"What does she burn?"

"Money, managers and volunteers".....Oh, and coal....

Wow. That says it all.

********************

Yeah, that pretty much nails it. Wonder if any of the complainers have ever wrenched on one of these things? Or had to raise money for one? Or had to find volunteers, employees, administrators for one?

There's a very good reason the railroads got rid of the things.

1309 was shoddily built by the #3 builder (yes, I said it), operated for maybe 5 years by a Class One that really didn't want her (with maintenance standards approaching a certain 1980s-90s Pennsylvania shortline near a battlefield), then left out in the weather for 50+ years. She's come a long way, and is getting better by the week. Keep in mind that WMSR has other things to deal with beside one steam locomotive-- running and growing a successful business.

Have a little patience, fellas. And if you can't, then go to Hollidaysburg, or Orbisonia or New Hope or Strasburg for your steam fix. I'm sure the WMSR bashers will show up to chase 1309 when she's back in service (will they buy tickets?).

Howard P.

And that's no criticism, either.

It's just a recognition and reinforcement of just how really, really, difficult it really is to pull this off, both in the mechanics, and the personnel, and the back office funding to get steam - any steam - operational in a sustained manner.

So when you do see it, appreciate it, support it in some manner, and leave the comments about 'well, the lettering is the wrong color gold' at the door.

This is a site about preservation - paint and lettering are part of preservation and should be discussed.

Is adding a stoker to the 4501 good preservation or bad?
Is converting Rio grande locomotives to oil burning good preservation or bad?

Opinions and discussion should be welcome.

The Western Maryland has made many questionable decisions - they are worthy of discussion.

You missed the point of what was said. The point was “let’s be happy with what we have as opposed to always finding something that’s not super important to complain about”.

That’s what it always is in a lot of rail preservation circles.

“Yes they did a great job with the restoration but why does it have to have white walls. That locomotive was never used with white walls”

“How dare they paint it in green, it never ran in green in revenue service!”

“Actually this locomotive ran at 200 psi not 195 psi”

I’m not speaking to just you here, but in general to a plurality of individuals: Let some of the minor stuff go, and learn to be satisfied with something even if it’s not exactly down to the rivets how it was. Not that there isn’t a time and place for that sometimes, but simply that it’s an unhealthy habit to always bring it up.

The current management at WMSR is not the same management that started the 1309 restoration. The current management found a lot of things that had been overlooked much earlier. That locomotive was not the 'laid up good order' low mileage 'barn find' that the old regime thought it was.

This information came from an engineer qualified on 1309 and WMSR's diesels; someone very well respected in heritage railroad circles. Let the questionable decisions stay with the former management.The present WMSR management is working hard to build the business, and to correct mistakes made several years ago by the old management.

As the person that had to sign the 2018 operational audit,

I agree with that.

And when I see something in a museum or 'preservation' context, yes, I expect to see the details done right. It galls me to see an ex-NYC bay window caboose painted red...

But when you're trying to make things RUN, and you're trying to keep people coming in the door as a functioning, cash-flow positive business, it's just one difficult decision after another as to what goes and what stays and if you're a museum or an attraction or a little of both. Meanwhile, you just blew a $50,000 air compressor this morning and a traction motor on the GP7 grounded out.

Scratchy:

C&O originally ordered 25 of them, and actually asked BLW to cancel the order; they agreed to take the 10 that BLW had obtained material for. They were unwanted even before the builders photo was taken at Eddystone.

By the 1940s, Baldwin's quality was running third to Lima and American. It seemed that a number of railroads had troubles with later BLW steam.

Once the 1300s arrived on the C&O, it was obvious to everyone there,that they'd have a short service life. The roundhouse and shopmen charged with their maintenance knew their employment ranks would be decimated by the coming of the diesel-- where was the incentive to faithfully attend to steam power? And management certainly didn't want to spend their motive power budget on the steam things.

Then 1309 sat outside for decades, first at Peach Creek, then at Huntington, then at Baltimore. She was quite worn out when parked. WMSR is carefully putting the miles back into her. They are proud of 1309 and will make sure she is the showpiece she deserves to be.

Howard P.