(The following story by Alfonso A. Castillo appeared on the Newsday website on April 2, 2009.)
NEW YORK — Parents can be so thoughtless when choosing their children’s names. Take, for instance, the two charming locomotives being loaned to the Oyster Bay Transit Museum by the Long Island Rail Road.
Their names: 397 and 398.
Looking to right a great wrong, the LIRR is launching a contest to ask customers to name the two small engines, part of the railroad’s celebration of its 175th anniversary in April.
“It didn’t seem right to send them over there without proper names,” LIRR spokesman Joe Calderone said. “We want to send them off in style.”
Built by General Electric more than 50 years ago, the switching locomotives, known in the railroad industry as “dinkies,” were retired in 2006.
The 150-horsepower, blue-and-yellow engines were used to push or pull larger diesel locomotives and coaches around train yards. They currently reside at the LIRR’s Morris Park diesel servicing and repair yard in Richmond Hill.
Dinky 398 is the older of the two, having been purchased new in 1958. The LIRR acquired its younger brother, 397, which was used, in 1987.
Because the LIRR is prohibited by state law from making donations bigger than $5,000, it is calling the engines’ transfer to the Oyster Bay Railroad Museum a “long-term loan.”
The museum will display the locomotives on a turntable in its yard. Museum president John Specce called it a “dream come true, as our vision for the yard included these historic engines.”
The LIRR plans to have a formal naming ceremony when the locomotives are moved to the museum later this year.
Contest winners will get train tickets and admission to see the Cirque du Soleil show on Randall’s Island this spring.