Thanks. Hopefully it means the running gear must not be in that bad of shape to move that easily. Best of Luck with future plans.

Mike Stillwell
Buena Vista, VA.

If you are restoring a park locomotive the biggest problem is rarely the tender. If the throat sheet has issues there is your biggest known problem. The biggest problem is never known until the engine is torn down.

There are several example of big engines that are either owned by or associated with a city that have been restored to service. Look at both the 4449 and 765 (although the 765 is not owned by the city I think it's safe to say that many folks in Fort Wayne think of her as their locomotive).

Those quotes are all too familiar and could apply to just about any steam engine RUNNING today. Seems the biggest barrier, other then funding, is the "ownership" clause. I thought I read it would be allowable to have #202 operate anywhere... as long as she was returned in 24 or 48 hours? Not that such an option is viable. I suppose the city could by vote allow a sale of the engine to a group or museum.

It would be an amazing engine to have in steam. I believe I saw a photo of her once at Cumberland station.

/Mitch

The difference with 202 is she has been torn down, several times. She's been "under restoration" on and off for about 35 years. During that time there have only been a few short segments of time where she has been truly un-cared for. Most of her actual problems are known. That isnt to say they're arnt more problems we would find, Im just saying we wouldn't be going into a blind restoration.

As far as the WM's deal with the city, it states that the locomotive may not go more than 50 miles, and most be back within city limits in 24hrs. Of course it also states the locomotive cant be sold to a private individual, and we see how that turned out. John gave the locomotive back to the city in his will, so one way or another 202 does belong to the City of Hagerstown. By the way, none of us down at the museum even knew that the reporter had come around until AFTER it was in the newspaper. We didnt appreciate them going to the railroads without at least talking to us first to see if there even was a formal restoration plan.

Have the calculations for a form 4 been done?
Mike Tillger

Mike,

The 202 has been fully jacketed for a number of years so I do not think it has had a complete UT test. What they did was test the areas that can be tested with the jacket on, probably concentrating on areas that often deteriorate first. I see no way they could have tested the wrapper or courses. At a point in the eighties some of Ross Rowland's 614 crew was working on the engine but I do not know what stage of repair 202 was in when they were there. The exterior was surely inspected by those guys and about 40 flues were removed from the bottom of the boiler and new flues installed in that time frame. I am sure Scott Lindsey was one of the guys working on 202 but do not remember who the others were. So in answer to your question I do not think the form 4 calculations have been done.

Alex, do you have any additions or corrections?

John Bohon

No. But some of the jacketing was removed when they did the UT scan. All of the jacketing has been replaced in the past though. I believe John replaced it with stainless! The asbestos was removed too so that isn't an issue. Right now we have a new plan being developed to rebuild the throat sheet. I believe the plan is also to eliminate one of the syphons. I think this was done on 734 too? Anyway, the answer as too whether or not all of these calculations have been made is no.

Dumb question - sure the plugged stay holes aren't really just flexible stay caps that resemble plugs? I've had state boiler inspectors get confused about that before.

Tenders do seem to become junk pretty fast, along with other lighter sheet metal stuff especially if left with soot and grunge to soak up water and leach out acids. Followed by smokebox rot and top of the boiler pitting where weatgher comes in cracks and openings around domes, etc, seem most common park hulk weather related deterioration in my experience. You are in a lot of good company there.

Throat sheets are fun if you like making thicker metal plates torque in a bunch of different ways at once. Best wishes with that one.

dave

As far as I know you can look in the drain plug and see where the bolts as missing, so it's pretty evident. We took the cover off of the steam dome so the inside could be inspected, and the area surrounding the dome was in excellent condition as far as we could tell. At least water hadn't collected there much.

Alex