Was on the move pretty recently it looks like. Could CPKC be considering overhauling the 3031?

Where did you see news of a move? I know someone on the board who will be excited if true.

The video of the move was posted on Facebook but I can't remember where exactly I saw it. It was the 3031, what looks like a wreck train and a diesel shoving the whole cut.

Any video or photos of the move you mention?

I'll bet this video (which may answer the question "how many people can you fit in a tender?") is what you mean, from six years ago. This locomotive is still in Mexico, unlike NdeM 3028, which is in limbo in the eastern US: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuozrh6qp7Q

Is the high-pitched squeal the sound of dry axle bearings on the tender?

That's what I saw, although from a different angle. That wrecker looks beyond serious. So what I saw was not recent. I knew someone would know....

Unfortunately that video is NOT RECENT. It IS a fact that I'd be guzzling Tequila and dancing the Mexican Hat Dance if there were truth to the rumor that CPKC was going to rebuild her.

VIVA Las NdeM Niagaras !!!!!

Sounds like brake shoes to me... you notice that every car sounds like that, too.

I always thought those would be ideal engines for the Grand Canyon Ry.
Wouldn't matter now since they've gone over to the dark side.

A good idea...and it actually was kicked around some at the start. The fact that there could have possibly been a number of them purchased was a point in their favor.

But it did not come to pass. I find this not too surprising as N de M nullified a purchase that I had made in early 1970 of some hardware. More importantly, at the same time, the N de M also reneged on the sale of QR-1 3033 to Tom Irion. He had paid them $13,000 of an agreed upon $16,000 in a timely manner and they essentially wrote him the same lengthy letter that they wrote me.

Nice machines and they did well in rock train service that they saw in their last years, slogging out of the yard in a pounding rain with little slipping. I have dupes of Virgil Staff's tapes of this.

FWIW, regarding my previous post, Tom & I both got all of our funds returned to us.
I'm sure that he rather had obtained the locomotive, I know I'd have really looked forward to the whistle and bell. Such is life.

To add a little bit to the story: FIRST OFF, the #3031 was NOT in the famous Huehuetoca scrapyard at the time of this 2018 video. The scrapyard was in between Lineas A & B, and the property was scoured clean in anticipation of the privatization of the NdeM circa 1990. #3031 was stored east of both mainlines along with a few other pieces of equipment after being rescued by Ingeniero Francisco Lagunes as part of this cleanup, but his collection was a MUSEUM with very little money and very few volunteers. It's true that he and his friends wanted to restore the engine to operate, but they were missing all of the parts absent in videos and pictures. A very long shot in my estimation. When I visited there in 2008, the boiler was full of honey bees, NOT the killer variety... I "think" that now the #3031 is displayed somewhere in the town of Huehuetoca, with a cosmetic restoration either planned or slowly progressing. And, as always, Corrections or updates welcome !!!

Besides GCRy, BN also considered getting one or more QR-1s back circa 1990 for our own unique steam program. We liked the idea of having a modern engine that didn't look like anything else seen in the states, but nonetheless was all American, and we had plenty of surplus GEs that we figured on trading for them... but SLSF #1522 eventually won out.

It was only a few years ago the there were three complete QR-1s left in pretty decent shape, which would have been good candidates for an operational restoration --- #3033, #3034, and #3038. Of these, the #3034 remains in the museum in Puebla as our last hope, and the #3038 was recently trashed while being moved to a display site next to the new international airport in Mexico City (as reported in this forum).

After Tom Irion's attempt to buy the #3033 was blocked by the enactment of the Mexican government's National Patrimony law before he could completely pay for her, all his money was returned to him, as Tom (Moungovan) said. However Tom (Irion) got to keep her bell and a couple dozen large scale drawings, including the erecting card. I wonder where that bell is now, neither Tom (Moungovan) nor I have it, you can be sure we both want it. Just before he passed, Tom (Irion) lent me the drawings, and I made two sets of copies --- one went to the ALCO Historic & Technical Society for our intended restoration of #3028, while the other went to Marcelo Lordiero for his project to build a run of brass QR-1 models in HO scale. (And if anybody wants one, shoot me a PM and I'll see what I can do.)

The #3033 had been recently overhauled, and ended up in the roundhouse in Aguascalientes where she served as a stationary boiler until privatization of the NdeM. I've been told that around that time she was operated for the filming of a beer commercial, but cannot confirm this, and have never seen the commercial or any pictures taken during the shoot. What I CAN confirm is that she ended up as a display in the old Ferrocarril Mexicano station in Pachuca, where she was stripped of all her brass and bronze fittings.

As in my previous post, corrections or updates to this information welcome.

Does 3028 have much hope at this point for a realistic path to restoration? Or would someone basically have to come in and buy it from the groups that claim to own it sorting out that dispute, then sorta use that as a way to clear the path towards a future restoration ?