A certified material for a boiler has a chain of testing done to it so they know what the alloy is what the true thickness is and how it was heat treated. They found stuff in 3985 that was from what their testing appeared to be scrap grade steel in the boiler shell as they could not find any data listed in the paperwork in repair orders for the engines. On the stays that required weep holes over 90% of them did not have a weep hole.

Woah. This is really good, probably the most generous move done by UP in a very long time. With that new facility they have, I'm sure that will help them out a lot.

I'd be careful about the difference between material for which you don't have a certification in your records, and material that is uncertified by never having been certified at production. I've had to deal with reconstructing certification of material which was in fact perfectly good although the paperwork was lost and the section had no stamps for heat numbers and producer present. Also, please state your sources......

I know when UP was looking at which Big Boy to restore, people figured that #5511 was going to be the carrot that UP used to coax whichever park/museum/city into relinquishing their Big Boy.

But wouldn't you love to see a 2-10-2 roll by under its own steam?

I could not care less what Ed said. Think about this for a minute, since you failed to answer my question:

That boiler has several thousand staybolts, all of which have tell-tale holes (NOT weep holes). If 90% of the staybolts in that boiler, as you claim, do not have tell tale holes, do you realize you are talking about several THOUSAND bolts? Again, I must ask you, how did this get by the FRA which attends every annual inspection and enters the firebox during the hydro tests? There is no way it could have missed thousand of bolts.

Going back to an earlier post, it was proven long ago that there was nothing wrong with ether the diesel control box or the diesel unit. It was later admitted by the "engineer" that he forgot the diesel was in 6th run and didn't think to shut to to idle until after the stop. Is he a liar?

In fact, the box was tested again later, by the same electrician, where he discovered the box had been tampered with since his earlier inspection and that wires had been pulled off since his earlier inspection. Oddly enough, the wire pulled off was the generator field switch wire, which would have made the diesel unable to load at all.

As for the "asbestos in the brake valve", how can you get 60 pounds of ANYTHING into a brake valve? Or even 6 ounces? Have you ever seen a brake valve?

Maybe he was talking about the asbestos that was still on the 4014 when it got the Cheyenne.

You got some 'splaining to do.





[quote="ironeagle2006"][quote="hullmat991"][quote="Lincoln Penn"][quote="ironeagle2006"]

I have seen repeatedly that non-certified materials were used in both boilers, but I have not seen any evidence of exactly what those materials were, where and how they were used, not to mention how they managed to get by all the inspectors and the FRA.

This thread is starting to remind me of the heady days on Trainorders about the UP steam program. If it continues the thread will be locked. Its been done to death over there.

By the way, there is no such thing as "scrap grade steel".

Sure, lock the thread that has been a peaceful debate. But when a thread is literal person bashing, or certain someone’s are the ones who are causing the ruckus, those threads go on and on.

I know it’s a tough job being an admin, for free at that. But please. Have some consistency.

Wonder how the 3985 compares in complexity / restore cost to the 1309.

Depends, is someone going to be stealing parts? Is one organization going to be responsible the whole time?

I never thought of that. Yeah, you'd think the museum would have insisted on 5511 as she'd have been a great fit for that museum.
Amen!

Threads like this would be much more informative if the posters used their real names.

I've been advocating for years to make real names mandatory on RyPN. Tell you what, if that ever becomes the standard here we'll nearly eliminate the juvenile nonsense that using screen names enables.

Let's take a vote on making real identities mandatory.

Ross Rowland

I’m all for it, as soon as everyone gets behind it. However, there are too many folks that continually spread bs and drama. So until then, you can keep guessing who I am. I’m just a young lad, but I’ve seen how this website can take someone and hang ‘em out to dry. Your opinions are only welcome if you’re in the “in” crowd. And for me, my opinions don’t line up with the “gods” of this website, so I know I will get talked down on constantly.

I’ve tried starting good discussion topics. Those go no where. But people bashing or drama threads continue on. Because that’s what people care about. Posting real names may stop that. But the website is too bias for that right now. I’ll get more respect as a mystery name, than I would if I posted my true name.

Or they would drive people away, because those of us with professional identities outside of railroad preservation don’t want our names showing up on google alongside some of the controversial opinions about race/gender/politics that some posters espouse on this board.

Also, I doubt the moderators want to be in the business of checking photo IDs at the door.