Does anyone know if they are properly preparing this magnificent engine for rolling?

http://www.railroadartifactpreservation.org/

I was a bit distressed some years ago when they told me that removing the asbestos lagging wasn't important, and that they were just going to encapsulate it. Maybe just as well, as the jacketing would have probably been discarded in the process.

When still a coalburner, pounding up Raton Pass in 1935:

http://photoswest.org/cgi-bin/imager?00002083+OP-2083

Note the brakies on top of the cars. Hard to believe today they ever allowed that, but life was cheaper then.

and took their jobs seriously.

And they died needlessly and with regularity.. People were not much different then than they are today, but today both workers and the company have sense enough to at least try to get the work done safely rather than trying to display their testerone. Sometimes RR safety still isn't much more than a slogan on a keychain, but I'm sure glad I don't have to walk the tops of the cars like they used to.

In reality, the brakewheels and retainers were on top of the cars and the brakies had to walk the tops to either tie the cars down or set retainers; sometimes to pass signals (no radios). The risk was understood, especially on a winter night with ice on the car tops.

We still see some older Canadian cars with high brake wheels, though the roofwalks are long removed. While brakemen walked the tops of the cars to slow the train down in the woodburner era, that practice was largely gone by the time of the Raton photo, and retainers were/are only turned when the train was stopped (they are rarely used anymore). Signals were passed from man to man from the tops of cars in yards, such as when doubling cuts together, an extremely dangerous practice that sometimes required use of fusees (usually yellow) instead of the dim kerosene lanterns when it was foggy or snowing hard. Numerous brakemen ended their careers as clerks after losing one or both legs that way.

Who are these guys?

For that matter, whither Texas Panhandle Railroad Historical Society, original curators of the Madame Queen (ATSF 5000)?

My understanding is that the group is called the Railway Artifact Preservation Society, and I presume they are basically the same group with a different name or an off shoot thereof. I received a reply from their President and they have done much of the necessary lubrication except for the locomotive axle journals, which they seemed happy to receive advice on preparing. As this is the most critical step in preventing bearing damage, hopefully they will follow the needed steps of polishing and greasing the journals.