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In a 1927 ceremony in Washington, D.C., President Calvin Coolidge honored Charles Lindbergh for flying The Spirit of St. Louis from Long Island, N.Y., to Paris, the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic.
Newsreel makers filmed the presidential ceremony to be shown in New York theaters. One company sent its film by airplane. Another raced its film to Manhattan Transfer by train, developing it en route in a B60 baggage car equipped with a darkroom. The plane arrived first. But the newsreel company using the train scooped its rival because its film was ready for theaters on arrival.
The historic engine that towed the darkroom car 260 miles in 174 minutes has been known as the Lindbergh Engine ever since. And now, the last surviving locomotive of its kind is being restored by the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, in Strasburg.
Of the 83 E6s built, No. 460 is the only one left today, the museum's restoration manager Allan Martin said.
Built in 1914 by the Pennsylvania Railroad in Juniata, the engine was retired in 1955.
The E6s was built for speed. It carried passenger cars throughout eastern Pennsylvania.
No. 460's distinguished career includes pulling the Broadway Limited, one of the most prestigious passenger trains of its time.
"Engines were built for different purposes, just like cars," the museum's chief curator Bradley Smith said. "You had your SUVs, you had your minivans, you had your cars."
The restoration will take six workers an estimated 6,300 hours to complete.
The engine's black paint is being stripped. It will be primed and repainted soon. Wood doors, windows, cab flooring and cab seats will be replaced. Lights will be rewired and missing rain curtains will be replaced.
"We are trying to preserve as much of the original as possible," Martin said.
The projected cost of restoring the engine is $310,000. The Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society will match up to $50,000 raised by March 15, 2010.
Donations can be made by visiting rrmuseumpa.org or calling the museum at 687-8628.
Jeannette Scott is a Sunday News staff writer. Contact her at jscott@lnpnews.com or at 291-8689.
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