We've seen photos of locos and other things neglected in wet, rainy/snowy climates.

Here's the opposite problem: US Potash 2-8-0 2 in Death Valley, Ca.:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=385652

The difference is that the enemy is not moisture -- it's UV. You will see dramatically different conditions on the north side. The lower latitude means more solar radiation, especially during the summer. Moisture attacks steel via rust and wood via rot. In the dry, UV attacks wood via "burning" it, and steel least of all. The paint deteriorates, but when it fails, moisture does not penetrate and flare up rust, because the region is so dry. That is what you are seeing. That is why all the aircraft graveyards are located in the desert southwest, because UV does next to nothing to an airframe.

UV on wood, however, is quite destructive, and WRM's fleet really shows it. It is difficult to say where wood suffers more.

Because of this, WRM's Carhouse 3 has no skylights, and special low-UV lighting, using those European T5 fluorescent bulbs. I personally think they took "low-UV lighting" thing a bit too far, considering that artificial lighting is barely 1/1000 the power of sunlight, and is turned on only 1% of the time anyway. However, avoiding skylights is a very good idea.

Good discussion of UV exposure. On the other hand, this is, perhaps, the only static display locomotive that regularly gets up to operating temperature!

Definitely has the boiler junk left in place. Although the intact boiler jacket may show that the asbestos isn't holding moisture that could be causing damage under the surface. At least you could cook you lunch on the footplate.

Fortunately, the new LED lighting (where most all lighting is headed) has no UV component at all for the 3000 to 5000 Kelvin range. (3000-3500 being more of the warmer incandescent color, 3501-5000 as "white neutral", and 5000+ being "daylight white" (which have more of a blue component).

Somewhere out there in the desert, all the locomotives held for strategic reserve are hidden. NYC Hudsons, MP Notherns and countless other favorites of ours.
That said, I wonder what restoration on an engine like this would be like after dealing with rustbuckets.
Is this standard or NG?

36" gauge.

It was before the "new regulations", but I remember the people who reactivated the Imperial Valley Irrigation 0-4-0T&T basically, got it out of the desert, cleaned and lubed, filled it up and lit a match. I wish I had kept a copy of the business card they had at Railfair 1991 - "We Don't F**k Around."

No knowing without doing the Form 4 and checking the running gear on anything - which makes me feel much more secure now than back then. I've found scary things in running engines from that era that makes me happy I was ignorant about them back then.

dave

UV on any organic or otherwise nonmetallic material can be quite destructive. Even glass can be severely discolored by continuous exposure to UV, depending on its specific ingredients. "Dry rot" can be caused by UV as well as a lack of humidity, or at least made worse due to UV exposure. It's not as much of a problem with modern UV-resistant materials and coatings, but even those will deteriorate after a while. That's a key reason why aircraft stored in the aforementioned "graveyards" are "cocooned" or at least have windows, areas around doors and access panels, and all openings covered with a spray-on latex material that is itself highly UV-resistant.

Is that a tool box on the pilot or something else?

Steve