The beautiful photo that Dennis Storzek posted of Soo Line 4-6-2 #2719 on another thread, got me to wondering about the Pacific. The plan for the North Shore Scenic Railroad operation out of Duluth's Lake Superior Railroad Museum, seems to be to use Duluth & Northeastern (ex-DM&IR) 2-8-0 #28 for steam trips this year. The 2719 is not owned by LSRM, so spending funds on one of their own locomotives makes sense. Do the owners of 2719 (The Locomotive & Tower Preservation Fund) intend to try to restore the Pacific to service and if so, does anyone know the current status of their efforts?

Thanks.

Les

While i cannot speak to the plans of the Locomotive & Tower Preservation Fund, there have been some preliminary steps taken at their request by the LSRM to start the process, namely examining her tubes and essentially starting to price out the project. The locomotive went through rather thorough annual inspections before she was placed in service, so her interior is not a mystery, by all accounts her boiler appears to be in great shape.

Until more is known, the locomotive is outdoors but under cover, and will probably be spruced up sometime this summer and rotated into the museum for display.

I've often wondered, what kind of feedwater heater is that on the pilot? I've never seen that configuration before.

Its a Worthington SCA-2 feedwater heater, I've provided links before: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=35579&p=203094#p203094

2719 was one of only a handful of Soo Line locomotives (all 4-6-2s that I am aware of) to recieve these pumps, and as I understand it, the reason was their smokeboxes were too small to have a more conventional interior installation.

What Fireman said. As far as I know, these were a stock Worthington model, but applications seem to be rare. As far as I can tell, the housing contains all the stuff that is normally mounted in the smokebox, but lacks the top mounting flange.

In case anyone is wondering, the hot water pump is mounted crosswise to the front of the cylinder saddle, just behind the stand with the heater.

There are a lot of Soo Pacifics saved (seven, IIRC) but this is the only one of the five that were equipped with FWH's.

Dennis -

Yes. These seven: 730, 735, 736, 2713, 2714, 2718, 2719.


Les