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With the torches fired up, railfans hope to save F45 in the eleventh hour
Excellent write-up, Justin. Appreciate the help on getting the word out. Supporters: what it boils down to right now is getting the word out as much as possible! Not only is the deadline a challenge, Memorial Holiday complicates things as well. I had hoped to extend the deadline 20 days so I could campaign further, such as at North Carolina’s Streamliners event, but the scrap plan is already under contract and Progress Rail would be in breach of contract if they delay without substance.
Get the word out! Make calls, contact local foundations, reach the well-connected and share the story of what makes this locomotive special.
Mr. Bates seems to be a little confused. There is a very short timeline to get the funding together. To reach a large number of people and to allow them to quickly make donations, one must use the power of the internet, and credit card donations. Neither of those come free. IndieGoGo provides a platform and service and that costs money. We can all debate how much credit card processing should cost. In the end, that’s a cost of doing business that most fundraising non-profits I work with have learned to deal with.
If Mr. Bates really wants to help and doesn’t wish to do so online, may I suggest one of the overnight services (FedEx, USPS) that will get the paper check there tomorrow morning or on Saturday. Of course that also includes a cost.
Mr. Bates, nonprofits get a 25% reduction in Indiegogo’s fees, so it will cost 3% if they reach and 6.25% if they don’t. You can’t blame indiegogo for the fees charged by the credit card processors.
Still, it would be nice for 100% of contributions to go to it.
I agree with Mr. Bess since I will not use their fundraising link. The service they are using will scim 4 percent off the top if the goal is reached and 9 percent if it is not reached. Another 3 - 5 percent will be charged by the third party proceessing the payment per the terms of service. Therefore I will mail a check but the US mule will not get it there by Monday since it is a holiday. Next step will be locating the postal address.
I agree with Mr. Bess since I will not use their fundraising link. The service they are using will scim 4 percent off the top if the goal is reached and 9 percent if it is not reached. Another 3 - 5 percent will be charged by the third party proceessing the payment per the terms of service. Therefore I will mail a check but the US mule will not get it there by Monday since it is a holiday. Next step will be locating the postal address.
I would hope that Progress Rail and MRL would have a heart and delay the scrapping of the F45 until the money to save it would be raised.
MRL can’t scrap the other F45, that would be just as bad as scrapping both of them!
To answer your question, Mr. Rider, there are many FP45s still preserved, all of which are former ATSF units.
And the Colorado Railroad Museum has an ex D&RGW SD-40T2 in original paint. It is temporarily stored at Coors brewery in Golden.
New York, Susquehanna & Western No. 3636 is to be scrapped in Utica, NY in the next few days.
Not looking promising, but I appreciate the effort. Too bad that fans couldn’t of been more proactive since this fate has been obvious for quite sometime.
Just not enough time with this deadline to accomplish this barring a donor contributing the bulk of it. We’ve waited too long to likely save one of these, but hopefully if the desire is there, this energy will go towards saving one from Larry’s Truck & Electric.
Ideally, they’d try to get this deadline pushed out a bit. From what I know of MRL, odds are that they’d be amicable towards letting one sit past the contractual deadline if they were approached and the situation was explained.
What about FP45’s? Any of them saved
Lots of steam engines went to scrap because the railroads needed the scrap value of their steam power to pay for their F7s, GP7s, RS3s and what else. New York Central, Erie, Lackawanna, Lehigh Valley and Delaware & Hudson all needed to do this. Older SD40s, 45’s, 50’s and even 60s are still around because their cores had the ability to be upgraded to newer equipment specs. The F45s simply ran out of time, as old SD40, 50 and 60 cores began to lose value with AC traction units made rebuilding the old cores uneconomic.
Easier than disinterring a d-spotter’s- guide, I’ll ask.,
But first, if correctly recalling, Seaboard or SCL bought SDP35s, GN and Mexico bought SDP40s, Santa Fe and MILW bought FP45s, here’s the question: beside SP’s 10 SDP45’s, were there any others?
SP’s 3 GP40P-2s…and the CNJ’s GP40Ps…low production numbers?..the lowest major-manufacturer production numbers for a model?
GP40P-2?
And now, MRL and Progressive, please let some F45 savior be successful?
Mel, the locomotive in Perris is a Santa Fe FP45. not a F45. I think everyone is well aware that a significant percentage of Santa Fe’s last order of passenger power is preserved. What’s being talked about here is preserving an example of the far more numerous freight version, the F45.
At least even if one of these survivors isn’t saved, the shell of one will live on.
Can they be offered a deposit to delay for 30 days with option to buy? If the funds can’t be raised by then they can keep deposit. At least but some time. I’m going to streamliners next weekend and will put $50 in at least. Maybe NCtran would like to acquire this unit. Just a thought. Rick from The Woodlands.
There is one at the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, CA that’s in the process of being restored to it’s as delivered appearance and will be operatable.
Is a mortgage possible?
Viability of Milwaukee Roads’ western lines