It has been reported on trainorders.com that former F.E.C. Pacific #148 is on the move from Colorado to North Platte Wy. It is reported to be on the way back to Florida for restoration. Anyone have any information on this ?

Good news if it is accurate. She was designed to pull lightweight trains fast on level ground, not climb mountains.

Everything I've heard and read about this engine tells me it needs either very extensive boiler work or a new boiler.
I may be mistaking this for another FEC engine. Whichever one, I've heard of wastage down to some spots of .070 shell thickness. That's extreme!

148 is the one specifically cited as having the .070 spots. S&A 750 (FEC 80) had/has some nasty spots on the crown sheet (down to about 1/16 around one staybolt), the corners of which were cut out in 1989. None of the balance of 750's boiler has ever been UT'd.

I last saw 148 so long ago it was at the Valley RR - almost 30 years maybe? She was not in good shape then, including some pretty big bits of firebox cut away. Unless somebody has made some fairly substantial investments in her since, it is going to be a pretty big job. This isn't bad news...... just means when she's back on the road she'll be in better shape than if it was just a patch job.

There's a sister Pacific, #153. Where is she today, and is she in good shape?

Not sure about the good shape part, but it is apparently at the Gold Coast museum in Florida: http://steamlocomotive.info/vlocomotive.cfm?Display=334

#153 survived a hurricane on the Key West extension.

And survived a hurricane at the museum, after which she was cosmetically restored along with a couple cars with FEMA funds. 153 was the first steam locomotive I had anything to do with in the Fort Lauderdale days between stints at the Blimp base. 113 came along back then.... and took over for 153 when the boiler ticket ran out. I moved away from South Florida back then, not sure which locomotive ran when after that.

There's another sister in Albany (pronounced all-BENny) Georgia.

I was around the New GA when the section of the crown was removed. As I recall an attempt was made to fix some leaky stays in the crown sheet. Needless to say there was an "oh my!" when a section was removed and all realized how thin it was. That was the end of 750's operating career (for now). I also witnessed an examination of the bottom of the firebox wrapper near the blow down on the engineers side. A section was cut out above the mud ring to see how much scale there was, and see what if any sediment was built up on the mud ring. Those in charge were satisfied with what they saw and the section was welded back in place. Re-certifying 750's boiler would take some serious work and, it would be interesting to do some readings. It has a funky patch on the front course around the flue sheet. A hole developed in front of the flue sheet before the smoke box. To fix it, a 3 piece patch was riveted in. A large trapezoidal piece on the outside that went from the smoke box seam to about 2 feet behind the flue sheet. Inside a piece was put on the smoke box side and another on the waterside of the flue sheet. FRA blessed it at the time. 750 was built in 1910 that's an old boiler that like 148 and 153 has seen lots of steaming.

Have a chat with Mark Ray at the convention next month about the partial front course replacement on 4501. We can do a lot of good things with welded repairs today we couldn't do in the riveted age.

Which explains why a number of locomotives that were steaming with their owners and operators in blissful ignorance just before the new rules went into effect suddenly got parked when those fireboxes and boilers had to be examined by more effective means
than just eyeballing it.

These were not the only ones with tissue-thin places in the boiler, firebox, tube sheets, or all of the above. Nobody knew. large3ly because they were afraid to know, as that would mean possibly costly repairs were needed NOW, not next season or when we get around to it.

I was heavily involved with Gold Coast from the mid '70s to 1991. When I first volunteered, #113 was running, #153 took over in 1978 and ran until 1983, then #113 ran until 1991.Both of them are tired. They will both need extensive work if they are ever to operate again. The lower firebox side,throat, and back sheets need to be replaced at minimum, the running gear is worn out, as they were essentially industrial switch engines from the 1930s until they were retired and had no heavy maintenance done on them while owned by U.S. Sugar. No IT testing has been done on the boiler shells, so that is a big unknown.


The engine in Albany is Georgia Northern # 107, ex-FEC #88, built in 1911. She is wearing #750's straightened and patched together rods, traded when #750 was violently slipped after passing over a flange oiler.

If Florida is indeed the destination, likely destinations would seem to be the Steam Locomotive Association of Fort Pierce, or the Gold Coast group in Miami. Is it one of these, or somewhere else? Anybody know?

It's almost always good to hear about historic items being repatriated to home territory.


Tom

Since Gold Coast has two of their own, and offered one of those for sale, why would they invest in getting one more?

The article specified going to Florida for getting restored, but didn't specify she would stay there after restoration. Further information required.

Well, I didn't see this coming...

Florida East Coast engine to steam again
One-time owner vows to return locomotive 'to its former glory'

By Scott A. Hartley | November 2, 2016

MIAMI — Sweet redemption is coming soon for unpainted, disassembled, 97-year-old, Florida East Coast 4-6-2 No. 148 thanks to one-time owner U.S. Sugar Corp. The company bought the engine and will return it to operating condition in Florida after a decades-long excursion career.

“Number 148 is a piece of our history, and we wanted to bring it home,” says Judy Sanchez, senior director of corporate communications and public affairs for U.S. Sugar. “We intend to restore number 148 to its former glory.”

Sanchez says that the restoration will take at least a year. The project will be done at U.S. Sugar’s Clewiston, Fla., locomotive shop using the company’s own skilled
workforce as well as contractors.

Asked about the company’s plans for operations, Sanchez responded, “We will look at a number of opportunities including those open to the public.”

U.S. Sugar and its South Central Florida Express common carrier railroad operate a total of 236 route miles, some leased from Florida East Coast. That relationship makes it possible that a genuine FEC passenger steam locomotive will once again run on home rails.

ALCO Richmond built the Pacific-type locomotive in 1920. The sugar company bought the engine in 1952, after it worked in railroad service for more than three decades. It then worked largely in obscurity, hauling cars loaded with sugar cane from the fields to a mill at Clewiston.

It was sold in the 1960s as an excursion locomotive and saw service in New Jersey and Connecticut before being sold to successive owners in Michigan and Colorado. — Scott A. Hartley

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/20 ... -to-return