATTER REST.

Thanks for keeping us up-to-date!

All has been quiet for the past 3 months... sometimes an ominous sign! Any progress to report? Usually everyone mouths approval of these sorts of schemes, but when the hat gets passed around it comes back empty. Especially in good old New England. Hopefully this instance will prove the exception.