K&T Railway #14 Restoration Update

Unbelievable!!!!!!

 A money pit.

But whoever did the video did a good job with the music....

What a sad state of affairs. Looks like it wouldn't take much effort to put things together, now would it?

Dan Weinhold

Just money to the right contractor.

Money: The eternal greaser and grinder of wheels.

It looks to me like whoever was ramrodding the project lost interest whenever financing fell through and other difficulties surfaced.

An associate of mine who was formerly involved with the project respectfully asked that I remove the video from public view. Therefore it is now set to private viewing.

Anyone still interested in seeing the video must now contact me via youtube (channel Rails, Rednecks, & Reviews) and request a special link to few.

Sorry, but the group down there is kind of touchy about this thing.

Gee, I wonder why they would be "touchy"?

Well, never mind the private setting. I just got semi-threatened over the thing, so now I had to remove it completely.

Hmmmmmmm, beginning to look like the #1361 PRR K4s mess, all over again.

Now we all want to know what is going on?   I don't do U-toob, or any of that ****, so

could not view original posting, but was interested in steam in Kentucky.

Your video documents how an operable steam engine requiring a minor overhaul, ended up in pieces around a shop after ten years and spending more money that was required to rebuild 611 or build the British Tornado.

It is quite clear that there is incompetence involved. a lack of engineering acumen beyond belief.

Taxpayer funds were used, both state and federal,

I believe a criminal investigation is warranted and a detailed account of who was paid for what and when should be examined in detail.

I can see why people were upset.

Your video is grounds enough to substantiate a criminal investigation and potential indictment of members of the non-profit and prison sentences.

M. Cole,

I had chance to view the video last evening. That really is sad about the current state of that engine. Sad that you had to remove the video for the "reason" posted. And, 'Hot Water' has probably hit the nail on the head. 

IMHO, money does funny things to people. Heck, I don't believe that the group in Minersville, PA. put that much into CNJ 113. And they had some major work to do to that engine. 

All we can hope is that the right group of people can be found to complete the project.

Tommy,

It's not so much that I was arguing against the amount that has been spent. What alot of people don't understand is that the #14 was in HORRIBLE shape before the restoration began. She spent 30 years in an amusement park that literally beat her death on heavy grades for decades and kept her together with TIG weld and bailing wire.

By the time the restoration actually started the only thing holding her together was force of habit. This engine is the physical version of "jack up the whistle and build a new engine underneath". Considering that we're talking about a piece by piece bottom to top rebuilding of a 90 ton engine, the money spent to get it done is not that far off.

My problem is that for the amount of money spent it should be further along than it is and the historical society that runs things down there basically has the response of leave us alone whenever this fact comes up. When your talking about close to 1 million in public funding and that's your response, it doesn't look good from the outside.

Does it need to go so far as a criminal investigation? I personally don't think it needs to go that far but it definately needs a third party audit at this point to make absolutely sure that the worst case scenario is that they were just inept with the funds as opposed to anything actually worse.

I think some people took my video as an attempt to discredit the contractor currently working on the project. If they'd actually read the full text of the video it states that most of the fault lies in the actions of the historical society. The contractor is not the problem in this situation, they just have a crappy client. But I guess some people wanted to take it that way and had me pull everything.

One simple action that would gain back alot of lost credit amongst people that dedicated personal time, labor, and money to the project (including me) would be just a simple straight forward explanation of just whats going on down there. But if somebody ever brings up why everything's stopped again you either get silence or told to leave them alone, and by that I mean the historical society.  I personally don't see how explaining yourself as an organization, what happened, and just being honest about whats going on (even if it's not great) is worse than people having to conjecture about just what you did with a truckload of public funding. They'll eventually start thinking the worst of you as Tommy has done above here and by their actions you can't blame that.

@ M. Cole The video has been pulled.

If you read the whole thread, you will see his explanation, more than 12 hours ago. 

Wonder what would happen, if Up Steam Crew would merge with the K&T Railway. Probably just have one more unfinished locomotive a year from now!

As close as Spencer, NC and Strasburg, Pa is, somebody would pull their ego's in, and go for some credible, qualified help, information, guidance, direction!

  Ya Think????????????????? Brandy!  

I put Spencer in there, as them doing the overhaul on the J611. I thought that they could do it all.

I didn't know what kind of machining tools they had, nor their capabilities, but there seemed to be quite a lot of good steam experience abound working on the "J".

With this all being said, do you think they will just try to slip the experience folks back under the "Ole Proverbial Door Mat", bring them back one, or two at a time.

That way they can blend in, and not be noticed!

I almost for got the #1361, that could be added to the list of the Non-performing Steam Team/Team's..............  

Thanks for the info, when ya don't know, Ya don't know!

Now I know!................