Don't congratulate me, I am but a humble volunteer & scribe in this saga. As I said in the first post, the true hero of the "Lost Engines" is Will Harris. He negotiated the deal with Portsmouth that provided the financing, and has done the actual moving of the equipment. We came into play only in the last 5 weeks by the virtue of providing a staging area for the moves, trading 0-6-0 #34 with Will for 1118, and swapping labor on 662 with VMT for 663.
You're right Steve, now the "fun" really begins. While 1118 is in better shape than one would expect, the 662 and 663 have to be about the rustiest locomotives I've ever laid eyes on. The next few months are going to see a lot of abrasives getting used.
On another matter, the "Woodmen of the World" have donated a flagpole tor our Virginian Ry. Station project, and it will be dedicated on Sept. 11th. We are hoping to have some news about the release of the VDOT/T-21 funding for phase one of this project by then.

Regards,

the best is yet to come, I wonder what the old scrap yard owner would think of this.
I hope a big tip of the hat.

I am glad that all of the rail equipment was saved. Our organization gave careful deliberation to attempting to acquire one of the locos rather than see them go to the scrappers, but the cost was just too high for us to consider.

They just don't build these anymore. You can't order history from GE or EMD. Great job in saving this equipment!

Later!
Mr. Ed

Wizzy has posted photos of 1118's move.

http://wizzy.rrpicturearchives.net/arch ... x?id=48418

Sandblasting has started on 1134. We will be working tomorrow, probably focusing on freeing up the CW diesels for some further switching. They rolled very "arthritically" when we swiched them inside the fence last weekend.

have they been lubed?

You will probably not try to roll them anymore and get to work on the axles, and they have motors, lots more to work over on them. Get them to a work position. Thats what they need now, anyone with sand paper and primer paint handy can randomly derust things as you go. make note of the paint job to replicate it.

Yea, that's pretty much what we've figured. We'll be starting tomorrow about 10 am with the penetrant, journal oil, and wasp spray. (a lot of these annoying little "passengers" rode over from the scrapyard). Sandpaper, Hah!. Needle scalers and the sandblaster are more like it on these pigs. There's hardly any paint left on them. Want to come down and join the fun?
No, the diesels were not lubed, they were not easily accessible to be worked on, and they had to be rolled a hundred yards or so to get them to where the cranes could reach them. The deal that saved the "Lost Engines" came together very quickly, and had very tight time and budget constraints. Construction on the new medical facility at the scrapyard site is scheduled to begin at the end of this month. If the engines weren't gone by early this month, the scrappers would have come in. In a situation like that, compromises had to be made. Care was taken to make sure that the steamers were moved without rolling. The diesels have standard AAR switcher trucks with friction bearings. Nothing there that couldn't be fairly easily replaced if there's too much damage. If 662 does move to VMT on it's own wheels (NS's decision, not ours) it only has to go a couple of miles anyway. If we do decide to restore 663 to operation (way, way in the future, we have a whole lot of stuff that is higher on the priority list) we would probably want to convert it to roller bearings anyway.

glad to hear the interest to possibly operationally restore the diesel.
I have been hearing there has been little interest to bring either of the 4-8-0's to steam, tho I have chatted with a few people in our meetings who have a good interest in 1134 to steam. I have poured over the photo's of the engines and they really don't look that bad at all, its just a lot of surface rust. Of course a lot of mechanics need restoring/replacement and appliances replaced and a thorough flue /superheater checkover replacement.

It seems Will did good not cutting into the boiler but cut into the smoke chest to release supports. There are normal connections to separate the boiler from the frame but maybe time constraints prevented that because that has to be careful work to release those connections. If the boilers are back on they could go ahead and weld them back together and prepare the "Correct" disconnects.

1118 and 1134 may not have been built by the Roanoke shops but they did alterations and work on them there, why they survived operating all this time, so they are a part of the Roanoke shops mad skillz.

I have been looking over the pics I can't find evidence of stokers but my books say they got them installed.

Did anyone get pictures of the firemans side of the C&W units? I'm curious to see what they look like!
http://baldwindiesels.railfan.net/contents.html

I spent a good bit of yesterday cleaning out journals on the 662, and I can assure you that they are just as rusty on the fireman's side as on the engineer's side..........:) Wizzy has taken a ton of pictures, I'll post a link when they are online. There is an interesting bit of video on VMT's blog site, give it time to load, then scroll down to the bottom of the "Lost Engines" story.

http://vmtmusings.blogspot.com/

Great video! I didn't hear too much squealing like you would hear if the wheels were totally frozen. I can't help but think that if these engines had souls, deep down inside they are smiling!

Later!
Mr. Ed

Having been to the site in 2001, saving these locomotives is a preservation "God-send". The steamers represent a huge chunk of the Roanoke legacy, and having just purchased a volume of O. Winston Link's photographs, I feel like something critical from Americana has been brought back. Whether it happens today, in ten, or one-hundred years (or never),the locomotives are restorable. What I think is the bitter-sweet part of this legacy, is the loss of the two Y6 articulateds which remained there (same yard?) into the 70's. Perhaps they were in the way, perhaps they represented too much metal, perhaps they were more accessible.

I added more to the wikipedia article. [Link]

Thank you, great clip & pictures onn the blog site! :-)

The Roanoke built 1151 was classed M2c when built, with baker valve gear.
It also came with superheaters. The M2a's 1118, 1134 went back to the shops to get superheaters and they then were reclassed M2c, since they matched the M2c's.

The 1151 is a virtual copy of the M2s made by baldwin with this N that improvements.


1118 and 1134 have Walchearts valve gear.

good vid, first time those engines moved after 50 years...well, depending when they went to the scrapyard.

765 sat for only 13 years before being tugged out for restoration.

A few questions-

Does anyone know when these locos operated last?
When did they receive superheaters?
The attached pix is a tag welded to the top frame rail on the left side behind the saddle on the 1151. What data does it contain. Does anyone have a better pix of this?

Robert Yuill
http://www.historicmachineryservices.com