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PAGE 15 - PLAINDEALER - WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8. 1984 Old Locomotive To Be Restored By Volunteers BY JOHN REED Pine Bluff Commercial PINE BLUFF, Ark. (AP) -- Cotton Belt steam Locomotive 819 was once a king of the rails, pulling as many as 125 cars at speeds up to 80 mph. Traveling a single mile it would bum 15 gallons of fuel and turn 200 gallons of water into steam. When fully loaded with 15,000 gallons of water and 5,000 gallons of fuel oil, it weighed 737,500 Sunds. Its drive wheels are tier than most men. It was towed across Pine Bluff recently at less than 5 mph, from the Army Reserve Armory just east of Oakland Park where it had sat for years, south to the Cotton Belt tracks on Third Avenue, and east across Main Street to the machine shop in the old Cotton Belt yards where East Second Avenue curves under the Martha Mitchell expressway. There, where it was built in t943, volunteers plan to restore it o working condition. It made the tracks groan, Teak and complain, but the Cot- ton Belt workers and railroad buffs who walked along beside it, or rode atop it, or hung from lad­ ders on the sides, were happy and excited. Equally excited -- perhaps even more -- were the students of Trinity Episcopal Day School, who turned out with screams and shouts to view the relic and wave at its riders as it passed by their school. It reached the machine shop two hours after coupling with a diesel switch engine on a spur of the tracks going bv Oakland Park, where it had suffered from vandals and the weather for 25 years. A flatcar rode between 819 and the diesel engine that towed it so there wouldn't be too much weight on the tracks and their bed at one time. Two Cotton Belt wheel trucks, which the railroad uses when a train is derailed, followed the 819 across town, in case of trouble. They weren't needed. "We haven't had a single pro­ blem," said Jim Johnson, public relations manager of the Cotton Belt. Sally Miller Perdue, of the "Project 819" committee that coordinated efforts between the Pine Bluff Chamber of Com- Ju merce, the Cotton Belt and the railroad, clubs to move the locomotive, said that a fund --01 • called "Save the 819" -- has been established at the National Bank of Commerce. Volunteers of the Cotton Belt Rail Historical Society and the Arkansas Railroad Club plan to restore the locomotive to work­ ing condition. Jake Commer, f(resident of the historical socie-y, figures the project will take 15 months to complete. The society wants to buila a museum and make the 819 its main attrac­ tion, he said. Either the City of Pine Bluff, the Chamber of Commerce or the Cotton Belt will retain owner­ ship of the locomotive, Johnson said. It was donated to the city in 1955 by the Cotton Belt to be displayed at Oakland Park. Restoration will be done by "100 percent volunteers," accor­ ding to Bill Merck, chairman of the Arkansas Railroad Club. "This is a love effort," he said, "a love of steam." The 819 is one of 20 steam locomotives built 40 years ago by the Cotton Belt. Of these, 10 were built in Pine Bluff by Cotton Belt employees. The 19 others have since been scrapped, Johnson said. Wine Bottles (larrv (lories Of (i lassma Iters DONCASTER, England (AP) -- To a football fan, a punt is a kick. To a wine aficionado, a punt is a mark on the bottom of a wine bottle. The punt mark is the glass con­ tainer manufacturer's exclusive mark. It generally takes the form of a raised symbol, an in­ itial or a logo, according to Dr. Peter Jones, an industry expert. "They are called punt marks because, in glass container manufacturing terms, the punt is the base of the container," ex­ plains Jones, materials manager for the Emhart glass container manufacturing unit in Don- caster. "The word originated in the days of hand processing when the bottom or punt of a bot­ tle was held by a metal rod while the operator completed the mak­ ing of the bottle. Jones notes that the word "punt" in glassmaking ter­ minology comes from the Italian word pantello, meaning "a small This was later corrupted ntil," to "punty," and, y, to "punt." Wine experts disagree on when punt marks first appeared, although some authorities believe the marks had become common by the 16th or 17th centuries. Jones reports he has tra xi one punt mark back to the third century during the Roman oc­ cupation of Britain. to "pont finally, t & Q AUi ...of position and career is advertised in classified. When you're ready to make a i move, get the classified habit. people read classified McHenry Plaindealer 815/344-4800 CLASSIFIED DEPARTMENT