Hi All

Has there been any NEW ,,news dealing with this engine , from either the city of Waterville, Maine , or from potential buyers ??? thanks Pat

The RFP doesn't close until the 5th of october. I'm sure people are going to keep mum until then.

I don't think there is any secret that some offers have been conditionally talked about, but we won't know what the city's response or course of action will be until the final date.

There is a story in the Waterville Morning Sentinal, regarding the locomotive.

http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/wate ... 09-23.html

It's interesting to think that on the West Coast three locomotives have been removed from a park in Oregon, two restored while the third is being restored, and they have a brand new $5 million facility while this old girl is sitting in the park rotting away. Seriously, she could be made looking respectable for a few thousand dollars.

Population of Portland, Oregon: 583,776.
Population of Portland Metropolitan Statistical Area: 2,226,009.

Population of Waterville, Maine: 15,722. [All data from 2010 U.S. Census.]

Interesting, just maybe, but not in the least surprising.

Alex #4 is quite correct in this case. The population of the entire state of Maine is 1,200,000 . Maine is in serious economic times, and although we host a good number of people who could restore the old girl without ever missing the bucks, with the possible exception of Steven King, the plurality of wealthy Maine visitors or "summer people" are focused on using their money to amass more money. Stephen and Tabitha King are the exceptions, in that they use their funds to build hospital wings, send kids to college, pay for literacy programs, and the like. H'mmmm, I wonder if Stephen and Tabby have a warm spot for steam locomotives...?

A private inquiry to the City has resulted in the answer that "a pile of proposals are waiting review starting next week".
There may be hope for the old girl yet, provided she lands in the hands of responsible restorers.

They supposedly went through the five proposals they received today (I emailed Matt Skehan who was the guy the bids were to be sent to) I wish they could all be released but I doubt they will.

I created a Facebook group about the 470. I have a lot of old and new pictures of her on it. I went to see her a couple weeks ago and took over 200 up close pictures of a lot of the components. The link is in my signature.

If anyone would like the link to the album
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 937&type=1
If I may offer my assessment... I'm no expert, but through Peter's pictures, I gleaned the following;
1)All of the heavy duty components appear to only suffer from surface rust
2)All of the piping and thinner metal components are heavily corroded, and require either renewal and/or outright replacement
3)On the entire locomotive, the boiler doesn't appear to have any major surface rust
4)470 has a stoker?!?!
a)Stoker pan needs to be replaced
b)Ends of the screw are heavily corroded
5)Tender is heavily corroded.
6)Side rods and motion haven't been greased in some time
7)Tender trucks have minimal surface rust
8)The braking system is still in place... How much has to be replaced would require investigation of the mechanical components.
9)Base of the smokestack is cracked

Does anyone else want to add to that list?

Daylight, you have pretty much covered the whole show. There appears to be a viable locomotive under all the exterior rust and damage, but unless you have climbed over the locomotive yourself, don't take it too lightly. Yes, there are some good or renewable appliances on the locomotive, but the degree of severe wastage and wanton destruction is too great to outline here. Tear down in a railroad shop, tons of rebuilding, machining, and replacement, will be required before she ever sees coal again, nor cosmetic display.
I personally think it can be done, but some group will have had to have "hammered out" a solid plan. Let's hope so.

For those that don't have Facebook I uploaded some of my photos to Flickr. They are lower resolution and I can't upload all of them unless paying. Feel free to repost them on here for discussion!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21439770@N05/

Just got this from Matt Skehan,

"We're in the process of reviewing. We have formed a committee that will be looking into each proposal very carefully. Ultimately, the CIty Council will have to approve. Hard to say though, when it will make it to the agenda.."

Might be a little while more

"470Man", thanks for going to the trouble to take and post the detail photographs. It makes having an intelligent discussion possible.

To my less than expert eye, it looks like it will take more than a few thousand dollars to do a decent cosmetic restoration on the locomotive, say something along the lines that was recently done to BC&G #14 in Gaithersburg, MD. Clearly they did some things right, like welding the stack closed, but very likely there has been major water/freeze damage to many or most exposed appliances.

As for even considering eventual operation, does anyone have any idea how that prospect would be received by the existing railroad companies in the state? If the answer is most likely "no", then doing a really good cosmetic restoration without ruining the future operability of the engine would be the way to go.

In 2004, one railroad company, NOT a tourist line, contacted me about obtaining the 470 for possible operation. I don't feel I should reveal which at this time. Let's see what happens in city council chambers before further speculation.

You're welcome Paul. I'm glad to do it. Just gives me an excuse to climb all over #470 and explore every area. I will be going back to Waterville (hopefully next weekend) to get some pictures of things I missed. I will try to get more pictures underneath the cab and inside the cylinders. There are two "peep" holes on the top of each cylinder. The caps have been removed quite some time ago and I will try to photograph inside them. I am also going to try to get my hands on an SLR with a better lens than the camera I had before. While I'm there I will be going to the Waterville historical society to scan as many photos I can find of her. If you want any particular component on #470 photographed try to describe as best you can and I'll do my best. If the camera I get does decent HD video I will also try to record any movable parts I can find.