Status of US Steam Locomotive Restorations

C&NW R1 4-6-0 #1385:    a new tender has been completed, with an all-welded tank and modern roller-bearing trucks  (a bit disappointing from a historical perspective, as the original tank was riveted and the traditional C&NW trucks are gone - but should provide a long service life).  There is a picture on the Mid-Continent Ry Museum website of the locomotive frame being lowered on to the refurbished drivers. As I understand things, a new boiler is being constructed. Target completion date unspecified, but substantial work appears to be being accomplished.  Here's a photo update:  http://www.midcontinent.org/category/cnw-1385/  (be sure to scroll down)

The quality of the rebuild looks like 1385 could be "mainline ready" and perhaps venture out on the adjacent and steam-friendly Wisconsin & Southern RR.  Oh, to see her pass thru Devil's Lake State Park and cross the Wisconsin River on the big bridge, again !

J. Neils Lumber #5 (3 truck Shay), at IRM.

Current status (scroll down): Shay #5 status

C&O 1309: latest word is next year for operation, unexpected issues found and WM wants to do it right vs get it out the door and go back and fix things later.

LI 39: only about $160K raised out of Million needed. About 4 years into fundraising. I don't expect it to ever run. I hope I'm wrong and I get to see it run up and down the eastern end of the Montauk Branch in the Hamptons before I die. If fundraising is not successful, I hope they use the $$$ to bring her home, do a full blown cosmetic restoration, put a roof over her and be done. That engine deserves it and I am starting to forget what she looked like "whole."

Bobby Ogage posted:

There are many steam locomotives undergoing restorations, and it is difficult to get status for many of them. So the purpose of this post is to start a running post of the status of any / all steam locomotives in the USA that are being restored to running condition.

To start this post, here is a list of some steam locomotives that are reportedly being restored for operation. Please provide a status if you are certain of the facts:

• Alaska 557  2-8-0 On-going with stead progress.
• B&M Flying Yankee Not a "steam locomotive". Hasn't activity in many years.
• B&M 3713   4-6-2 Fund raising, with lots of previous work having to be cut-out and redone.
• C&O 1309   2-6-6-2 On-going with needed fund raising.
• C&O 2716   2-8-4 Fund raising.
• C&O 614  4-8-4 Privately owned with no place to operate.
• C&NW 1385  4-6-0 Slow, steady progress with on-going fund raising.
• Duluth & Northeastern 28  2-8-0 Steady progress.
• LIRR 35  4-6-0 Fund raising.
• LIRR 39  4-6-0 Fund raising.
• Maine Central 470  4-6-2 Preparing for move and on-going fund raising.
• Milwaukee 261  4-8-4 Fully operational, and just completed excursions two weeks ago.
• NKP 587   2-8-2 Land-locked with lots of museum management "issues".
• Pennsy 1361   4-6-4 ??????
• Reading 2102  4-8-4 Privately owned, and on-going steady work. Should be operational in late 2017.

Lets keep this post rambling on so we can stay abreast of what is happening to steam locomotive projects in the USA.

Please post your own list of locomotives that need a current status.

 

I too do not think I will see LIRR 39 operate.  No.39 needs to have a wealthy donor step-up with a donation of $900,000, and that is not likely to happen.

Santa Fe 4-8-4 Northern 2926, should have a hydro test before fall and operational next year. 

FEC #253 is under going restoration in Ft. Pierce, Florida:

http://www.steamlocomotive253.org/officers

You can catch a glimpse of her and five other rail cars they have rescued off the east side of US-1 as you drive south into Ft. Pierce from Vero Beach. It's been a couple years since I last visited, back when the depot building was being moved to a temporary storage nearby.

Couple of other thoughts, here:  Reading 2100 4-8-4 is under restoration in Cleveland by a private group.  Would like an update on their progress sometime soon.

The Age of Steam Roundhouse has several locomotives under restoration or preservation.  Maybe that group could give us an update on what's happening in Sugarcreek, OH.

And, of course, the biggest project of all, the U.P. Big Boy #4014:  Are there still plans to restore her following the completion of the #844?  That engine is supposed to be done next month.  

Paul Fischer

As time stretches, I have doubts regarding 4014.  Would rather see 3985 back operational.  While having a Big Boy operational would be awesome, it seems to me 3985 is the more sensible choice for a plethora of reasons.  What advantage is there to having 4014 operational over 3985?  What advantages is there to having 3985 operation over 4014?

Also have to consider the PRR T1 project.  I have very cautious optimism for that project.  I absolutely adore the style and lines of those locos.

TexasSP posted:

As time stretches, I have doubts regarding 4014.  Would rather see 3985 back operational.  While having a Big Boy operational would be awesome, it seems to me 3985 is the more sensible choice for a plethora of reasons.  What advantage is there to having 4014 operational over 3985?

