At Asheville, NC, July 1948:

http://abpr2.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi? ... sou385.jpg

Is this the same class as Southern #401 currently being restored to service by the folks at the Monticello Railway Museum? If so, will the 401 look pretty much the same as this photo of the 385?

Les

Les, 385 and 401 are indeed sisters. Check this out:

http://southern.railfan.net/images/arch ... neysc.html

Same class, as built

http://southern.railfan.net/images/arch ... ou399.html

Another one in the 30's, still with high headlight

http://southern.railfan.net/images/arch ... dlaws.html

SR class H-4. All in all, a very attractive group of locomotives.

Thanks Gary. Photos are great. And the capped stack on the "as-built" 399 was a surprise.

Les

What is the latest on 401? Is it any closer to running?

They anticipate the latter 2008 will see steam.

They've got air ride seats in the cab! Some guys got all the luck!

KL

As one who has to ride on those things much of the time, I can state air ride seats do not belong on a locomotive. All newer CP engines have them and they are awful. If you raise them up so they don't bounce, your feet dangle in the air and if you lower them down so they don't bounce, you can't see out the windows. Combined with the worst footrests ever designed, they make for a miserable 12 hours. My only guess is that someone high up in purchasing at CP had a brother-in-law who sold truck seats - they certainly didn't ask the men what they wanted. Later CN units have excellent seats and well-designed adjustable footrests (as well as microwaves), but I note their last order of GM units have the old style tombstone seats, probably due to their now having an American CEO instead of a Canadian. And I can't imagine why anyone would put modern air ride seats on a steam locomotive..

Yes, 401 is getting closer to running, and as stated, we're currently looking at late 2008.

No, 401 won't have air ride seats. We did, however, place a seat in the cab on a tall pedestal to get the layout of the throttle and reverse quadrant in the right place. (new boiler, remember, so everything has changed just a "little bit" causing many minor adjustments to those item's locations. The seat, sitting up on that pedestal, probably makes one think "air ride".

The tall pedestal was necessary as we have yet to re-install the raised floor in the cab.

Currently, the new cab is installed, new main air reservoirs have been applied, and last weekend, with the help of our Industrial Brownhoist steam powered construction crane, we flipped the tender frame over, and placed it on a set of rebuilt trucks. While we had the crane hot, we lifted the original boiler for the locomotive off the ground and placed it on a flat car so it's at least mobile, and out of the way. We have also recently completed grinding in the dry pipe, and are currently planning tender tank construction, to take place over this winter.

We have a new web site under construction that I hope we can keep updated more frequently than the current one. When that goes live, there will be quite a few new photos of it's progress, as well as other ongoing projects.

Kent

I remember using the steam crane at Williams Grove to do exactly the same job about 30 years ago. It was great fun doing the work with steam. It will be nice to have a Southern steam engine running again. Perhaps 630 will get out of the shop next year making it 2 Southern engines.

John Bohon