p42thedowneaster wrote:In hindsight, I should have ignored the rudeness...and I should never have played into this.
I didn't realize pointing out facts was "rude?" And nobody's "playing" you.
The purpose of this topic was simply to suggest that an MBTA F40PH might have the same historical value in 30 years as B&M F7 4266 does today.
You were quite specific about saving an engine, what paint scheme it must be, and then you rattled off a list of places where it could live. But you skipped a bunch of steps in between. If you're serious about saving one of these engines (and it sounds like you might be) then I'm merely trying to help you understand what it takes to make it happen.
As we have discussed, there are definitely suitable places for an F40PH to find green pastures in NE....dead or alive. Whether or not these existing organizations actually want one is not my decision. However, I think there is some value in discussing this here because it might inform preservation groups that people are interested. It brings up the fact that there is one particularly special locomotive, the #1000, which would be the most ideal candidate. If they're going to run it, now is the time to grab it...in 30 years it will be much more difficult to restore.
So far not one preservation group in New England has jumped up to grab one. So if you think there's a significant case for saving an MBTA F40, you should make it! I mean literally write a descriptive paragraph about what makes this locomotive unique and worthy of preservation. That is the first step... Then work up the costs of procurement (purchase price, transport, cranes and rigging needed at both locations, over-the-road permits), the cost of display (cosmetic restoration, abatements and remediation, building display track, maintenance budget), and the eventual cost of mechanical restoration (too many points to list right now).
I'm just going to point this out as an example of procuring a historic diesel from a commuter authority. The transport costs were less because the locomotive was able to be shipped on its own wheels and the RMNE is connected to Metro-North, but read how long the process was just to procure the last production FL9 (and the last production F-unit):
http://naugy.blogspot.com/2007/10/new-h ... d-fl9.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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