Amtrak has officially certified the restored trucks of Flying Yankee as meeting all Amtrak requirements. Soon, with financial help, Flying Yankee will again run American rails. If you click www.flyingyankee.com, you will see a photo of the Minuteman, as she was named when I rode her in 1953. BTW, she was delivered to the B&M one month before I was born, but I haven't needed restoration....yet. :tb-biggrin: Note - the following article is posted on today's (10/30/08) Trains Newswire. Flying Yankee truck restoration complete Published: Thursday, October 30, 2008 NORTH WOODSTOCK, N.H. - A major piece of the Flying Yankee Restoration project has been completed with restoration of the streamliner's trucks and wheel assemblies by the New Hampshire Central Railroad. Amtrak officials have inspected the trucks and the work was officially approved, certifying that they meet all applicable Amtrak requirements. The restoration was a $150,000 project paid for with Transportation Enhancement Funds as well as private donations raised by the Flying Yankee Restoration Group, Inc. and took more than a year to complete. Operated jointly by the Boston & Maine and Maine Central in northern New England, the Flying Yankee was the second of four three-car, diesel-electric streamlined passenger trains of this type manufactured by the Budd Company of Philadelphia. It traveled nearly three million miles between 1935 and 1957. The next step in the project will be the restoration of the GE-721 Traction Motors. One of the two traction motors is basically complete while the other needs some additional work to finish the restoration. The Flying Yankee restoration is more than 50 percent complete. A $3.5 million dollar capital campaign to raise money to complete the restoration and testing is underway and a naming program is a central part of the fund raising effort. For more donation information, call 603-745-3974, go to www.flyingyankee.com or send an e-mail to flyingyankee@usa.net.
This is so fantastic to contemplate. Actually running again. Wow! I envy anyone who can see it in person. Boxcab E50
Ken, you can take a short trip and see Flying Yankee in person. Just head east on I-90, take a left near Boston onto I-93, and you'll be in North Woodstock, NH in no time. While you're there, take a quick side trip over to Lincoln and see these beauties, http://www.whitemountaincentralrr.com/RailroadLocomotives. Though I would advise waiting until next May after the snow has melted.....:tb-wink:
Hank- Snow is coming here early next week. So a drive across eastern MT, and the Dakotas wouldn't be a thrill to contemplate. However, if I ever got into the NH area, I'd also be checking out all the two footers, and Conway Scenic, etc. Seems to me there's enough to visit, a couple of weeks would not even be enough time! Boxcab E50
