Beaumont Enterprise"A last-minute effort to save locomotive No. 503 in Bryan Park was launched by Jason Sobczynski, owner of Next Generation Rail Services, through a GoFund Me campaign Friday. As of Monday, the campaign had raised almost $29,000 toward its $50,000 goal.
Sobczynski estimates it will cost $20,000 to purchase the engine, $20,000 for trucking to Rusk and $5,000 for a crane at either end. The campaign plan includes relocation and eventual restoration to working condition at the Orlando and Northwestern Railway, according to the GoFund Me page.
"This should not be happening. This is an absolute atrocity in the preservation world and it speaks so much to how irrelevant history has become," Sobczynski said in an interview with railroad industry-focused podcast "The Roundhouse."
No. 503, a former Louisiana & Arkansas steam locomotive, has been on display in Bryan Park since 1957. In its present condition, Sobczynski said the train has a scrap value of $18,975.
According to the city of Port Arthur, Tropical Storm Harvey and more than 30 years of exposure to salty air have rendered the train in poor condition, including an asbestos problem that Sobczynski said was addressed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
According to Sobczynski, one of the train's hinges "began puking asbestos," and the TCEQ told the city to do something about it immediately.
Under Port Arthur's code of ordinances, the city manager has the "general authority" to contract items less than $25,000 without city council approval.
Despite necessary repairs, Sobczynski said he believes No. 503 is in "really amazing" condition, considering its more than 30 years' of exposure to the elements.
Sobczynski's company specializes in rebuilding and repairing steam locomotives. He said they do everything from rehabilitating the boilers, welding, plumbing, piping - everything from ball bearings "you can hold in your hand to 3,000-pound axles."
"Those things are basically a lost art," Sobczynski said.
If the funds are secured, No. 503 will be transported to the Texas State Railroad Museum in Rusk for temporary storage. From there, Sobczynski said a non-profit trust will be created. Sobczynski said he is in communication with some grant-issuing entities to assist in funding the train's restoration. Ultimately the newly restored No. 503 will be supported through grants and fundraising and subsidized by the Orlando and Northwestern Railway, Sobczynski said.
he fully functional train will be leased to the railroad to ensure money continuously goes into the fund to finance care and maintenance.
According to Sobczynski, extensive railroad "preservation community" exists outside Texas. Several contributors to the fundraising campaign mentioned their enthusiasm for the project.
One contributor, Daniel Scanlon, said "it would disgust (him) to see an old locomotive destroyed and lost forever."
"This thing may not look like much, but surprisingly, it actually produces 40,300 pounds of traction effort. It is a strong machine and is ideally suited for tourist railroad operation," Sobczynski said.
Other recent efforts to save local train history include a 1981 caboose donated by BNSF to the Port of Beaumont and the restoration of the old Orange Train Depot, which was built in 1902.
Maintenance workers at the port started repainting and renovating the 28-ton caboose in 2014. The iconic car was once attached to the end of a train and used by crews to rest, eat or observe the freight cars. It was among the last of a series ordered by the old Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad before it merged with Burlington Northern to become BNSF.
The caboose will serve as a piece of public art and will be representative of a long-gone era in railroading, according to the port.
The Friends of the Orange Depot spent years fundraising, scraping away old paint and tearing down walls at the old Southern Pacific Railroad Depot on Green Avenue.
The depot, which closed in the 1970s and was donated to the Friends of the Orange Depot in 2013, opened as a museum last May.
The non-profit spent three years raising $540,000 to restore the historic depot, which is available to rent for meetings and special events.
Beaumont-based architect Rob Clark worked with the group to restore the depot as close to its original state as possible, with some practical modifications, he said, so it can accommodate museum exhibits and events.