I googled our old gal the other and found this forum. A quick registration confirmation later, here I am. I'll try to answer some questions from previous posts and let you all know where we're at now.

The Dec 2 FRA inspection was a success. Despite the minor deviations for for approval, we were allowed to trot her out for the public a bit. We didn't have any wheel slippage that day as our crew had straightened out the learning curve a bit since the previous steam up.

We have finished reinstalling the right injector line that you may have noticed wasn't in place. The headlight has been refurbed, the dynamo and wiring is getting put back in and the tender brakes are getting the finishing adjustments. At this point, most of the major stuff is done. We'll be doing another hydro when we thaw out a little and then steam her up again for some training sessions.

We have one guy who worked for the D&RGW out of Durango back when it was still a real, revenue railroad. Another used to fire the 477 (now in Salina's Kenwood Park) on the Plainville Branch when he first started on the UP. Our steam boss, Joe Minick, is a top notch mechanical guy and worked on the Arabia Steamboat in KC, I believe. The rest of the core group are jacks of all trades type of guys. Then there are some others with specific skills. We're really blessed!

I don't know if the whistle is original but it's the one that it managed to keep while being in the park.

We plan to run it "once a month and on special occasions" May to October. Details are still being worked on. Our regular route is about 6 miles over to Enterprise and back where we run the power around the train. Our track conditions will keep our speed down to about 15 mph. Future trips off of "home rails" are possible now as we have a connection to the Santa Fe (I'm a purist!) at a fertilizer plant on the east side of town.

If anybody has more questions, lemme know. I'll try to get em answered for ya.

She's a beauty! Nice work!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpk91iH4Kzg

hey, Semaphore.
Good to hear about a new restoration, and a Santa Fe at that!
I'm sure many of the readers here would like the list of vital statistics to use in comparison with other locomotives. Do you have any, or could you link us to where they are?
By "vital" I mean things like driver diameter, boiler pressure, piston bore and stroke, built date and all that nonsense.
Nice photo of her in the Feb. issue of Trains. I hope to see more of her, and take her out for a spin, too. ;)

There's an article on the restoration of #3415 appearing in the March 2009 issue of "Railfan & Railroad" magazine.
Dan Rohrback

I'll look for the article. I'm interested in what type of work was required. Firebox, running gear, tender, etc...

Most of that info is available on the terrific steamlocomotive.info site at http://www.steamlocomotive.info/vlocomotive.cfm?Display=505.

Hey back, Tim! Good to hear from you!

Yeah, Railfan gave us a good write up. They covered the high points of the major boiler work. I started showing up right after they finished all that so missed out on all the noise.

A trip to Kansas this summer is absolutely in order! Keep up the good work guys and one day the old girl may get a chance to race in her old stomping grounds...of course the ultimate would be doubleheading with 3751,but perhaps I've been awake too long.....

Those drivers look heavy and immense! What is the diameter on them? She's one big Pacific! I wonder what her top speed was in service days?

I've talked to retired Santa Fe engineers who have run them better than 100 on the Texas Chief between Rosenberg and Bellville on a regular basis. I'm sure they ran that fast in other places as well.

See also http://projects.wrrc.us/?page_id=52

Most of what's talked about there is the repair of various firebox sections.