Always great to see updates from Steamtown shops. I would observe that 3713 has come along wonderfully since last year. A first class locomotive deserves a first class rebuild. More power tot he guys who are underwriting the effort.

26 is coming along wonderfully.

I would observe that 3713 has come along wonderfully since last year. A first class locomotive deserves a first class rebuild. More power tot he guys who are underwriting the effort.

26 is coming along wonderfully.

No, not really.

So is the 26 going to be green?

Yes, it will be olive green.

Well, someone is a bit of a pessimist... Mr. Maddock, if the issue is (as it seems constantly around here) with the color, would you rather see 26 painted in LNER Apple Green? If I had the money, I'd gladly foot the bill as long as she gets running! As for 3713, by this time last year the firebox was still mostly in pieces. It appears that all that remains to be done to the firebox is fit the upper parts and install the remaining stays. Then its just a matter of time and money to finish all of the reassembly work.

Well, someone is a bit of a pessimist... Mr. Maddock, if the issue is (as it seems constantly around here) with the color, would you rather see 26 painted in LNER Apple Green?


Doesn't pessimism mean you think bad stuff is going to happen in the future? I think that it might have been fair to call me a pessimist in say 2002. But it's 2013 and I get enough of "there's always next year" being a cubs fan.

I don't care if they paint it fire engine red if it runs (already).

If it takes 13 years to get a switcher running, wanna bet that Pacific will take 26?

I don't understand how they can't keep ONE engine running.

This is how she looked on 9/11/2012, by the way. I won't comment on that, as this particular engine depends on donations and the pics don't give sufficient evidence of possible work done inside.

To me, the time the restoration of old 26 took until now may be explained by the difference between civil servants here and workers who have to depend on their efforts elsewhere.

At Strasburg, no steam would mean no money for the employees. Point. On state money, one can obiously afford to run a huge Steamtown entirely without steam. The longer the project takes, the longer you get paid for it.


On this years holidays, my friends and me enjoyed our summer fun passes at Strasburg and we took pride in buying tickets and stuff on any steam operating RR we went to.

Yet we didn't even take into account going to Scranton this year, as the fresh colour we saw on Big Boy in 2010, already began chipping off in 2012* and there was no steam then.

Mike


*- and BTW I don't go for the "acid rain" or "bio-paint"- theory. They knew all that before, and there are other non-Steamtown objects in Scranton with paint lasting longer.

If anyone wants to pick and compare, they should offer real data. For example, how many shop employees does Strasburg have, versus how many Steamtown has, and how many payroll hours did they work? What proportion of those hours were devoted to any specific locomotive?

.

I think a major fact that people seem to ignore when it comes to Steamtown is that it is a museum. Its world does not revolve around excursions, but rather maintaining and operating the museum. Go to any other railroad museum around the country and I would guarantee that at least 8/10 times, they take just as long to restore equipment. Prime example: the Indiana Transportation Museum and NKP #587. That engine's been under the knife for over 10 years now, but nobody is railing on that museum for taking a long time.

People constantly compare Strasburg to Steamtown, but they are two completely different animals. Strasburg's mission revolves around excursions; Steamtown's does not.

Mark -

The Indiana Transportation Museum is just one organization that has its own steam locomotive that has a policy to restore steam to service. I don't know for sure how many years it has been since 2-8-2 #587 has run. There are some other long term periods where steam has been missing from service, including Mid-Continent, Illinois Railway Museum, Kentucky Railway Museum and Heber Valley. I realize that most of these are volunteer organizations and they are doing the best they can under the circumstances. Some other organizations that ran their own steam in the past, seem to have given up the idea completely as steam power is expensive to restore and maintain and eats up volunteer hours. Steamtown seems to be working toward bringing steam back and is making progress.

Les

I agree with you. I was illuminating the fact that Steamtown is a museum, not a heritage railroad and if they just up and decided to not do excursions anymore, it wouldn't stray from their mission (and would probably be of huge benefit to other groups (ELDCPS) that run trips along the same line). People are always quick to talk about how Strasburg does so much better than Steamtown when it comes to running excursions, but the difference is that that is Strasburg's whole deal, whereas it's only one part of Steamtown.

Strasburg is a private tourist railroad. More valid comparisons to Steamtown would be Spencer Shops and California State Railroad Museum as all are in the public sector and include large collections and a site comprised of many historic structures as well as rusty iron, all of which require a lot of attention.

dave

One other thought is Steamtown has so many locomotives available, each with it's own case for being subject of a rebuild. There is an illusion, I think, about the capability of so few men employed in a such a large facility. If the Feds added twenty or thirty skilled locomotive people to the staff, if there was money for adequate material, if, if, if....

Steamtown is only now able to get people to believe what happened to "the locomotive which shall not be named" wasn't their fault. For an underfunded steam shop, I'd say they do pretty well.