Has there been any new developments as to the future of this locomotive in the past year?

And awaaaaaasy we go!

davce

its been quiet around here, no news, the engine and parts were moved, if someone else knows more direct knowledge, pipe up.

As far as I can tell the quest to restore it is still...ON... but as usual the process is...SLOW.

Wow Dave, really?
This is the sort of thing that keeps people from posting on RyPN. This was Pauls first post here, and right away he gets put down.

Shameful.

I for one, would like to hear what the response is.

Cheese n rice!

I don't think it's RyPN that needs to be adjusted ( such as the Cooler thread earlier) it's the snobs that lurk here who think they know everything.

I think you guys who respond to every single post need to read the RANT at the top of all the threads.

This is what we know since the last few threads that one can find with the "search" function:



















[crickets chirping]

PR

The unspeakable locomotive! Careful, somebody may have a plan to bring her back...

At last we knew, her boiler was at East Broad Top, without explanation. The tender and most other parts are in Altoona.

The efforts of the RRr's Museum to do anything with the locomotive have garnered nothing more than criticism and hostility from some very loud voices outside the Museum. I, myself, am fearful that the locomotive will never be reassembled.

That's what I know.

As a non-American railfan who has been watching these sorts of threads for years, can someone explain why there is such rabid obsession with these specific engines, I.e. why is it always the same dozen or so engines that get all this hype?

Conversely, only one or two people show any interest at all when something or nothing happens to CNR 6167, an engine which many articles refer to as "the most photographed engine in North America" or something like that...

When was the last time anyone came on here and asked what's new with 6167...

That is a valid point. I think in the case of the 1361, there is no source of information about it (AFAIK) other than these forums whereas you maintain an excellent site on the 6167 where people can go for the latest news. Although that doesn't explain why everyone goes nuts when a simple question is asked.

Let's just keep it civil.

In the case of 1361 (and, similarly, Steamtown and Britain's LNER 4472), there's the spectre of very large sums of money (taxpayer/public and non-profit donation) having been spent with comparatively little (as some would say with Steamtown) or naught (in the case of 1361 and 4472) to show for it. Some of us are just waiting for another "Fleecing of America/The State" TV investigative crew to show up and ask questions (probably very valid ones at that), and thus cast all of rail preservation in a "bad light."

The situation is vastly exacerbated, in the case of 1361 specifically, with the situation of the loco LITERALLY "being hidden" from the public. Whatever the validity of the logistical actions taken with 1361, it sure LOOKS like a bunch of people are taking pains to hide something, potentially of a nefarious nature. I would suggest that, whatever the problems with 1361's "re-restoration," there wouldn't be such a controversy if those involved were completely forthcoming with an honest assessment and presentation of the status quo. Unfortunately, based on megabytes of blather expounded here and elsewhere, said assessment, if completely honest, might be along the lines of "we never should have fixed up this sorry excuse of a worn-out and mis-designed loco in the first place"--which, of course, would be a horrendous insult to the "civic pride" of Altoona and the PRR which was excessively "milked" to find political and financial support to fund the loco's restoration in the 1980s. (I was there in Altoona. I saw it firsthand. I gave my money and sweat. And it was almost embarrassing how the local pride in the PRR was exploited then.)

There's one other factor involved, and I'll explain it thus (and some will get it and some won't):

I have a bar in town that offers something on the order of 1,500 craft beers from around the world at any given moment (right now, I can probably push that to 2,000). Nevertheless, every day, it seems, someone comes in looking for Beer #1569, #1735, #2124, #2248, or #2317. And when they don't have it, the customer grouses.
Go to any such beer bar in the nation, and you'll hear the same story.

pretty much a mute arguement, IRM moved the Santa Fe 4-8-4 from the Museum of Science and Industry via panel tracks down Chicago streets to the nearest yard where it was temp switched into live track and moved to IRM. There's always a solution. The issue is...are ya ready to gooooooooo??!!!!

Oh an same question as before but towards anything with "Reading" or "Lackawanna" in the name...

My understanding with 1361 is that a restoration was proceeding which was expected to complete normally, and in the course of that, a huge problem was uncovered which was WAY beyond the scope of the restoration: specifically, a bad boiler design that was at condemning limits the day it was made. The project is now wrestling with several problems.

- Coping with the reality that the mighty Pennsylvania Rail Road made a big mistake.

- The "historic fabric" imbroglio: does the unit's lauded status mean you preserve it as-is, or alter it so it is right?

- The difficulty of finding places where you could run it.

nobody wants to look at a nightmare scenario of having spent millions to significantly alter the locomotive, only to have it sit in Altoona burning tube hours because it has nowhere to run.

The above problems add up to a real imbroglio, and they will need to find a consensus on how to proceed.

I will leave to the SPF's to make the emotional argument, but it seems to me the K-4 class record shows it may not have been a mistake, it may just have been "good enough" for the era and the task at hand.