I received an e-mail a few days ago from one of my contacts in
China. A railroad is scrapping its steam locomotives - nothing new,
and I need to look at his e-mail at home again to see which one it
is. But, there is a twist to it.

This contact feels that he can salvage "the pumps" from the
locomotives being scrapped. I assume he is referring to the air
brake pumps; although the QJ class at least had boiler feedpumps.
Until I determine what class of locomotive I am not certain about
this, but I assume they will be of the cross-compound type, made in
China. Examples can be seen at:

http://www.survivingworldsteam.com/gallery/album42

http://www.survivingworldsteam.com/gallery/album47

I don't know; but certainly would NOT guarantee they are
interchangeable with air brake pumps made by Westinghouse or the New
York Air Brake Co.

At first I dismissed his e-mail; Multipower International sells new
or refurbished air brake pumps already (see Links section of the
Steam Lizards website), and most countries have a large selection of
display and derelict locomotives that could offer up donor pumps.
But maybe I am overlooking something?

We have folks in this group from around the world, some of which are
involved in tourist railways and preserved steam operations. So, I
put this question on the table ... what do you all think? Should he
try to save them, and what next if he does?

I could not broker this; but if someone sees an opportunity here, let me know, and I will send you his e-mail address. But you need to act fast; they will be gone by the end of this month.

Only the compressor on the KD7 in the first page appears to be a "knockoff" of a Westinghouse cross-compound compressor. Of course, US compressors were made to SAE standards while I am sure the Chinese ones are made to metric standards.

Westinghouse quit making and servicing steam compressors early, ca. 1953, and I recall PRR and N&W had to devote quite a few employees and considerable shop machinery just to keep the air in steam powered train brakes! Got a chance to see the PRR steam brake shop in Columbus, OH, in August 1957. Still busy even though the last fire would be dumped before the end of 1957.

.

"It’s possible that flooding the market with used Chinese air compressors could result in driving Bernie out of business, causing a real hardship for the entire industry a few years down the road when the Chinese knock-offs wear out and there is no source for parts, either foreign or domestic".

I have to agree with Kelly on this point. Bernie Watts provides a needed service and source for parts for our industry. Why would we then want to be included as another domestic business killed by China.

And Kelly is correct on the next point about the cheap Chinese knock-offs. remember, you can pay once and get it right or you can keep paying and paying and never get it right.

I can't imagine we are talking about quantities that would flood the market. This may just be simply preserving a couple of pumps which would depict how the US pumps were copied by others. I happen to find that interesting.

J.R.

J.R. is right, we are only talking about maybe dozen pumps at the most from the steam locomotives at a single railway. I don't know even know if my contact will be able to "pull it off"; but I wasn't going to tell him to "go for it" and then have him get stuck with a bunch of pumps with nowhere to go.

I was fully aware of Backshop Enterprises; I know there are lots of display steam locomotives that could serve as donor locomotives as well. (The pump and air tanks from the ATSF locomotive here in Cleburne are gone; but I think that was the result of a restoration attempt that ground to a halt.) And of course, someone would have to pay to have them shipped here; and then they may need some work once they arrive.

But, I didn't want this to be one of those "gee I should have done something" moments; and I wanted find out if there is a need and a way for them before they are gone.

Ah yes, Mike Percifield... There has still been no one to step up and do the cosmetic or even a full restoration of the 3417? That's a shame as she is potentially a great candidate for restoration.

Back to the topic on hand... Made in China. Need we say more? Maybe someone here can officially comment on the SA-3 that 4960 got. I have been told it needed a lot of machining and "cleaning up".

Gunderson repainted it fairly recently, so it is in good cosmetic shape. The lagging and asbestos has also been removed, and the sand dome is gone.

If restoration is still going on, myself and others in Cleburne were not aware of it. It's whistle is blown once a year around Christmas.



Where was Mike going to run it? I assume it would have been trucked out of the park; I'm surprised Cleburne was willing to let it go.

James,

PM sent.