David H. Hamley wrote: Other than the gauge, there was nothing "little" about these beasts. Look at all that steel in the "frame." Look at the size of those cylinders compared to the boiler. These locos (at J&L Steel) and their kin at various other mills were a very specialized design. The purpose of all that weight is twofold: First to produce tractive effort, and equally important, provide braking. The rolling stock these moved about were heavy, hard rolling, and sans brakes of any kind. Some of these locos and especially their diesel replacements were often fitted with "brake trailers" on either or both ends. The purpose of those, aside from giving the brakemen a safe place to ride, was to produce even more braking effort. An amazing critter to be sure and highly worthy of preservation.
All of these and the other positive remarks are heartily agreed with by me!
Congratulations on preserving one the the once more common, yet more specialized, examples of steam locomotion.
Edit: Earlier thread on this effort; have to say I find the operating proposal most interesting--and find one of the interesting points is that this operating proposal almost looks and sounds like something a serious model railroader would think up! But that shouldn't be a surprise, much less a criticism; do not the best of railroad modelers not only build models, but operate their miniature railways as a form of railroad simulator?
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