Steam & Excursion > Yellow Ribbon Express - Official Announcement

Another post that I'm surprised hasn't been shared here yet: http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2015/02/ross-rowland-promotes-steam-hauled-yellow-ribbon-express-for-2017

"PHILADELPHIA – Steam impresario Ross E. Rowland is promoting a steam-hauled exhibition train that he hopes will visit 125 cities and towns in the U.S. between 2017 and 2020.

The idea is an updated version of his highly acclaimed 1975-1976 American Freedom Train. "It's a clone of the Freedom Train," Rowland says. That train, bearing hundreds of historic artifacts and documents, was seen by more than 7 million people.

Rowland says that the Yellow Ribbon Express has two goals. The first is "a national loud and proud thank you" to American military veterans, especially those who have served since 9/11. The second, he says, is to raise $1 billion to aid wounded veterans of the wars who have fought since 2001. "It's a thank you from the 99 percent of us to the 1 percent of us who have done the heavy lifting," he adds.

Rowland is currently seeking 10 corporate sponsors willing to invest $2 million a year each for five years, so that all admission income from the traveling exhibition will go directly to what he calls "A Billion for the Brave."

The train will be steam-powered, Rowland says, so it is more than just a train. "It will be a spectacle," he says. "Steam will draw people to the train. It will be a happening." He is seeking support of several Class I railroads, and one, which he will not name, is already on board with the idea.

The primary locomotive will be former Chesapeake & Ohio No. 614, a 1948 Lima 4-8-4 that Rowland has owned for three decades. He revealed that he and his engineering team are considering converting the locomotive to burn natural gas. Other main line locomotives will double-head with No. 614 on the tour, according to Rowland, so that a live, steaming locomotive will be on hand every day at every exhibit site. "There are quite a few large, mainline locomotive available around the country so we can have alive locomotive on site every day," he says.

"It's a tall mountain to climb, and there are no guarantees," Rowland says. "I'm modestly optimistic that we can do this."

Jim Lipnitz
Morrisville, PA
Big Jim Video Productions

That's really cool.

Yet another reason to mount an eagle on top of that headlight!

Steve Krause
Chillicothe, IL

Hasn't this Yellow Ribbon Express idea been around for the last decade or so already? This isn't really anything new as far as I know. Just apparently now there's an article just now on Trains.

They lost me on the natural gas conversion. What a shame.

If anyone has burned natural gas in a steam locomotive before, how well did it work? Is this really more viable than biodiesel or waste vegetable oil? I haven't heard any drawbacks with those fuels.

I really hope this works.

Posted from iPhone

Well, many theme park steam engines burn gas quite successfully. How this would scale up to a full size steam engine will be interesting to follow.


Michael

Michael Jackson's 3' gauge Crown 4-4-0 was set up to run on Propane. It has/had a commercial, forced air, burner that swirled the fire in the firebox. It actually worked pretty well, but that was with a small engine and two light excursion cars.

Fuel economy wasn't that good, but it did work.

Well...I'm all for operating steam...but...I don't like the idea of destroying the engine to burn other than coal. Ross will have to get "around" several major things: Many folks that don't live in West Virginia, hate coal, especially the administration. You have priceless objects, (or copies), and a lot of people attending. That would present an attractive target for folks that don't like America...or our military - the object of the whole tour. I wish Ross and all involved, the greatest success. If anyone can pull it off, Ross can do it. God Bless America, our troops and this project. (This is all just my personal opinion.)

Is it even possible to have a plume when burning gas?

I'd assume waste oil would be the way to go in regards
of marketing and presumably, ease to acquire.

It would sure be great to see #614 back in action!

/Mitch

I gotta go check my calendar. I didn't think April was that close.

Fix the VA, lower Vet homelessness, stand behind reducing suicides among vets.

Running a rail excursion does what for Veterans? Sorry Ross but I don't see the point other than 614 under steam.
Posted from iPhone



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/15 21:43 by crusader5619.

I hope the train visits San Diego. The Surf Line will sure be flooded with foamers if that happens

crusader5619 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Fix the VA, lower Vet homelessness, stand behind
> reducing suicides among vets.
>
> Running a rail excursion does what for Veterans?
> Sorry Ross but I don't see the point other than
> 614 under steam.

Uh... "to raise $1 billion to aid wounded veterans..."

On the other hand, N&W #611 does not have any pro-
ceeeds going towards veterans. We could start a
petition to halt that restoration and divert funds
to Vet Homelessness, perhaps?

/Mitch

Just curious, so I'll ask / defer to our steam team experts. If the 614 was given a total rework & a new Form 4, that'd be good for what 1,472 days or about 4 years. I assume keeping it live / under steam for most of those 3 years would eat up a lot of operational time after a complete rebuild. Seems like if it was kept "live" for most of that 3 year period, it would only have about a year plus or minus before another major rebuild was required no?

Important to state that there's a long ways to go until this project becomes a reality. The single largest task is securing the corporate co-sponsors needed to fund it. I think we have a fighting chance of getting the needed corporate support based upon the " eyeballs" the YRE will generate, which will make a co-sponsorship a sound commercial buy with the patriotism halo a bonus.

No decision has yet been made on converting the 614 to natural gas although the preliminary engineering we've done indicates it is very plausible and should work well.

There's no doubt that the vast majority of our fellow American's know we owe a huge debt of gratitude to those who have fought to preserve our way of life on the frontlines in the never ending war of good vs. evil and I believe given a chance to show that gratitude will do so.

The next 6 months should tell the story on getting our co-sponsors.

Thanks for your interest.

Ross Rowland

As much as I would love to see this happen, I question how willing the rr's would be to allow this. Especially the steam part.

Doug Wetherhold
Macungie, PA

ALCO630 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As much as I would love to see this happen, I
> question how willing the rr's would be to allow
> this. Especially the steam part.

If the corporate sponsors are lined up and YRE gets a lot of good nationwide news coverage the railroads will have little choice but to allow it. No corporation can be seen as being negative to veterans whether they want to hassle with the train or not.

Good point.

Doug Wetherhold
Macungie, PA

Keystone1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well...I'm all for operating steam...but...I don't
> like the idea of destroying the engine to burn
> other than coal. Ross will have to get "around"
> several major things: Many folks that don't live
> in West Virginia, hate coal, especially the
> administration. You have priceless objects, (or
> copies), and a lot of people attending. That would
> present an attractive target for folks that don't
> like America...or our military - the object of the
> whole tour. I wish Ross and all involved, the
> greatest success. If anyone can pull it off, Ross
> can do it. God Bless America, our troops and this
> project. (This is all just my personal opinion.)

I agree with you Keystone; I'd hate to see this locomotive operate with anything other than coal. Keep it historical so that this newer generations can appreciate what railroading was like in the good-ole-days. This is also my personal opinion.
John in White Marsh, Maryland