None, in my opinion.

 What advantages is there to having 3985 operation over 4014?

Quite a number of advantages:

1) The 3985 has already been converted to oil burning and after some air intake improvements and addition of more firebrick fires very nicely on any and all conditions with the proper fuel.

2) The 3985 can visit many more locations on UP (even more than 844 actually) without clearance/over-hang issues.

3) There is a far greater working knowledge of the running gear components on 3985 by former UP employees.

4) Virtually the entire running gear/machinery has already been rebuilt on 3985. Only the boiler is due the FRA mandated 15 year inspection and recertification. 

THIS thread is EXACTLY why I came to this site. To know and follow restoration, and learn from people who know what their talking about.

Former GTW Mikado #4070 is housed in Midwest Railways roundhouse a few stalls away from 2100.

Pete S

Cliffside RR No. 110 (Vulcan Iron Works, 2-6-2, 1927) is currently undergoing restoration at the New Hope Valley Railway in Bonsal, NC.

You can read about the engine here.

Here's a Trains article from 1955 featuring the engine.

Don't forget the C&O #2789 in North Judson, Indiana. That group was supposedly starting a overhaul to operation, but I guess they must have fallen on hard times, non unlike some of the other Clubs have, or maybe, still in the fund raising process!..............................

mark s posted:

C&NW R1 4-6-0 #1385:    a new tender has been completed, with an all-welded tank and modern roller-bearing trucks  (a bit disappointing from a historical perspective, as the original tank was riveted and the traditional C&NW trucks are gone - but should provide a long service life).  There is a picture on the Mid-Continent Ry Museum website of the locomotive frame being lowered on to the refurbished drivers. As I understand things, a new boiler is being constructed. Target completion date unspecified, but substantial work appears to be being accomplished.  Here's a photo update:  http://www.midcontinent.org/category/cnw-1385/  (be sure to scroll down)

The quality of the rebuild looks like 1385 could be "mainline ready" and perhaps venture out on the adjacent and steam-friendly Wisconsin & Southern RR.  Oh, to see her pass thru Devil's Lake State Park and cross the Wisconsin River on the big bridge, again !

Great post Mark. I had forgotten what the cylinder/valve boring machine looked like, as I haven't seen one since visiting the old L&N Shops in Louisville, Ky as a kid.

They had several of those within the rebuild shops there in South Louisville. I remember seeing 2 different sizes, one from what I remember, about the size that's in your video, then another, seemed twice the size of the smaller, and I presume for larger locomotives.

I showed this to a retired C&O mechanic, and he told me that they could do any of their articulated locomotives, and that being both engine assemblies, thru a complete overhaul in less than a weeks time.  I guess that back in the steam days, what seems like it would take near magic of today, it was just business as usual!..............Ya really have to admire what the Old Guys could do, and they didn't have cell phones, I-Pads, or Computers, nor did they sit on their A**es voting on all of the issues.

Please excuse the thread drift..............................Brandy!

I think Western Pacific is working on one.  I will take some pics if I can get there in July.  And lets please keep politics out of this thread.  We have beaten a dead horse to death on other threads. 

wb47 posted:

I think Western Pacific is working on one.  I will take some pics if I can get there in July.  And lets please keep politics out of this thread.  We have beaten a dead horse to death on other threads. 

Yeah we did, but this may have help promote getting it under steam again!................. 

wb47 posted:

And lets please keep politics out of this thread.

Would have been better not to bring it up at all then.

wb47 posted:

I think Western Pacific is working on one.  I will take some pics if I can get there in July. 

You mean the Western Pacific MUSEUM in Portola, California.

Hot Water posted:

• LIRR 35  4-6-0 Fund raising.
• LIRR 39  4-6-0 Fund raising.

 

Heck, that was the deal for at least one of them, I think, when I was in my teens (meaning around 30 years ago). A pal of mine lives near one of them and he tells me not much appears to have been done for either toward getting either running.

As for B&M 3713, I saw her in September in person. She's got a lot of work left on her before she'll run, which was obvious just from a cursory glance. I'm sure if I'd been allowed to climb around with a flashlight, I'd have found all kinds of stuff that has yet to be touched (and a lot more stuff to be found if a real steam person did the same). Her tender was sitting on a roundhouse track, looking like it hasn't been touched at all in many years. But now that their 0-6-0 is running, maybe the effort will be accelerated?

As for the UP stuff:

844 official under steam video. 

ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bwzRBGPOdU&feature=shar

p51 posted:

As for B&M 3713, I saw her in September in person. She's got a lot of work left on her before she'll run, which was obvious just from a cursory glance. I'm sure if I'd been allowed to climb around with a flashlight, I'd have found all kinds of stuff that has yet to be touched (and a lot more stuff to be found if a real steam person did the same). Her tender was sitting on a roundhouse track, looking like it hasn't been touched at all in many years. But now that their 0-6-0 is running, maybe the effort will be accelerated?

