How 2101 should look:<p>http://reading.railfan.net/2101.jpg<p>How 2101 does look:<p>http://www.steamlocomotive.com/reading/aft1.jpg<p>Any wonder why I'm an advocate for cosmetic resotation? =)<p>-Reading Wowak<br>



wowak@usa.net

Wow...that is one of the sadder steam locomotives I've seen in a while. But certainly not the worst. Up in the Great White North, there are several display engines that look even worse than the 2101. Soo 950 2-10-0 at Ashland, WI is a rustbucket, Soo 2425 2-8-0 at Enderlin, ND is likely to be scrapped...there is a host of others, those just come to mind. While a cosmetic restoration should be done, I agree, the fact is these machines are made of metal and are outdoors and when metal is outdoors eventually it's going to rust. Basic Chemistry demonstrates that. We are very fortunate to have the operating steamers that we do. But, again, I can see that a cosmetic restoration of this unit would be worthy (led the Freedom Train, as did SP 4449 which is still running...how about a little east-west equality?)



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