A wood fire was lit today in Detroit & Lima Northern #7 (another "green" Baldwin) to clean all the fluid from the boiler repair. No pressure was created since the dome lid was not on.

That is a great sight to see. I don't believe I've ever seen her in one piece, so I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product on the line this season.

Good work guys.

Detroit & Lima Northern #7 Update!!!

Pictures

"A Slight Hope for N&W J #611"
http://modeltrainjournal.com/phpBB3/vie ... 24&start=0

#7 steaming with the steam dome lid off. by rulesqualified
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rulesqualified/8552929182/

Detroit & Lima Northern #7 steaming by rulesqualified
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rulesqualified/8551829633/

Videos

Pinstriping Train Wheel by Julie Fournier
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOzafyCUTpY

Painting the spokes on a train wheel by Julie Fournier
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veZIJMOKAMI

1897 Baldwin Locomotive by libasan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-sqtuJCyHI

Detroit & Lima Northern No. 7 Test Run by dti601
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGQoevN_7hc

Enjoy! ^_^

I bet it feels good--no, GRAND--to see, hear, and feel the results of all that work and time. Congratulations on that accomplishment!

Two questions:

1. In comparing an older photo of the engine in what I presume is as a static piece at the Henry Ford (the photo with the big stationary engine in the background) with the engine as it looks now, I notice the air compressor has been moved. Can you tell us the story behind that?

2. What's the story on that big stationary engine?

Again, great work. . .

Matt, Chris, Dave, Aaron, etc. -

Terrific job! She looks and sounds wonderful! Need to make another visit to Dearborn!

Quick question; is that her original whistle?


Les

Looks like the gothic-style Novelty Works steam engine now located inside the main building.

Les, the whistle is most likely a new whistle that was installed during the cosmetic restoration in the 20s. It is similar to what was installed as delivered.

I have a question on the 4-4-2. I know it's far too big to be restored and operate there but what's its medchanical condition? Also why was 2-8-0 154 aquired but put straight in the museum and not considered for operation? Thanks!

I know they ran the air compressor on the 4-4-2 on shop air awhile back, not sure about the rest of it's condition. I believe it was purchased by the DT&I from the Michigan Central and if I remember right, it was pretty well used at the time. I'm not sure how long it's been on static display in the Museum (currently in the roundhouse)

The 2-8-0 was traded with the Illinois railroad museum for another DT&I 4-4-0. It's only cosmetically restored and wasn't acquired for operation purposes (too big for the village's needs anyway)

I'm the new guy in the shop, so I'm not 100% sure on this, but I seem to remember being told that they decided to move it to make it easier to work on. That was from a discussion that I had about a year ago, so I might be getting confused with something else.

Why would a place dedicated practically dedicated to the DT&I get rid of a DT&I 4-4-0?? Haha, never really understood that.
From their website: but the DT under Henry Ford's leadership had a reputation for rigorous and sometimes idiosyncratic maintenance and up-grading policies. An extensive rebuild was undertaken at the Rouge Plant's Fordson shops that not only included a new firebox and the addition of superheating to the repaired boiler but also the addition of a cast aluminum chair for the engineer and nickel-plated appliances throughout.

So being this was in 1920 or around there and it was donated to the museum in 1930 I imagine it'd be in pretty good shape, much like the 7 was.

I was active at IRM when this was taking place. As I recall, it was originally proposed by John Scott, who left IRM to take a paid position at the HFM. We used to joke that IRM was the "Illinois CONSOLIDATION Museum" since we had them in three sizes, small, medium, and large. John noticed that HFM had the same situation with 4-4-0's, but was totally lacking in any representation of the common freight hauler from the same period. He talked up a trade for the betterment of both collections. Of course, IRM didn't actually trade away anything they already had, but rather secured the donation of yet another 2-8-0, the B&LE 154. It was restored by IRM strictly for display; as far as I know, HFM never had any intention of using it on the Greenfield Village railroad.

Amazing Work!

Will there be any regular operating days for her or some sort of schedule? Definitely on my to-do list for 2013!

Dave Crosby

Along the same vein of thought, will there be any vintage freight train operations in the near future?

Thanks.

Les

The other 2 steamers which HFM/GVRR used to owned were:

Toledo & Detroit 16 @ IRM in Union, IL (Traded for B&LE 154)
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locoPi ... ?id=118646
http://www.steamlocomotive.info/vlocomo ... isplay=456
http://trains.nute.ws/4-4-0/DT&I16.htm
http://trainweb.org/carl/IRM/IRM.htm
http://www.irm.org/cgi-bin/rsearch.cgi? ... ailroad=16

Texas & St. Louis 5 @ Sanfilippo Music Museum in Barrington, IL (Sold At Auction)
http://www.steamlocomotive.info/vlocomo ... splay=1163
http://hickscarworks.blogspot.com/2011/ ... lippo.html
http://www.buy-a-boat.com/music_machines.htm
http://www.placedelamusique.org/train.html

Enjoy! ^_^