Had a meeting and inspection of the Locomotive today with a group from Windsor. Unfortunately, the cab has been compromised by means which are not visible from the outside and partially trashed, seat covers ripped and torn and some glass smashed, very disheartening....

Apart from some fittings that could be hard to find, that is relatively easy work compared to asbestos abatement, proper conservation, surface prep and a quality paint job. don;t let this little stuff get you down....

dave

In all reality, this is pretty much standard fair for display locomotives. You have to wonder why. Suggestion, take pictures and use them in your presentation to the city. Let them know that this will get worse. I can supply you with an image of a C&O Kanawha cab that is stripped of everything except the feces in the corner. The people of Sarnia must step up to the plate with some funding to prevent this from exploding into full desecration. It will happen. Photos of the Maine Central 470 in Waterville, Maine, should scare the pi__ out of them, and rightly so.
Look, it's too bad, but use it to your advantage.

Thanks Guys. Sitting here going through the photo's it just goes to prove that something has to be done right away to get the cab made more secure. I have a feeling that the squirrels helped with the seat damage but two of the seat backs have names carved into the leather.
First off we need to get the asbestos sorted out both in the cab and on other parts of the locomotive. Once the cab is cleared, then we can start with restoration. If we had had tools available and had no asbestos worries,I would have removed the remaining gauges for safe keeping.

Amazingly the firebox was quite clean inside except for a couple of wooden logs! Does anyone know what the "brick" would be made of? I initially thought ceramic but one of them looks crumbled up or chewed on the end so I am thinking asbestos based? Any ideas?

can you tell if the damage was done recently?

Some of it was recent as the cuts in the seats look quite fresh. about 2 to 3 weeks ago, there was clothing and blankets betwen the tender and locomotive. I am kicking myself now for not getting the cab opened back then!

Here is a question for all of you. Are the engineer and firemans seats removable? They both appear to be out of position and not fastened down.

The seats should be removable.

Take heart, the wonderful aroma of drug addict/drunkard urine saturated the now removed brick work of our locomotive. Pretty much everything that could be stripped from our cab was. The automatic portion of the brake valve was tossed in the firebox without the rotary valve in the top of it. Feed valves missing, needles, feces, broken glass, stolen parts... Yup, seems to be the lot in life for a locomotive on display.

Man that is awful! I thought ours was bad enough! So are the seats not fastened down at all then?

A word of advice - get permission from the powers that be before you remove anything from the cab of 6069! No matter how noble your intentions, some fool will construe it as wanton vandalism, or attacking "their" locomotive without permission, and you'll quickly find yourself on the outsidelooking in. I am deadly serious about this.

Hello Richard.
Thanks for the advice! There is absolutely nothing that can be done until the asbestos is out and the cab declared"clear" and the cab is secure under lock and key. However I am going to mention to the city that for the time being once asbestos is removed that the gauges possibly be removed for safe keeping.

Do you have pictures of the cab, specifically the mounting of the seats?

Hello Clem.
Pics sent....

The seats are not bolted down and were pushed towards the firebox and turned round in relation to their correct position.

The seats are definitely supposed to be bolted down - remember how much these things bounced around in service. The seats have probably come adrift due to the rotting of the wooden supports, possibly helped along by local youth wanting to reposition them to permit a kind of coupling that doesn't involve cut levers.

Speaking of which, one of my favorite park-engine stories came from two activists trying to pry a locomotive out of the hands of a city that wouldn't care for it, but wouldn't sell it, either. They took the step, on the evening before a city council meeting at which the engine would be discussed, of taking all the unused paint from their basements and vandalizing their own engine. It didn't work, but it might have if they'd taken my advice and painted a memorandum concerning the personal habits of the council members. But I'm sure nothing of the kind will be needed in Sarnia.

- Aarne H. Frobom

Once the cab is cleaned of asbestos I will take a closer look as to where they were attached. The wood on the floor seemed strong enough but the mounts might have rotted out. Actually if kids did this then they did us a favour as they will have to come out anyways for restoration!

They should be "firebrick" .... a high-temperature compound ... not asbestos. It's still used in kilns and foundries.