One of the things mentioned in the recent "Amusement Parks" thread, was GTW 2-8-2 #4070. This Mike has kind of "dropped off the face of the earth". Anyone know what's going on with the engine?

Les

isn't that the engine gathering dust in Cleveland?

Dave -

That's the one! Been gathering dust for how many years now?

Les

She was really active during the 70's and perhaps 80's. Last I saw, her drivers were out from under her and she was propped up. I'd love to see her back in GTW paint and working once more. I'd love an updated report and a few pictures.

4070 is still resting quietly in the Midwest Railroad Historical Foundation's West 3rd St. roundhouse in Cleveland, Ohio. MHRF has had their hands full over the past few years trying to stabilize the former B&O roundhouse as a museum home base. The far 3 stalls at the south end of the roundhouse suffered a partial collapse a few years ago and they have been working overtime to get funding and help to stabilize the structure to prevent the City of Cleveland from condeming the building.

From what I've heard, the troubled part of the building has been stabilized and the machine tools that occupied the bay where 4070 rests have been cleaned up, restored and repainted and moved to a new machine shop area. There is also talk of reinstalling the removed set of drivers and hanging the rods on her once again so she looks like a proper steam locomotive.

4070 has been dormant since the early 90's. Most of the experienced steam folks have moved on to other efforts that time. When the crossheads and cylinder covers were removed to allow removal of the scored cylinder liners on the RH cylinder, a crack was discovered in the RH main frame behind the cylinders. At that point, the head mechanics apparently stepped back from the project and here she has sat since then. It sure would be great to see her in steam again but it doesn't look promising right now. Perhaps once the missing drivers are reinstalled, a spark might get struck among those that have expressed an interest in getting this small amount of work completed.

Rob Gardner

Is the mainframe crack a death sentence as far as running, or would that be repariable?

Groooan...I was on an excursion pulled by 4070 and 2101 (?) in the late 1970's when the 4070 threw a rod...talk about a real life hurdy-gurdy. Nothing like being on a junk train when it goes into emergency at speed. I have never heard more banging and screeching in my life. When all was said and done we went around Horseshoe Curve several hours late...in the dark...with no lights...no bathrooms...no water...no food. Followed by a long drive home in the middle of the night.

I have always wondered if anybody has a consist for the train that day. There were some Pullmans on the train that day...I wonder which ones? What organization operated that trip?

It was 2102 in 1976 and the operation was the "Allegheny Railroad."

Definitely repairable.

Not quite: The "Alleghany RR" outfit, doing business as "Steam Tours", cobbled together two Pittsburgh-Altoona RTs in 1976 behind 2102 solo. The doubleheaded trip with 4070, where 4070 lost its right eccentric rod and slammed to a stop, was on May 15, 1977. The emergency stop broke the train in at least three places, though I never was able to ascertain whether they broke knuckles or drawbars or just forced couplers open.

There exists a commercially made recording of that trip, made by an audio tape crew on the tender of 2102, with one stereo mike pointed forward and the other back at 4070. 2102 apparently sported a high-pitched five chime whistle, while 4070 sported what still, to my ears, was one of the more majestic whistles I've yet to hear, a melodious deep three-chime similar in sound to recordings of the SR 1401's whistle.....

And if anyone ever asks why Conrail forbade steam on the Curve, just point them to that day and episode. An entire generation later, and many people STILL remember that fiasco and PR disaster.

I was told the train broke in 2 places...I witnessed one of the breaks...walked down the aisle and there it was! No gate, no sign, no car host...just a gap in the train with plenty of ballast and cross ties below. How nobody was killed I will never know.

The globes on some of the light fixtures fell to the floor...most of the buffers overlapped...some people lost their feet out from under them and tumbled onto their backsides. In hindsight an experienced road engineer told me that throwing a train into emergency was his very last choice...he preferred to slow to a stop even when he came upon something as severe as a rail kink. His 30+ years of road experience and his safety record speaks volumes.

The good thing about this trip are the memories of riding back in the dark...late at night on an open vestibule with no lights on the train. We could see everything around us and enjoy the night scenes...the Amtrak trains screaming by with their lights ablaze and the crazy, flying sensation of pacing one train with passing another in the dead of night!

I am thinking of offering my blood, sweat and tears to help reinstall the missing set of drivers which probably won't happen until spring time now. Winter took a while to arrive in NE Ohio, but it's here now in full force.

At that time, I plan to examine the crack and try to get a better grasp of how deep it is and what it would take in terms of manhours of grinding and prep work as well as the procedure for proper preheating and postheating and welding time required. Lincoln Electric is headquartered here in Cleveland so I'm going to be optimistic in thinking we could enlist their help from a technical standpoint. Hopefully, if this group of volunteers believes they can start tackling some of the smaller items to restore such as the appliances, and this crack can be fixed correctly, maybe, just maybe, the group could once again believe she can be restored to operating condition.

Rob Gardner's line of thinking is the type of initiative that gets things done. We must approach every problem with a series of probable solutions rather than sighing at the road blocks.

More to the point: who has recently repaired a cracked bar frome successfully on a locoomotive of similar size and age, and how was it done, and how long has that repair been proven in service?

If the repair can be done without reinventing the process, it will save a lot of time and dollars.

dave

I seem to recall that N&W 475 (Strasburg 475) had a number of cracks in the frame members that were discovered during her rebuild about 20 (?) years ago. If my recollection is correct, perhaps Kelly or Linn could enlighten us as to how they were dealt with.

Howard P.
Tempilstik, NY