Wilkes students aiding Vulcan restoration
BY MICHAEL P. BUFFER
STAFF WRITER
05/23/2007
WEST PITTSTON — Work is progressing on a $200,000 project to refurbish a 1942 Vulcan Iron Works locomotive, project coordinator George Spohrer said Tuesday.
Spohrer talked about the project during a meeting of the Luzerne County Redevelopment Authority, the sponsor of Vulcan Pride Limited, which is the non-profit company raising money for the project. Spohrer said Wilkes University students are producing a color brochure that will be used to help fundraising for the project.
“We have about $8,500 to $9,000 in the till,” Spohrer said.
Ron Delevan’s RMDI Inc. of Duryea is repairing the locomotive, which was designed and constructed in Wilkes-Barre in 1942. Project organizers hope the restored train engine will become a tourist attraction and eventually pull cars filled with people enjoying fine dining and scenic tours of the Wyoming Valley.
The project is tied to the authority’s restoration of the Wilkes-Barre train station at the Market Street Square complex into a tourist and visitor’s center. An exhibit dedicated to the Vulcan Iron Works, which once employed 2,400 and still has about 100 locomotives in productive use, will be featured in the center.
Tony Mussari, producer of the Windsor Park Stories TV program, is working on a documentary of the Vulcan Iron Works, Spohrer said.
mbuffer@citizensvoice.com
Thats a cool project! The documentary should be interesting also when they complete it.