Locomotive restoration at Steamtown still alive despite end of 28-year partnership

Sep. 22—The dissolution of a longstanding partnership between Steamtown National Historic Site and a rail preservation group spearheading the restoration of a historic locomotive in the park's collection won't mean an end to the project.

Both Steamtown and the Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley Railway Historical Society say they want to see Boston & Maine Railroad 3713 restored and in operation at the historic site.

Norman Barrett, a society director and the most recent manager of its Project 3713 effort, said he thinks almost everyone recognizes completing restoration of the steam-powered locomotive is essential to Steamtown's future.

The park currently has just one operating steam locomotive — the 94-year-old Baldwin Locomotive Works 26, a small switch engine.

"They need it," Barrett said of the 3713, which now sits in pieces in the park's shop. "You need a big engine. You need an engine that is capable of getting out on the road and running."

The society, a regional chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, announced in late August that its formal partnership with the National Park Service to restore the Boston & Maine engine had come to an end after 28 years.

In a statement to project supporters posted on its website, the group cited the park service's decision to take a "different approach" to the restoration.

Steamtown spokeswoman Megan Stevens said in an email all the restoration work undertaken so far on the 3713 has been completed by park staff and volunteers.

"It is beyond our capacity to complete the restoration in a timely manner," she said.

In late 2019, the historical site submitted a project to the park service to fund the completion of the locomotive restoration, she said.

Large component contracting and planning has begun for some of 3713's major components and, pending the completion of some other small projects at the park, the locomotive "will become a primary focus of the restoration shop this fall and winter," Stevens said.

Known as "The Constitution," the 3713 was built by Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio, in 1934 and operated on Boston & Maine passenger lines in New England until 1958.

The locomotive was part of F. Nelson Blount's private Steamtown U.S.A. collection that moved to Scranton from Bellow Falls, Vermont, in the 1980s.

The historical society's work with the 3713 dates to the 1990s, when the organization approached Steamtown officials about getting involved in a restoration project.

The formal partnership was launched in 1995, with the intention of making 3713 the park's first American-built mainline steam locomotive to be restored to operating condition.

With the society focusing on the fundraising and Steamtown managing the restoration work, the partnership renewed every five years, most recently in 2015, before lapsing in 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Barrett said.

"Our chapter people missed it, and the park service missed it," he said of the agreement's expiration. "In the past that happened and it was no big thing. They just went in and renewed it, and it was done."

After the 2020 expiration, because of changes in park service policy on philanthropic partnerships, Steamtown's management insisted on a different type of agreement, Barrett said. Things got "testy" at times as meetings were held and documents were exchanged.

Over the years, the society had used money donated for the restoration to contract out and pay for the rebuilding of small parts needed for the 3713, he said. As a result, there are "loads and loads and loads" of parts at Steamtown ready to go on the engine.

"They didn't want us doing that anymore," Barrett said.

In the end, Barrett said, the society decided to dissolve the formal partnership. Stevens said Steamtown and the organization will continue to collaborate on an informal basis.

The society agreed to turn over to Steamtown all the money raised for Project 3713 but not yet spent — more than $184,000 — and the historic site agreed to place the funds into a special account that can only be used for the locomotive restoration, Barrett said.

"It protects the money, and it protects the people who have been donating to it, past, past and, hopefully, future," he said.

One option would be for the Iron Horse Society, the Steamtown friends group and official philanthropic partner, to accept donations for the 3713 restoration and then direct those funds into the special account at Steamtown.

Barrett, who is president of the Iron Horse Society, believes the group would be agreeable to that but said the arrangement would have to be approved by its board of directors.

Stevens said setting any kind of date for completion of the Boston & Maine's restoration would be premature at this point.

The Iron Horse Society will assist Steamtown with securing a professional project assessment "to develop a clear path forward" for restoration, and that would be a first step toward establishing a timeline, she said.

Barrett is confident the restoration will happen.

"Some of the guys in our chapter wanted to walk away from it, but a lot of us said no," he said. "We've been with it for 28 years. Let's see it finished."

Contact the writer: dsingleton@timesshamrock.com, 570-348-9132