Much of the firebox work that was done by a previous contractor, must now be all cut-out. Also, even with all the work that has been done on and off over many, many, years, NOTHING has been done on the running gear! The 3713 is a plain bearing locomotive, i.e. NOT roller bearings, and a number of the axle bearings ran hot when she was tower from the original Steam Town site in Vermont , to the current location in Scranton, PA., many decades ago.

Yes the museum of which I hope to tour with the UPHS in late July.  I forget the type this is. 

Add to list Moore-Keppel Climax No 9 (Middle Fork RR No 6) being restored at Cass Scenic RR Shop in Cass, W.VA.

Restoration responsibility recently passed From the Mountain State Railroad and Logging Assn volunteers to Cass Scenic Railroad employees.  I understand that this was part of the original agreement. Most significantly,  a new boiler was fabricated by Amish boilermakers (!) in Ohio.

Also at Cass is  Buffalo Creek & Gauley 2-8-0 No 4.  There are plans to restore it to operation on a reconstructed section of the C&O Greenbrier Branch.

Another - Southern Pacific 2-8-2 #786 being restored by Austin Steam Train Association.

786 Restoration Page

Hot Water posted:

p51 posted:

As for B&M 3713, I saw her in September in person. She's got a lot of work left on her before she'll run, which was obvious just from a cursory glance.

Much of the firebox work that was done by a previous contractor, must now be all cut-out. Also, even with all the work that has been done on and off over many, many, years, NOTHING has been done on the running gear!

That makes sense from the comments made by the shop tour guide. I give him credit for not talking smack about the previous efforts but he hinted at some 'issues' from earlier on. He said it without any backbiting, and it was so subtle I'd forgotten about it until I just read your info (which makes sense form what I saw in person last fall).

Add to list: Northern Pacific 1364, 4-6-0 at Toppenish, WA.  Slow progress, but moving forward...

good thread.

thanks for starting

Also worth a note is the B&O Museum's steam operations:

Lafayette and Tom Thumb Replicas are both operable (although the Thumb hasn't been fired up in several years). The Lafayette ran last year, I don't think it is planned to operate any steam at the B&O this year. I would think it will soon fall due for it's 1472/15 year inspection. Of course, it has no where near 1472 days on it but it must be near 15 years.

William Mason, the 1850s 4-4-0 is in the shop - it came due for it's 1472 a few year ago. Tearing it down for the work, more issues than expected were found, especially in the boiler and firebox. Per the museum, the plan is to reassemble, paint, and return to static display with no plans to run it again.

St. Elizabeth's Hospital 0-4-0T #4 came due for it's 1472 and last ran Fall 2015. I believe it is still "legal" until October 2016 but no plans to fire it up this year. I would imagine they'd like to get it running again and would do the required work quickly unless funding and/or unexpected issues are found. Lots of work was done during it's initial restoration 15 years or so ago so hopefully it will be a quick turnaround time!

Gramling Family of Flagg Coal 75/Lehigh Valley Coal 126 fame:

They are getting very  close to finishing their third 0-4-0T that will add to their traveling tank engine collection. Flagg Coal 75 is operating in Indiana at the NKP Road Museum this weekend, it's last runs before being torn down for the 1472 inspection. Lehigh Valley Coal 126 recently ran in Walkersville, MD and Wilmington, DE. I think it is still in Wilmington before going to it's next stop.

SJC posted:

William Mason, the 1850s 4-4-0 is in the shop - it came due for it's 1472 a few year ago. Tearing it down for the work, more issues than expected were found, especially in the boiler and firebox. Per the museum, the plan is to reassemble, paint, and return to static display with no plans to run it again.

Man, that stinks. I've been to the B&O museum many times over the years, but never when it was running. Even though I live thousands of miles from there now, I was always hoping that someday, I'd get to see this loco under steam...

I mean, she was good enough for Walt Disney, right?

p51 posted:

SJC posted:

William Mason, the 1850s 4-4-0 is in the shop - it came due for it's 1472 a few year ago. Tearing it down for the work, more issues than expected were found, especially in the boiler and firebox. Per the museum, the plan is to reassemble, paint, and return to static display with no plans to run it again.

Man, that stinks. I've been to the B&O museum many times over the years, but never when it was running. Even though I live thousands of miles from there now, I was always hoping that someday, I'd get to see this loco under steam...

I mean, she was good enough for Walt Disney, right?

 

With all the time I've spent at the B&O Museum, and how close to it I live, I only saw the Mason run once or twice, I believe the first weekend the museum ran steam since the roof collapse (maybe 2006-ish?) May have seen it run after that, can't remember. October 2012 was the last time it ran. I took the below photo of #4 in October 2013 and Lafayette was fired up for demos and the shop was open and a "naked" Mason was on display. 

