Some photos from the Re-wheeling of Western Maryland Scenic Railroad #1309 yesterday at their shop in Ridgeley, WV.

Tim W.

Good to see, though: Hulcher = a pretty penny. Bit surprised they didn't work on some of the cosmetic stuff like painting the boiler jacket while they were waiting for funds to replace the stolen driver boxes, though that might not have been possible with it up in the air.

I didn't take a lot of pictures when I was there last spring, but I think it was already painted and what your seeing is dust. Hulchers Vultures were not there last spring when I was and it was on the ground. Seriously though I think your looking at dust. The loco has been sitting for some time so a simple wipe down and she will look very nice.

I for one am glad to see the wheels finally under it again. I also hope to see her run. Am hopeful the rest of assembly goes pretty fast as much of it was already done last spring. I recall a lot of negativity directed at the UP during the Big Boy restoration and then UP was the hero for doing it. Same here. I hope once this is running the negativity and picking of nits stops. Congrats to the crew for getting past this milestone of getting the wheels mounted. Once broke in this loco should run for a long time. They have not skimped on workmanship that I could see. So in the immortal words of Charlie Berens, "keep er moving". Regards, John.

That second picture, front view shot makes the wheelsets look almost too narrow for that massive boiler!

Judging from the shadows, the boiler appears to be closer to the camera than the wheelsets, but I thought it was a very interesting perspective.

It's going to be great to see this thing under steam. I'll definitely have to make a trip down there to see it in operation, and take a ride on it.

From what I'm told, these guys (and any heavy equipment outfit like it) are a LOT cheaper IF you work around THEIR schedules and availability, not say "we need you right away."

Looks like you just took away one of the legs of the Cheap, Fast, and Accurate triangle.. In this case, this is project management... So, remove the "Time/Schedule" and you've nailed down two benchmarks of the triangle :)

Hulcher, when you need them they come with all of the stuff you need.

Looks like they fired up 1309 today:

https://www.facebook.com/TrainsMagazine ... tion=group

Edit: whistle tests beginning at 1:47:00.

Virtually nobody there was wearing a face mask. Take this seriously folks. We don't need to lose restoration talent to the virus.

Not a big deal, just look at all the video of early-twenties people without masks, packed in and getting loaded in bars in Florida, Texas and Arizona the weekend before last. If they don't know what's sensible, who does?

Seriously though, the purpose of the steam-up yesterday was to blowdown and clear debris from the steam lines. In this short video, it seems to me that only one of the four cylinders is getting much steam though, am I right?
https://www.facebook.com/WMSRailroad/vi ... fy_me_page

Correction, it seems that only three of the four cylinders are receiving much steam. Front fireman side doesn’t seem to be getting much, if any at all.

Is this engine a compound engine or simple?

[edit]: I looked it up and it is a compound engine. If the steam is being allowed to escape from the high pressure (rear) cylinders, wouldn't there would be no steam going to the low pressure (front) cylinders?

The steam would be first used in the HP cylinders before going to be expanded a second time in the LP cylinders, so if the steam is allowed to escape the HP cylinders that's where it would end up next. My supposition is that the position of the valve in the associated HP cylinder didn't allow for the steam to be exhausted from HP to LP on that side, of the position of the valve in the LP cylinder wasn't letting it in. Consider lap, please......

Also consider that this engine has a simpling valve that would route live steam to the LP cylinders as well. They did mention in the text that some work would be needed on that valve system..........mld

Is it possible on a Mallet to cut off the steam to the rear engine but keep steam going to the front engine, or vice-versa? That could have been useful for limping back to the yard if you had a mechanical problem on one of the engines. In this case, I'll bet they would prefer not to blow all the dirt from the high-pressure engine into the low-pressure engine if they can avoid it.