FOr that matter, dress her up and take her up the Curve as a J1.

Richard -

Well, not quite! B&LE 643 does not resemble a Pennsy J1 or J1a in any way, shape or form. The PRR's 2-10-4's easily outweighed the B&LE engines and rode on 69" drivers instead of 64". They had the same wheel arrangement, but not much else. On the other hand, the 47 B&LE engines were an EXACT copy of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy's M4 class locomotives, and the first engine (#601) was, in fact, built by Baldwin at the same time as the second CB&Q 2-10-4 order in 1929. And then when the B&LE started purchasing diesels and the 2-10-4's became surplus, 18 of them were sold to the Missabe Road. So although number 643 could easily be numbered and lettered as Burlington #6328, or as DM&IR #718, there is no way she would ever make a believable Pennsylvania Railroad J1 or J1a.

Les

Les- I agree, it's a long stretch of the imagination, but if that would rationalize the operation in a historic venue, then slap a keystone on her, raise the headlight and call it good! In general, I'm a steam purist. I would rather see locomotives in their original service paint. You've probably heard me gruff about the AFT paint scheme or RDG 2101 in that CSX paint, but given a live locomotive, I'll look the other way, with gratitude.

Richard -

No problem. And I agree that if it took a cosmetic "do-over" to B&LE #643 to get her running again, even as a PRR locomotive, I'd welcome it. Of course, I still am not 100% convinced that there isn't a REAL J1 buried on a hillside somewhere near Horshoe Curve where the Pennsy left her after a derailment, and with dieselization nearly finished, not worth enough as scrap to recover. I'm 99.9% convinced that there is no J1 there, but not 100%!

Les

Let me know when you want to start digging. I'll bring my shovel, but first we need to extract the B8 from that quarry and the H-10 rumored to be buried under a McDonalds parking lot on Long Island!