Re: 278 - "They" is US ... #3751 (NNG)

Hi, John -

I was involved with #3751 at the very beginning. Larry Wines and I had met while we were
both traveling with the American Freedom Train, he in Security and I as a volunteer on the
engine crew.   Larry organized the 3751 restoration project after Railfair in 1981, and I was
the original "Secretary" on the BoD.  I obtained the Articles of Incorporation from Mike Man-
gini of "Project 2472" (now the Golden Gate RR Museum), substituted "San Bernardino RR
Histörical Society" where appropriate, and filed the result in order to get us 501(c)3 non-profit
status.  Larry later arranged for the SBRRHS to buy the engine from the City for $1.00 - they
were glad to have us (eventually) get "the eyesore" out of the park near the depot!

I was also a worker bee during the first year or two of evaluation and disassembly while the engine was still in the park. When one of the cylinder covers was removed to determine her condition, the chalk marks on the piston from her last servicing by ATSF in 1957 were still there! Mechanically, she was in excellent condition, but the boiler shell was in very bad shape under the sandbox where water had soaked into the asbestos* and caused a lot rust during the 15 years or so that she had been sitting outside.

Scott Britten and Bob Kittel joined the board in 1983 or '84. Sometime after we had acquired a narrow-gauge 2-8-0 from a former restaurant site in Pasadena, there was some disension on the board as to whether the SBRRHS should be trying to become the southern branch of the California State RR Museum or whether we should focus exclusively on restoration of #3751. Larry resigned from the board in 1985 or '86, and as I was now married and raising a (semi-foamette) daughter in Ventura - about a 2.5-hour drive from S.B. - I resigned not too long after.

- Russo Loco,
Locomotive Maintenance Crew, #4449 & #610, American Freedom Train, October 1975 - February, 1976

p.s. There was a photo published in the SBRRHS bulletin a couple of years later, over a caption describing how "foamers" had dis-assembled the engine in a haphazard way, and the new BoD was working hard to correct the "damage" that they had caused.  Funny thing was that the "foamers" shown in the smokebox were myself (see above) and the Federal Boiler Inspector for the So. Calif. region ...    






* "Ah likes gold, and Ah likes silver - but Ah likes azz-bestest."    



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/2012 12:39PM by Russo Loco.