1218 in stationary steam service

firefighter25dfd · **Joined:** Tue Oct 25, 2005 1:52 pm **Posts:** 89

in todays sunday gazette mail in charleston, wv there was a picture of the 1218 in stationary steam service

http://www.sundaygazettemail.com/sectio ... /way93.jpg

BILL · **Posted:** Sun Sep 03, 2006 7:03 pm

Good stuff. I have always wanted to see photos of the 3 class As there and never have.....until now!

jwallis · **Posted:** Sun Sep 03, 2006 8:51 pm

Question is, which one is 1218? Is it one of the two in the foreground, or is it the one parked behind? If memory serves me correctly, there were a total of three A's at Union Carbide.

p51 · **Posted:** Sun Sep 03, 2006 11:39 pm

BILL wrote:

Good stuff. I have always wanted to see photos of the 3 class As there and never have.....until now!

Yeah, me neither. No books I can find have a photo of 1218 there, thanks for the link!
I was lucky enought to ride 1218 back in the day. I live in the Pac NW, far from SRR territory now. These days, people hear me talking about the SRR/NS steam program and theiur jaws drop, "Wow," they ask, "You rode those trips?"

John Bohon · **Joined:** Sun Aug 29, 2004 1:04 pm **Posts:** 625

The second question is what were the numbers of the other two locomotives?

John Bohon

Stephen Hussar · **Posted:** Mon Sep 04, 2006 4:38 pm

John, according to Huddleston's "Worlds Greatest Steam Locomotives" the other two A's were 1202 and 1230.

jwallis · **Posted:** Mon Sep 04, 2006 7:48 pm

1218 got the front engine off 1230 when F.Nelson Blount got it.

Didn't the 1202 regularly pull the Powhatan Arrow when it was first built?

Richard Glueck · **Posted:** Mon Sep 04, 2006 10:50 pm

Recollection tells me that when Blount got to them, two were already in the destruction phase. He took the 1218, which was in the best condition, and got spare parts as well. Where did the tender come from? I don't see tenders in the picture.

Mr.Pullman · **Posted:** Tue Sep 05, 2006 12:36 am

Folks

Here is a Picture of the 1218 undergoing restoration at Steamtown in Vermont back in 1969. Not sure when it was saved from Union Carbide but this doesn't look to be to long after it was. Notice the message on the tender says "DO NOT SCRAP". Sorry I don't know where I found this picture it was a long time ago, so I am unable to give proper credit to the photographer, but if any one knows who took it please let me know. I have another one of the 1218 being deliverd to VT but still need to find it.

Enjoy!

wesp · **Posted:** Tue Sep 05, 2006 7:26 am

How did 1218 get in the hands of NS? Was it at Steamtown when the decision was made to activate it for excursion service? Or was it at the Museum in Roanake by this time? I recall a trade for diesels. A little family history would be welcomed.

Thanks.

Wesley

Stephen Hussar · **Posted:** Tue Sep 05, 2006 7:39 am

1218 was only in Vermont for a couple of years at the most, as she went to the Roanoke Transportation Museum in '67.

By the way, great picture Steven!

johnacraft · **Joined:** Thu Aug 26, 2004 2:53 pm **Posts:** 660

wesp wrote:

How did 1218 get in the hands of NS? Was it at Steamtown when the decision was made to activate it for excursion service? Or was it at the Museum in Roanake by this time? I recall a trade for diesels. A little family history would be welcomed.

Thanks.

Wesley

1218 was displayed in Roanoke for many years, but still owned by Steamtown. In early 1985 NS obtained title to the locomotive from Steamtown, and removed it from the Virginia Museum of Tranportation's old site and moved it to Birmingham for overhaul.

JAC

Mr.Pullman · **Posted:** Tue Sep 05, 2006 2:30 pm

Stephen
Thank you for the clarification on when the 1218 left Steamtown, the date of 1969 was part of the Pictures original description when I found it, (1218 SteamtownVT1969) but then too information was limited. I'll see if I can't find the other pictures of the 1218 moving to and or from Vermont in the 1960's
Also I do believe part of the deal for the 1218 involved 2 to 3 diesels one of which is still used daily at Steamtown the NKP GP-9 514. The following link is a detailed explanation of the trade between Steamtown and Then young Norfolk Southern,

Please check out the "History section" of the Locomotive linked below as it details the equipment trade at Steamtown:

http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/steamtown/shs5c.htm

The trade details are provided by Steamtowns NHS Locomotive histories.

Hope this answers some questions, Enjoy!

davew833 · **Posted:** Tue Sep 05, 2006 4:23 pm

I understand restoring #1218 to operation was a much bigger challenge than initially expected because it was far from complete. IIRC, Union Carbide converted the three 2-6-6-4's to oil firing and got rid of the firebox grates, as well as things like steam delivery pipes and other necessary items to convert steam to motion- obviously not needed in their role as stationary boilers. In about 1987, TRAINS magazine ran a photo of the cabs of the three steamers set up back-to-back so one person could control and maintain them all.

johnacraft · **Joined:** Thu Aug 26, 2004 2:53 pm **Posts:** 660

davew833 wrote:

I understand restoring #1218 to operation was a much bigger challenge than initially expected because it was far from complete. IIRC, Union Carbide converted the three 2-6-6-4's to oil firing and got rid of the firebox grates, as well as things like steam delivery pipes and other necessary items to convert steam to motion- obviously not needed in their role as stationary boilers.

1218 did take longer, and cost more than expected. You could probably make the same statement about every steam loco resucitation since 1960. But the "incompleteness" of 1218 wasn't unknown at the time the decision was taken to overhaul it.

If I remember correctly, one of the time-consuming "surprises" were cracks in the frame jaws of the lead engine. A couple of months went into correcting that.

Also, resources (both labor and dollars) were diverted to 4501 and 611 at times, which delayed 1218's debut.

There's an old saying that applies here: "The first 90% of a project consumes 90% of the resources. The last 10% of the project consumes the other 90% of the resources."

JAC