Alan -

Interesting question. There is an aluminum open top hopper car that was purchased by a private buyer who wanted to use it outside of his stone quarry. The guys who moved the car to a display track for him built a false floor near the top lip of the car and covered it with stone. The car looks like it is full but only has a narrow stone layer. This could be done with steam locomotive tenders too, using a layer of coal. This false floor could protect the tender bunker if built correctly. Perhaps there are some locomotives out there that are so displayed.

Les

I believe one of our posters, Dave Lathrop, did something along these lines with the Gainesville Midland locomotive in Gainesville, GA some years back. I seem to recall there was even a topic post with photos here on RYPN...I'll see if I can find it.

We did just that years ago for CPR 1246's coal space in the tender-- a simple wood rafter peaked roof with mineral paper covering over the top of the coal bunker area. Keeps the weather out!

Howard P.
MP 6
NAUG

I did. There was.

I built a roof over the coal bunker out of 1" square tubing and 10 gage sheet steel that is invisible from the ground but protects the tank from further damage. The coal bin doors had a hasp and lock installed to prevent casual residents from moving in.

Drop me a PM if you want more information.

dave

It was an article, not a topic in Interchange, although there are plentiful references to it there.

Here's a link to the article Dave wrote in April 2005, including photos:

http://www.rypn.org/articles/single.php ... 232222.txt

Scroll down toward the bottom for a photo showing the interior bracing.

IIRC, 1504 had similar or worse rust holes in the tender prior to being moved from its previous display location in front of the ACL/SCL/Family Lines/CSX headquarters building. I have photos of the locomotive that I took in 1981 during a visit to Jacksonville; I'll try and scan a few and post them for comparison.

I think the locomotive got a decent cosmetic restoration after it was moved to the present location, but ~30 years have taken their toll (again).

Dave, nice job! Just what is needed to preserve the stoker, pusher, and all of that sheet metal. Why is it not done more in park engines? It would save a lot of money if the engine ever got the opportunity to run again.

Howard, I was wondering how that engine was doing stored outside. The cover looks good and strong. I remember 1278, 1246, and 1293 triple heading in 1973 from Bellows Falls to Chester, Vt. Good to see the care you are giving her!

Alan

It was a practical and effective choice. Your situation might be different.

dave

Stephen -

I ran across this photo of ex-ACL #712 taken in October of 1954:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 454&nseq=1

The engine sure looked a lot better back then! What I found interesting is the abbreviation of the word Railway on the tender. RWY instead of the more common RY. I just wondered if there were any other railroads that used this particular abbreviation on any of their equipment. I can't believe that the Rockton & Rion was unique in that instance. Or were they?

Les

Progress on the project is being made daily and moving forward, this is the things that can't be seen but have to be done. Up to date information can be found on the Facebook page that we have set up.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Atlantic ... 511?ref=hl

The nice thing about that page is we are getting feed back real time and some good information has come our way as a result of the page. Today we got this picture of it on display. We are slowly getting bits and pieces of history.

Mark A. Frazier
Project Manager

From my experiences with CNR 6167 and pals, a poorly designed roof turned out to be worse then no roof at all. When we started working on the locomotive in 2007, we discovered that the roof that had been installed in the 60's didn't really do anything to keep water out, but was great at keeping water in. As a result, a huge section of the coal bunker had rusted right through.

Contrast that with CNR 6069 which never had a roof. Her coal bunker is in considerably better shape.

So here's an idea/design for a decent shed and display track for any engine. A shed with open ends and sides, in between the sections of the load bearing beams that hold the roof, fit roll up garage doors so that when weather is poor the loco could be closed up from the outside elements. When weather is better, have a track long enough that a wench and pulley system can pull the loco out from under the shed, and pull the engine back into the shed overnight to keep weather and vandals away. Might cost a bit, and of course someone to volunteer as a caretaker, talk to people about the locomotive/give tours, to put the loco away at the end of the day. Plus the movement and oiling of the bearings on the engine and tender might be good if the loco is to ever return to operation. Just an idea I had I wanted to share.

I've long been a proponent of the idea of having more wenches involved in railway preservation. I think nothing would do more to make it popular with the younger guys.

dave

I just KNEW that was coming. But yes, I whole-heartedly agree. ;-)

Looks like the 1504 group that repainted the engine a few years ago became active again about 3 months ago after a more than 3 year hiatus. Don’t know their exact ambitions but I assume potential operation.

https://m.facebook.com/ACL1504/

Good to see they’re still around.