The author of the linked article writes:

"I would like to make a suggestion to my friends in Grapevine. Once this locomotive is restored, there will be two stream [sic] engines at the railroad museum: Puffy and SP 771. While one engine is hauling tourists, I recommend leaving the second engine out in an unrestricted display similar to the current arrangement with SP 771."

Hopefully the people at Grapevine won't take his suggestion!

Good luck to the fundraising efforts in Texas.

--Jim

It should be noted that Grapevine has dithered amongst the 771, the narrow-gauge steamer on display at the Texas Gaylord, and of late toying with the notion of a narrow-gauge streetcar operation between downtown Grapevine and the aforementioned Gaylord resort.

Re 771, the consultant somewhat optimistically estimated the locomotive's restoration costs at @ $300,000. The experience of sisters 745 and 786, however, would place it in excess of $1.5 million, at which Grapevine understandably balked..

So Rachel- that narrow gauge steamer- is in the resort on display now? I figured she'd never turn a wheel down there. Too bad really. All that engine needed was a little running gear work, everything else was good. Always hate to see a good machine unused.

Never say never... At such point as the new DART/TRE commute route is implemented, the GVRR as it exists today may well pass into history. That so, one scenario has Rachel running on a loop of narrow-gauge track surrounding the Gaylord resort (possibly connected to downtown Grapevine via the narrow-gauge trolley)...

Rachel needs hub liners, main rod brasses, side rod brasses, crosshead shoes, and could stand crown brass work on the R2 and L2. She had a tendancy to stick the wedges on the main axle.

She also is ready for tubes and I quite possibly a dry pipe. Her firebox is in great shape. We shot it with the ray gun while we had her at Doe River Gorge and the sheets are really in fine shape. She needs to have the jacket and lagging stripped and have a good look at the boiler shell as well. She also has three dead wheels.

The brasses that were put in her the last time at Opryland were just too soft. We squeezed a lot of juice out of her up and down the mountain on the old ET&WNC, and the brasses just didn't hold up.

She is a fine little engine and I hope she will get some use at some point, but she won't pull much and her sutastainable steam capacity is pretty small. We reconfigured the oil burner and redid the front end and she got up and down the hill pretty well.

She sure could bounce that whistle off the sides of the gorge!

Well, I'd love to see that. That engine (Rachel) was the first steam engine I ever laid eyes on and rode behind when I was a sprout.