Old news, but just ran across this photo of AT&SF 4-6-2 No. 3423 being moved to its new site at Temple,Texas. By truck, of course. The one at Abeline, Kansas was moved the same way a few years ago, within sight of the same RR tracks that it was rolled to the park on. Guess no one today knows what those big round things on the side of a locomotive are for.

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bobyar2001@yahoo.com

Bob,

In a perfect world they'd all move under their own power and on their own wheels. Unfortunately, it's not a perfect world and other resources are often having to be used. There are good rules and arbitrary whim set down by both the government and railroads. It's a rotten but true story that often a piece of equipment must be moved by flatbed or other means because the group receiving it has been given an ultimatum to comply with some new arbitrary rule or risk losing the artifact altogether. What may be just fine on a tourist railroad may not be acceptable on mainline operation, and even if the railroad allows it, their price may be beyond the means of the receiving party.(ie:You're not moving that over our rails, it doesn't comply to our standards.Modify it so it does, flatbed it out, or pay us big bucks and we'll let you do it this once.)

Just Train Crazy,

-Angie

Ladypardus@cs.com

In many cases, those facts are true. These moves, however, were short and simple cross-town jaunts that could have easily been handled with panel track and motive power supplied with a bucket loader. In the case of Abeline, the connecting RR was a very un-busy shortline.

Bob,

> In a perfect world they'd all move under
> their own power and on their own wheels.
> Unfortunately, it's not a perfect world and
> other resources are often having to be used.
> There are good rules and arbitrary whim set
> down by both the government and railroads.
> It's a rotten but true story that often a
> piece of equipment must be moved by flatbed
> or other means because the group receiving
> it has been given an ultimatum to comply
> with some new arbitrary rule or risk losing
> the artifact altogether. What may be just
> fine on a tourist railroad may not be
> acceptable on mainline operation, and even
> if the railroad allows it, their price may
> be beyond the means of the receiving
> party.(ie:You're not moving that over our
> rails, it doesn't comply to our
> standards.Modify it so it does, flatbed it
> out, or pay us big bucks and we'll let you
> do it this once.)

> Just Train Crazy,

> -Angie


http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?f=2&i=64917&t=64817
bobyar2001@yahoo.com