As of October 2024, the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society announced that New York Central Steam Locomotive No. 3001 will be restored and start doing excursions again. 

New York Central 3001 is a 4-8-2 "Mohawk" steam locomotive built in October 1940 by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) of Schenectady, NY as a member of the L-3a class for the New York Central Railroad (NYC).  NYC 3001 was a mixed-traffic locomotive, which means it pulled both passenger and freight trains on the NYC system until it was retired in February 1957.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New York Central 3001 hustling a passenger train through Bay City Junction in Detroit, MI. 

 

Instead of being sold for scrap, No. 3001 was sold to the Texas and Pacific Railway (T&P), where it was masqueraded as T&P No. 909 and donated to the Museum of the American Railroad in Dallas, Texas. In the mid-1980s, No. 3001 was later donated to the National New York Central Railroad Museum in Elkhart, Indiana.  It is the largest modern NYC steam locomotive still in existence.  

In October 2024, the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society announced that they aquired 3001 and made plans to restore it to operating condition once again. Not only that, they also plan on restoring several NYC passenger cars. 

I think that 3001 should be brought back to New York State and it should pull excursion trains from Gouverneur, NY, to Norwood, NY.  If this happens, 3001 will be one of only 2 steam locomotives operating in New York (the other being Arcade and Attica No. 18). Also, it will draw more people to the North Country to see this beautiful engine.

If NYC 3001 does excursions in Upstate New York, it can pull some of the original Empire State Express coaches which were pulled by NYC's 4-6-4 J3 Hudson locomotives in 1941.

 

 

 

 

The route that NYC 3001 would take to get to Norwood from Gouverneur (highlighted in blue).

 

This excursion would go as follows, 3001 leaves Gouverneur and takes a 47 minute tour to Norwood.  Once the train stops, the passengers can do all sorts of things when they get to Norwood.  Some of the activities are that you could go inside the cab of NYC 3001, food trucks, photo ops with the locomotive, and more. After 2 hours in Norwood, the train leaves and heads back to Gouverneur.  Once the train arrives back to Gouverneur, you could buy souvenirs of this locomotive so you could have something to remember this locomotive.

The only problem with this proposal is that the railroad running through Gouverneur and Norwood is owned by CSX Transportation which could lead to serious problems especially by facing the fact that there is only one set of tracks which could make this situation worse. Besides, CSX could make another set of tracks just for NYC 3001 or a siding long enough for the excursion train so a freight train can pass.

Other than that, I think this is a great way to bring more tourism into the North Country and the train would be passing a lot of gorgeous scenery such as farmlands, rivers, and more.