Gentle Readers,
Currently the "Steam Up! LIRR 39" restoration fund rests at $214,408.00 and continues to grow slowly - for all the same reasons we have discussed over the past twenty-two months since this post was started.
The "Steam Up! LIRR 39" Lionel O gauge collectible ($10,000) and Bachmann HO scale collectible ($7,800.00) car projects have both done well. We anticipate another healthy infusion of cash to the project when Lionel and Bachmann deliver our current "Steam Up!" offerings in November, in time for the 2018 Holiday Season.
I'm not going to re-hash all the challenges of this project, they remain. We continue to host discussions with professional fund-raisers and grant writers, explore foundations and philanthropic donors and garner the support of rail focused organizations. In the past eighteen months a Long Island Chapter of the Pennsylvania Railroad Technical and Historical Society has become active and they are raising funds for both Engine #39 and Engine #35. The greater PRRT&HS and their Chapters continue to greatly support this "Pennsy designed" G5s restoration and we appreciate their interest and desire to see #39 back in steam. To date the PRRT&HS and its Chapters have donated $27,610.00, not a small feat for one organization. We thank them and their members who have donated as well.
There will always be members of our community that fear a project can not be accomplished. Thankfully, the greater community forges on with the vision and desire to "git 'er done!"
Gentle Reader, this is a project that began with "talk" in the 1970's, (Engine 39 was going to be operational for the U.S. Bicentennial!), initial movement of the locomotive that occurred in 1980, and a steady progress of good work getting done on the steam engine ever since. One million dollars has already been expended on this three million dollar restoration project. Over a million and a quarter dollars is in the bank and pledged to continue the restoration . . . . . . . we are in the home stretch to raise the remaining funds necessary to complete the restoration. You are our best cheerleaders, you can help make LIRR 39 steam again - yes, in Pennsylvania - where it will be appreciated and regularly visited by people from all over the world and where it can be well taken care of and survive into our children's and grandchildren's future - support the project with your dollars and talk about it to your friends and the organizations you belong to. If you have any suggestions for corporate funding, please pass them along and we will diligently investigate them: dfisher@rmli.org
Thank you for your interest and keeping this thread alive!
Don Fisher, President
Railroad Museum of Long Island
