Another Climax Lives! Middle Fork #9

philip.marshall · **Posted:** Mon Sep 09, 2019 2:17 am

Kevin Gilliam wrote:

Won't need to be trucked. Minus a 40ft bridge that the state decided that it needs more work, the rail connection has been restored. I believe the plan is to basically save the engine for special weekends.

I was going to ask about the status of the Cass-Durbin connection, since I knew it was in the works. Thank you for the update.

-Philip Marshall

WalterS · **Joined:** Fri Jul 06, 2007 12:19 am **Posts:** 116

Dozens of Mountain State Railroad & Logging Historical Association volunteers put in thousands of hours of work rebuilding the frame, trucks, water tender, coal bunker and cab from 2002 to early 2015. From there on the shop crew from the Cass Scenic Railroad put together a puzzle of parts and completed work on the boiler, appliances, air breaks and hundreds of other small details to make her a serviceable locomotive.

The amount of work that went into this locomotive is astonishing, but I guess it's not hard to realize that when you see the before photo. It has been special to be there throughout the entire restoration project.

Here is a full gallery of photos taken over the past week.

www.scriptunasimages.com/Category/Moore-Keppel-Co-Climax-No-9/

And what she looked like when work began.

PMC · **Joined:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:55 pm **Posts:** 2876

WalterS wrote:

And what she looked like when work began.

Did it have a boiler too? If I am not mistaken this engine was found buried after 50 or so years, correct?

WalterS · **Joined:** Fri Jul 06, 2007 12:19 am **Posts:** 116

PMC wrote:

WalterS wrote:

And what she looked like when work began.

Did it have a boiler too? If I am not mistaken this engine was found buried after 50 or so years, correct?

Yes, it had a boiler, along with cab and coal bunker but all were in very poor condition. A Climax boiler was found by the railroad in British Columbia being used to heat a greenhouse. It was brought to Cass in the early 1990's.

The engine was not buried, it was purchased by the state of West Virginia in 1970 and soon trucked from Ellamore to Cass. Restoration efforts soon began with an expected debut in May 1973, but was in the old Cass Shop when it burned in July 1972. Following the fire it sat on the Cass deadline until 2001 when MSR&LHA built a restoration shop and moved the locomotive in.

WESIII · **Posted:** Thu Sep 26, 2019 5:20 pm

Drawings of 1551 in 1 : 24 Scale may be downloaded at the below direct link. Will print on Arch E (36" x 48") as the drawings are 28.5" x 48" in 1 : 24 Scale. Some FedEx Stores have the large scale printers. Followed Climax practice on a few items instead on "As Rebuilt by D&GVRR".

You may also scale the pdf to fit.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/SIMONTON/1551+(9-26-2019).pdf

WESIII · **Posted:** Thu Sep 17, 2020 6:57 pm

I have finally got my 3D CADD program to print a 3D pdf of Climax 1551 without some display issues I was having. You may download the 3D pdf file at the below link. Completed as the MSR&LHA planned with a few changes made by D&GVRR - Shay stack, etc.

A large file 132.1MB. Best viewed in Daylight lighting and Solid Outline. One can rotate, spin, pan and zoom in and hide parts to see what is otherwise hidden. Clicking on a part will "redden it" and use Hide option. Approximately 10,000 parts so far.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/SIMONTON/1551.pdf