I'm sorry I took a railroad.net break over the weekend. I didn't intend for this thread to get so big. I should probably jump in here and lay a few facts down on the table since I am best in the know as to what Twin Forks' plans are and what has occurred to date.
1. The Twin Forks Chapter NRHS agreement with Indiana Box Car Corp. has terminated as of June 1st. This means that all monies donated so far will be returned to Twin Forks to be distributed back to the donors. No further efforts will be taken by the chapter to reopen an agreement with Indiana Boxcar unless a dramatic change of events occurs and the funds for purchase are in hand. No further efforts for fundraising will take place. Indiana Boxcar gave us 2 years on an exclusive agreement to raise the funds. The business agreement ended and we have to abide.
2. I did not submit this post to solicit funds from individuals on railroad.net. That time has passed. I posted this so that everyone is knowledgeable about the situation and can get the word out that this locomotive is available on the market. Who knows, maybe someone was waiting for the Twin Forks venture to be over so they could purchase it for themselves and return it to Long Island. I thank everyone (especially Rich Glueck) for the ideas regarding raising funds through the railroad.net membership. We mentioned this awhile back on here and did not get too much support. Should we have mentioned again periodically? Probably. But that was a marketing error in my opinion. We can't go back.
3. The estimates on cost (except the actual purchase price) were just that....estimates only. The chapter had a philosophy that if we raised the $20,000 we would then take the next steps of formally deciding what the future plans were. The first phase of the project was to secure the funds for purchase. The second phase was to make repairs and swap out the trucks in Indiana. The third phase was to return the unit via rail to Long Island. The fourth phase regarding storage and long term use was too far off to warrant serious consideration. Informal talks took place but no definite goal was decided upon.
4. If anyone has any further questions I will be more than happy to address them one on one. I will also try to keep checking here and will attempt to respond to questions publicly. Please feel free to email me however at
[email protected] at any time.
I want to end by saying I am quite pleased with the response to this post. But at the same time I wanted to rein it in before rumors started flying and people went off on tangents. Thanks for all your words of support.
Also, we still have plenty of ongoing projects to which you can lend your support. One of our most recent successes was the fundraiser to strip the paint from the interior of LIRR caboose C-60. The hack looks great and we invite anyone to come to the RMLI railfest in August to see for yourself. We will be displaying plaques with names of donors permanently in the hack and are keeping that open through the summer for anyone who wishes to continue to donate. The work is ongoing. Thanks again.
Joe
