Got a chance recently to get up close to this superb looking locomotive and get some detailed pictures. She would surely look fine with a little TLC. The stories I'd heard about the local kids turn out to be true. While I was there, one was hurling rocks at her bell and another one ran up and down her boiler shouting and flailing his arms like a lunatic.


SJHussar@aol.com

a closer shot of her smokebox...


SJHussar@aol.com

inside the cab panoramic view, missing a few items...



SJHussar@aol.com

my camera becomes an idiot magnet...



SJHussar@aol.com

> my camera becomes an idiot magnet...

And when said idiot falls, it's the fault of the city that this promising young future brain surgeon, astronaut, nobel prize winner will now have to eat the remainder of his meals through a straw.
Engine looks decent enough. Do you know anything about the boiler condition?

Mike Stillwell
Western VA Railroad Preservation Soc.

Yenko117@yahoo.com

> And when said idiot falls, it's the fault of
> the city that this promising young future
> brain surgeon, astronaut, nobel prize winner
> will now have to eat the remainder of his
> meals through a straw.
> Engine looks decent enough. Do you know
> anything about the boiler condition?

> Mike Stillwell
> Western VA Railroad Preservation Soc.

Then members of the City Council will want to scrap the engine to prevent future lawsuits from greedy trial lawyers!

I understand that this engine sits directly outside the Waterville Shops. Doesn't Guilford have enough sense of corporate pride to volunteer to do a decent cosmetic restoration?

kevin.r.gillespie@verizon.net

I am going out on a limb here, as I have not seen the old gal in person, but she doesn't look to be the basket others have called her. She looks like crapola, but that's nothing paint and a boiler jacket wouldn't fix.

This engine is not a lost cause.

We've been down this road before, but I forget who actually owns her. Is it the city? Guilford?

Seems that with the growing number of preservation-minded outfits in New England, some organization could either offer a better home or raise money for some fencing, no?

Have any of you dealt with trying to help this engine in the past? I'd be curious to hear what the response was.

Rob

rdavis@rypn.org

Rob,
as the plaque states she was placed here a little over 40 years ago, and owned by the city of Waterville.

She is indeed located at the mouth of the Guilford yards in a very conspicuous spot.




SJHussar@aol.com

A Guilford manager told me that the company paid for a repaint in the 1980s, about the time the Mellon debacle first occured. I don't think much has been done since then, though not sure when the asbestos was removed.

ryarger@rypn.org

The locomotive was repainted by the 470 Club, if my information is correct, and was immediatly vandalized with spray paint thereafter. I would like to bring this thread back down to reality-
While the locomotive is probably restorable in some fashion, remember that 50 years of rain and some cold winters have taken their toll on the old girl. The picture of the cab says "missing a few items", well what you don't see is the missing cab that is rotting off the engine. Her firebox and journals are full of rocks and ballast. Her jacketing was stripped off in an asbestoes abatement attempt in the 80's. Her tank is full of daylight, and even the welds have been broken on her operative parts. There is no glass anywhere on her and every piece of brass has been stolen. I have been told that the last time she was moved, her drivers refused to turn.
Nobody would like to see her operating more than I would, but the prevailing attitude is that it ain't gonna happen. The vandals have even bent the flag poles that flew the US and Maine flags. It's a sickening shame. If she isn't going to be moved for restoration, at least the city should enclose her in a building.


glueck@maine.edu

O.K., enough, enough, ENOUGH. We can't afford to keep the locos we have running now under steam, let alone try in get yet another rusting park engine operation. Just cut the whole operational idea. The long and the short in my mind is this: what other community, museum, or organization that would WANT her can save her in a manner where she could be cosmetically restored, put under shelter, and properly appreciated? Surely some lineside Maine Central community has to have some ounce of pride in its history?

Port Huron Museum
tjgaffney@phmuseum.org

guilford Industries has no feel for the history of its lines past at all!

I visited a museum last summer and asked why the Boston & Maine name was not of the engine, rather their museum name on the tender.

Was told when asked that they not only said no but you have to pay for the use of the historical name and offered to sue the museum over it!

ted_miles@nps.gov

I certainly have no illusions about her condition. I simply wanted to get good images of her in order to raise awareness of her plight. I believe there are only 3 Maine Central steam locomotives left...

This picture is of the left rear corner of her tender.



SJHussar@aol.com

Right... my question was about finding her a place where TLC, Bondo and a little shelter might extend the old girls retirement years.

After all, who among us doesn't need some TLC, Bondo and shelter? ;-)

rdavis@rypn.org