I'll be the first person to write a check for $1000, if some one sends the engine back east.



So, if some one ponies up the money for a new boiler, new firebox, get the booster installed, replace the crown brasses that he has burnt up, the rods that are bent and the one that is installed backwards, return it back to coal but needs new grates, fix the injector, fix the feedwater pump...

So, who has the money now?

No, it was 2100. When 2100 went up for auction back when Payne bought it, one of the other bidders was a Las Vegas casino.

All right Macster, I'll bite.

The mechanical defects of which you speak, I can see how some could have come to be such as the firebox having been damaged. I would greatly enjoy as best an explanation as you could give regarding the balance, I am not poking at you....I am genuinely interested.

Cheers, Jason

I'm asking everyone to step back from the keyboard and take a couple of deep breaths here before I lock the thread.



No boiler inspector is going to condemn any boiler as she sits without an extensive inspection. From what I see in those photos she sits as she was last put away and tear-down associated with an extensive inspection has not happened. Posting she needs a new boiler is simply unfounded nor productive.

We also have the mystery of why anyone would want to fix up this T1 and take it back east when there are three more that aren't operating.

OK, so the Beano Museum doesn't run their artifacts, and Steamtown can't justify a 4-8-4 on the daily shuttles. What about the '02 on the BM&R, why isn't it operating? Why are they running 425 when the 2102 is in good condition from what I've heard?

When you answer that question (cough **T1's Burn Cubic Money** cough) then you'll know why there's no need to worry about what needs done to put the 2100 back in operation.

Take a look at the short roster of operating 4-8-4's. Now look at how many at sitting around idle, but could be made operable with a minimum of work. If you're really Jonesing for a Northern, send Ross a PM with an offer for the 614. It would be quicker, easier, and if you're planning on building the 2100 a new boiler, hell it would be cheaper too!

"Re-patriating" her to coal country is a much more realistic and achievable goal. Work on that first, and once the RCH&TS has here in a nice secure indoor storage location, then you can ponder how many gold bars it will take to put her back on the mainline.

For all we know, the owner discovered the pleasures of the opposite gender. >;-D

The truth is known only to owner Andrew Muller and his close (business and railfan) associates, but the rumor that has trickled out of Port Clinton, Pa. is that 2102 had developed some serious boiler or firebox issue that would require some not-inconsiderable cubic footage of dollars to properly repair. A related side issue is that, at this stage in the game, 2102 would require a new boiler form, tear-down, 1472-day inspection, etc. A somewhat related side issue is the railroad's loss of "steam expertise" in the form of the former "walking encyclopedias" of steam that are no longer with the railroad.

At the moment, there is no good "business" reason for Muller and/or the Reading & Northern to run 2102 when 425 is available to toot steam whistles, draw crowds, and garner good PR. Absent Muller and associates selling the railroad for a handsome profit and retaining some rights to rail access a la the Ohio Central and Jerry Jacobson, all we can do is sit and wait.

And the facts that 2102 has no "business reason" to restore 2102, and that 2102 hasn't yet been donated to the RCT&HS, and that the RCT&HS doesn't have such a terrific relationship with the R&N that they aren't conspicuously interacting with one another probably speaks volumes about the viability of repatriating 2100.......

Exactly! So the reason for shipping 2100 back east, building a new boiler, making her roller bearing equipped (why not go whole hog?) converting her back to coal, painting her in the Chessie Steam Special paint scheme (<smirk>) and then operating her on the... uh, um, where was it she was going to run again? I seem to have overlooked that part... was what?

As near as I can tell, emotion. Plain and simple.

Thank You Tom.

Thank You Bob.

As I stated before,
IF and WHEN 2100 needs a new home, we are willing to discuss it with the owner(s).
* (and yes, the current Officers of RCT&HS know about this. Another dead horse that needs no more beating.) *

The other T-1s are spoken for. Yes, 2102 is only a few miles away from the RCT&HS Museum, but that is irrelevent to the situation.
2102 is a private toy in a private toy box. The owner has the money and staff and railroad to run 2102 when he is ready.

We would like to have a T-1 for our Museum. Cosmetically restored and displayed. Operation is highly unlikely, unrealistic, and unnecessary.

And if anyone knows of the current whereabouts of the Reading Camelback 4-6-0 in Cuba, we would like to have that too.

Bob,

What our would now cost is relevant even if it were to never operate again, move an inch our even get scrapped. This is an opportunity to learn from example just what can, does and has (with more than just this locomotive) happened if un-skilled, experienced or dare I say qualified people become charged with the care of a locomotive.
This industry is on a slippery slope of poor work, bad decisions and to many knowledgeless people doing what they "reckon" to be plenty good enough on steam power. I for one (of very many) know that this board and T.R.A.inc are the perfect platforms for the details of such failures to be reviewed and learned from.
Well that happen? Doubtful, this industry seems to protect the guilty thus preventing others from getting the idea that certain things must be done certain ways or that individuals must have real knowledge in order for an operation to be successful.

Cheers, Jason

Sorry, but you're incorrect. Quoting Ross/CO614 during a previous flogging of this FerroEquine ;)



viewtopic.php?f=1&t=23007&p=100680

Are you suggesting that there is no reason that RCT&HS can make the exact same offer to the owner(s) of 2102 that they have made to the owners of 2100?



There have been a long succession of Canadian, British, and other steam fans in Cuba over the past thirty or more years. It wasn't there over two decades ago, and high scrap prices in the past decade have resulted in the "disappearance" of many/most of the hulks that were derelict since.

More on the topic, in part from a past RCT&HS official eleven years ago:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1261

I have no idea what-so-ever about the condition of #2100. What follows is a general comment about the field of rail preservation.

If the above quote by jasonsobczynski about an abundance of "poor work" is true, it is disappointing to me that in the year 2012 you still find people doing damage to steam artifacts, some of which are a century old. It tells me that the field of rail preservation still has a lot of maturing to do.

As an example of a "mature" outlook on historic preservation, a docent at the Museum of Flight (Seattle) told me once that the F4U Corsair we were looking at had been restored to operating condition, but that it would never, ever be flown. I was initially puzzled by that view, but after thinking about it, I came to understand that it reflected a grown up philosophy of preservation. The plane was an artifact to be preserved, not a toy to be played with. Unfortunately, most rail preservationists today still think railroad artifacts are objects to be played with. And as jasonsobczynski notes, playing with artifacts can damage or ruin them. I think the fact that abuse of historic railway equipment goes on today is a sign that the rail preservation field has not yet matured.

I think the problem is, we are not discussing "railway preservation". The Golden Pacific was a tourist railroad, pure and simple... as such, the equipment was simply capital assets, to be used, consumed, rebuild, modified, and discarded, all in the interests of making money for the investors. The concept of preservation never entered into the equation.

I have just been e-mailed a list of Reading 2102's "needs" for overhaul by a trusted "lurker" on this site.

As this is at best third-hand information, but from a source I trust better than most folks even here, I'm not going to rehash it in its entirety here, but a short summary:

Part 230 1472-day overhaul.
Running gear (bearings, rods, etc.) worn out, in need of complete overhaul.
Alleged major boiler course rivet problems, with the possibility/suspicion that one boiler course may have to be completely replaced.
Feedwater heater to be repaired or replaced.
Serious metal "wastage" on the tender.
A litany of other comparatively minor problems.

In short, this is nothing that can't be repaired--at considerable expense. But on the other hand, this is no "pull it out and throw a fire in her" stored locomotive.