I know I will get "railroaded" for this but is there any chance that 759 will ever return to steam town rails?
Great to see steam at steam town

No. 759 will not run at Steamtown, until or unless there is a reason to have such a large locomotive running.

I fully support the restoration of NKP 759 at Steamtown. She was a zero miles newly rebuilt engine when NKP retired her. High Iron Co. only ran her 18,000 miles in the 5 years she was operated. She is a great engine -was just getting broken in! NKP 759 needs only a 1472-Day Inspection ( and all the piping replaced). She does not need a new firebox or a new wrapper sheet or all new syphons or all new tires or new axles or a new tender!!
I submit that a larger, modern superpower (AMERICAN) locomotive would run very economically at Steamtown when compared to a smaller, older 2-8-2 working near to capacity.

So after B&M 3713 what locomotive is next to return?

According to http://www.nps.gov/stea/planyourvisit/o ... otives.htm (which was recently updated), 2317 will be next in line.

More importantly, will 759 be painted green when it is restored?

Whereas CNR 47 would be ideal.

NKP 759 is a really nice, big, excursion locomotive. Placed in the hands of an operator with tracks and willingness to use her, what a grand sight. I won't even call it restoration because, as pointed out, she's almost ready to run as she sits.

3713 will be a wonderful main line addition, and certainly 26 is nothing to sneeze at. So many locomotives, so little time and money. One of those sad juxtapositions.

Restoration of a beautiful engine, and the typical talk goes to "why don't they restore wah-wah-wah-wah"...again and again.

Nobody criticized anything or #26. What's wrong with a little enthusiastic admiration for pet projects?

The 759 won't but the 26 will be!

The inside of that firebox almost looks as if it was built brand-new and then polished for a trade show. I'd almost feel guilty leaving fingerprints in there, let alone stoking a fire there!

One again, for the record on NKP 759:

http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30001&p=146336&hilit=759#p146336

I think the work is impressive. Especially, considering they had to straighten the frame, etc. It should give them decades of reliable service.

Glad someone said it. Steamtown make take a long time to do restorations, but they rebuild their engines so that their essentially brand new, and they're doing it so that everything is accurate historically. That's going to take a long time, no matter what you're building. It's a self-preservation effort on Steamtown's part. They're making sure they don't have to shelve an engine earlier than it's boiler time allows (i.e. 3254) so they can get the full use out of the engine and so the next 1472-day inspection can go quick. There is a method to this madness.

The quality and amount of work done to the 26 is indeed, noteworthy and well worth the wait.

This is why when I read Railpace's commentary on the 26, which said in part; "if the shop can ever figure out how to put it back together" I thought it was a pretty LOW blow and uncalled for.

Patience is a virtue that many people seem to be completely lacking today, particularly in the railfan community.

Looks good! Looking forward to its long service life from a quality rebuild.