Their 0-4-0T is worth seeing - it may be an 0-4-0 but it is one BIG 0-4-0 and it puts on quite a show moving a train west from their Mt. Clare Mansion station near their shop. 

Excited to here about 2926, hoping the 1218 gets fired up in the future

I noticed in a recent issue of "Trains" that they left the Valley Railroads Chinese New Haven 2-8-2 off the operable list.  Was this an oversight, or is she already due for a tear- down?

Jon  

Good morning, I see you included PRR K4s 1361.

The Altoona Memorial Museum should be ashamed of themselves for letting this locomotive fall into the dismantled state that it is in.

Their excuse was they had no storage for the engine.

If you go to the museum they have built a beautiful partial roundhouse, but still no K4s progress.

I have been told the engine parts and pieces are inside the roundhouse but thats it.

Just to the south of Altoona on the Everett Railroad, they have resurrected and older steam engine (not sure of the wheel arrangement and cab number) and are running excursions with it on certain weekends.

Maybe the folks at Altoona need to go on a short road trip !!!!!!

4-6-2 former ATSF 3415 is operating certain weekends.

http://asvrr.org

Quite a nice story of the rescue of a city park open-air static display by a bunch of talented local volunteers. (With a week of help from Steve Lee's crew.)

Jones & Laughlin #58, The Rolling Ingot. This has been a fun restoration to watch on YouTube. Definitely a small operation. I'm excited to see the results.

https://youtu.be/IO077WQEm6Q

Hot Water posted:

Bobby Ogage posted:

There are many steam locomotives undergoing restorations, and it is difficult to get status for many of them. So the purpose of this post is to start a running post of the status of any / all steam locomotives in the USA that are being restored to running condition.

To start this post, here is a list of some steam locomotives that are reportedly being restored for operation. 

• B&M 3713   4-6-2 Fund raising, with lots of previous work having to be cut-out and redone.

 

 

That's incorrect,  the FRA inspector who bought off on the patch work in the first place moved on, transferred, retired or what have you. It was the new inspector who didn't like the repair which by the way hasn't been even welded into place as to the last time I talked to the group doing most of the work over the last 15 years. I also understand  the differences have been worked out with the current inspector and they have a green light to proceed.

as for Maine central 470 work continues to separate the boiler from the frame with a schedule move of the frame, boiler, and tender, this summer to its new home. Check my links below for more details on 470.

in regards to Conway scenic rr 0-6-0 7470 work continues with hopes of steam up in 2017. Check the wheel report for details

http://conwayscenic.com/the-wheel-report/

superwarp1 posted:

Hot Water posted:

Bobby Ogage posted:

There are many steam locomotives undergoing restorations, and it is difficult to get status for many of them. So the purpose of this post is to start a running post of the status of any / all steam locomotives in the USA that are being restored to running condition.

To start this post, here is a list of some steam locomotives that are reportedly being restored for operation. 

• B&M 3713   4-6-2 Fund raising, with lots of previous work having to be cut-out and redone.

That's incorrect,  the FRA inspector who bought off on the patch work in the first place moved on, transferred, retired or what have you. It was the new inspector who didn't like the repair which by the way hasn't been even welded into place as to the last time I talked to the group doing most of the work over the last 15 years. I also understand  the differences have been worked out with the current inspector and they have a green light to proceed.

Then why did Steamtown issue a Request For Quotation, late last year, specifically listing exactly which area are to be "cut-out and replaced"? I know of two "contractors" that bid/quoted on the 3713 project, and still have not received a response from Steamown, as apparently there is insufficient funds for any work so far.

 

MarkStrittmatter posted:

Good morning, I see you included PRR K4s 1361.

The Altoona Memorial Museum should be ashamed of themselves for letting this locomotive fall into the dismantled state that it is in.

Their excuse was they had no storage for the engine.

If you go to the museum they have built a beautiful partial roundhouse, but still no K4s progress.

I have been told the engine parts and pieces are inside the roundhouse but thats it.

Just to the south of Altoona on the Everett Railroad, they have resurrected and older steam engine (not sure of the wheel arrangement and cab number) and are running excursions with it on certain weekends.

Maybe the folks at Altoona need to go on a short road trip !!!!!!

Mark,

I guess I'm not inclined to be lenient with them.  I think horse-whipping them would be the start of my punishment for their incompetence, malfeasance, and outright mismanagement of restoration funds for this locomotive.  The locomotive has been out of service since 1997.

Partial score:

Incompetence:  19

Progress:          2

Did I mention that I think the Altoona Railroaders Museum is run by a bunch of jerks?

George