Gee, Dave, you work miracles. Old #17 may be just a little 0-4-0, but when you steam her up, she expands to a 2-8-2! Looks a lot like that locomotive at Grand Canyon..... Seriously, I think someone accidently forgot to change photo links, but good job on returning her to steam!

david.wilkins@insightbb.com

> Seriously, I think someone accidently forgot
> to change photo links, but good job on
> returning her to steam!

And who might that someone be? I just went and looked at the brief 2 minutes ago, and I don't see anything wrong....


Texas Steam
hkading@rypn.org

I did it with trick lighting and mirrors, Hume. Sort of like how Winston Link made the West Side Lumber look like N&W in his shots.

No 4-8-4's were harmed in the photography.

Dave

irondave@bellsouth.net

As Dave details in the News Brief, our first steam test went well, and we will continue to debug the locomotive in the coming weeks. The few troubles we had are on the way to being fixed, so we should have more good news soon. Still a bit away from the "public" announcement that we are up and operating.
Most folks seem to wait until the carefully stage managed steam-up can be set up for the press: the engine crew wearing spotless jumpsuits swing aboard and ease the engine out of the shop, gleaming paint glowing in the brilliant sunshine, the waiting crowd erupting in waves of applause and camera flashes as the engine glides past and heads towards 1472 trouble-free operating days....

There still is work to do on the various systems and paint, etc., so when we are done it will start to look more like that shiny loco you guys are talking about.

Bill

staybolt@bellsouth.net

> Gee, Dave, you work miracles. Old #17 may be
> just a little 0-4-0, but when you steam her
> up, she expands to a 2-8-2! Looks a lot like
> that locomotive at Grand Canyon.....
> Seriously, I think someone accidently forgot
> to change photo links, but good job on
> returning her to steam!

I'd like to put in a plug for the New Hope Valley Railway/North Carolina RR Museum. With about 100 members in our origanization, about twenty five percent of those are actually active members which is truly remarkable for any railroad museum. We are now the only museum in the eastern piedmont that operates a short line tourist railroad, and does so very successfully. Those active members do everything from restoration work to track work, all on a volunteer basis.
#17 would not have been restored to operating condition without the expertise from members like Charles Rodes or Bill Conklin, these guys were the movers and shakers of the project. Paul Baschon, one of our retirees was more than willing to crawl down inside 17's boiler to help needle scale. Folks like Mac Gibson, our resident carpenter, and another retiree also put in time and expertise towards the restoration as did many others. You bet it was exciting to see her roll under her own power.

Dave Dick

popvalve@bellsouth.net