"Texas" Resto Unveiled

Very nice. Wonder why they didn't paint it like it looked for the famous "Great Locomotive Chase", of the Civil War?  Maybe "political correctness"?

Hot Water posted:

Very nice. Wonder why they didn't paint it like it looked for the famous "Great Locomotive Chase", of the Civil War?  Maybe "political correctness"?

Possibly, because the Texas no longer looks like what it did during the Civil War (SMR model)

From the Atlanta History Center website:

“We want to show it as the hard-working engine that it was,” Atlanta History Center Senior Military Historian Gordon Jones said of the planned restoration, “not just as one of the engines in the Great Locomotive Chase.”

For the first time, the Texas will be examined as a historic artifact, part by part and inch by inch, after arriving at the N.C. Transportation Museum.

Like any locomotive of long service, it has been significantly altered over the years and features many replacement parts, including its wheels, tender and boiler. Along the way it was converted from a wood-burner to coal-fired. Even its name was changed, to the Cincinnati, after the war.

Rusty

This has been a huge debate in the preservation world. There so little of the original engine remaining that it was decided to make it look the way it did for the majority of her career, which lasted into the first decade of the 20th century.

Texas restoration.

"Political Correctness" had nothing to do with it.

It could be repainted later.  Then again T&P was repainted Southern for while.  And SP 4449 was a BNSF engine for a while.  Lastly both were in AFT paint!

Actually, the TEXAS looks good!

I agree, the restoration is first-class.

Funny that people claiming it's "Political Correctness" have no problem with the General also being painted in a non-Civil War scheme--and it's been that way LONG before "Political Correctness" became an issue!

The restoration is pretty close to what the Texas looked like when it was retired by the W&A:

Rusty

What a beautiful piece of work. The restoration crew deserves congratulations.

Every once in a while I see a photo that says "build me!" This is one of them - makes me want to get the drills and files out.

I had an opportunity to talk to some of the guys from the restoration team, the museum in Atlanta and a historian that consulted on this project last Sunday at the event at Spencer. They took this very seriously to do a restoration of the locomotive to accurately depict the locomotive as it actually appeared during it's existence. From what is left of the locomotive this is an actually representation of how it looked in service. They said unfortunately the locomotive from the Locomotive Chase no longer exists. Too much has been changed over the years to make it look like that. They said as it sat in the basement the last many decades was nothing more than a caricature of that locomotive and that isn't what the museum was after. The whole Cyclorama painting is being restored at the same time, so I am sure PC isn't the reason this was why they decided on this course of restoration.

Jim Wilke knows more about 19th century locomotive paint schemes than anyone on the planet. If he puts his seal of approval on it, that's all I need. He would not choose a paint style based on PC views of the Civil War era.

Even "The General" isn't in it's Civil War paint or configuration.

From what I've read, the Western and Atlantic didn't assign numbers to locomotives until after the War.  The General was rebuilt 5 years after the war and was given the number 39.  About ten years later it was given the number 3.

If Civil War accuracy is desired, both locomotives have to have replicas built.

Rusty

And is there is a C&O berk painted for L&N.

An ATSF PA painted NKP......

A SP F units painted ATSF!   GAG!

But in case of the TEXAS, I think the museum got it right.  It was in a livery she was actually using.  That way, they are telling the who history of the locomotive.