Hi All--
There was a recent debate on which color 722 would be when she is returned to operation in the following years. Allan Harper the owner of 722 stated today that she will be painted GREEN! We are also in the process to try and convince him to change the locomotive's roller bearings to allow it on the NS Main Line! The time is fast approaching until we have steam in the Mountains of N.C. once again! Keep your fingers crossed!
--Josh
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Isn't the 722 on the Great Smokey Mountain RR? If I'm not mistaken they attempted to convert it to rollers which didn't work out to well in the end? I'm NO steam expert at all but I remember significant talk about that one. Not only that, just because an engine has rollers doesn't mean it has a free pass to mainline running.
Green or not, it won't be the only green Southern RY engine. The 1401 is green, and who knows what the 4501 will be painted like. Green or not, be glad it runs.
Who is "we"?
Roller bearings are not required in order to run on the NS main. The 765's trailing truck runs in plain bearings. The 4449, which has run all over the country, does not have roller bearings on the driving axles.
You will need a good temperature monitoring system to keep track of the bearing temperatures, that's all. Due to the way plain bearings are enclosed on the end of the axle, modern hot box detectors cannot get an accurate reading on the temperature of a plain bearing.
Isn't the 722 on the Great Smokey Mountain RR? If I'm not mistaken they attempted to convert it to rollers which didn't work out to well in the end? I'm NO steam expert at all but I remember significant talk about that one. Not only that, just because an engine has rollers doesn't mean it has a free pass to mainline running.
The 1702 (ex-US Army, ex-Reader) was the one that was converted to roller bearings. After a certain time, it was converted back--and not entirely successfully either. After some issues, they restricted the engine to the eastern end of the railroad--where it had operated to the west end MANY times before (and after) the conversion to roller bearings. It was a different crew that converted it back, as Greg Dodd (who did the original conversion) had left the railroad by that time.
If memory serves, the curvature of the Murphy Branch (now the GSMR) had something to do with the failed conversion. That's one mean stretch of railroad.
The 722 has never operated on the GSMR, and has not been under steam since being taken out of service by the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in 1985. The restoration had just started when Dodd left the GSMR, and nothing has been done since that time.
Kevin
Mr. Harper had better have a LOT of money, if he wants to up grade his 722 to a complete roller bearing locomotive.
The we is the Preservation Group that is named Save Southern 722 Look us up on Facebook.
I thought I read somewhere that 722 operated on the Murphy Branch and was based out of Asheville before she was retired from the Southern.
I thought I read somewhere that 722 operated on the Murphy Branch and was based out of Asheville before she was retired from the Southern.
Both the 722 and 630 served time on the Murphy Branch, and there are pictures to back it up. A big reason was that the Ks-1 2-8-0s were the biggest power the SR used on the western half of the branch (basically Dillsboro to Murphy).
Both engines were based in Asheville when the ET&WNC came calling for additional power. The rest is history.
Kevin
I dont want to get to technical here, but I believe there is another GREEN locomotive that still runs, not to far from where I live. CNR 4-8-2 6060 in Stettler Alberta
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