It was a fairly productive day at the Salt Lake City branch of the Wilkins Law Office today. We managed to settle a case for our client that was going to trial next week. I was able to use the newly-found free time to catch up on some work and advise some business clients. Then, the day got weird. My assistant comes in with the mail and hands me an envelope. She says "this is for you." I open it, and discover a red keystone patch with the number "5550" embroidered on it. There was no note. The envelope did not have a return address.

This is beyond creepy. First, the random, unsolicited phone call at my office from a proponent of the organization who just wanted to talk shop about the project, and now unsolicited items in the mail.

I didn't make it to ATTRM last year at Orange Empire. Was there a seminar on using Scientology-type methods to recruit supporters or to harass detractors? Will I wake up next to a severed locomotive head in bed one morning?

I'm halfway expecting two members, in white dress shirts, to show up at my home on a Saturday morning, offering me literature about the topic and to come in and talk about the T1 Trust. Then again, I live in Utah, so I'm prepared for that approach.

"The key to success here is not in the finished product barreling down the mainline, but turning this project into a teaching opportunity. You can sell this project as vocational education and job training. It is the process of building the locomotive that has value, not the end result. There is a tremendous amount of money for job training out there, and if the T1 Trust people could sell this as a job training effort then it stands a chance of landing some significant funding to keep it going." ---- Hotmetal

Thank you, Hotmetal!

Yes, to me the attraction is the ability to support a project that has so many beneficial outcomes.

There are many challenges.
But the foundational principal that I stress is the strength of the financial structure that is to be the core of the project.

In my experience, the Big-Money contributors will want to investigate and dig into the actual realities of how their 'investment' will be safe-guarded from willful mishandling.

At this seminal, tiny 'stage', for this project it is easy to support the 'mechanicals' of getting the thing done, compared to the monstrous "organizational obstacles" that the leadership will have to overcome.

The arguments voiced in the above critiques are very valid and will persist. The responses from the T1 Trust's founders must address the valid critiques posted here.
For if the thinking is not crystal clear in their minds, similar comments from the broader public, and press, will become an avalanche.

I'm supporting the concept that the thing can be built.
The "why", for me, is wonderfully stated by Hotmetal, above.
I truly love to see newcomers arrive on the scene, eager, excited and capable.
If we can put together a whole organizational $tructure, then I feel that T1 University will become a reality.

That's why I'm "In".

I also believe that the challenges, and short-comings, with the 1940's design can be diagnosed in the light of the accomplishments and 'tools' developed over the past 70 years since the inception of the original T1s.

Technologies such as advanced air-bag suspensions (based on Norm Sandley's prototypes), metals and materials advances that can be incorporated into strengthening the poppet valve steam distribution scheme, the fabrication of a truly innovative mainframe construction, the use of grate-friendly, solid fuels, or blends, [that are environmentally responsible], incorporating a scheme to reduce the 'rigidity' of that wheel base, --these are some areas that can be solved, incorporated and result in a vastly more successful prototype than the snuffed-out members of the class.

But, how do you attract the minds that will work tirelessly, fight 'negativity systems' and people into the night, that will stake their entire reputations on success.

By having the centerpiece of the effort have the immediately attracting design that fires up the imagination ---- Lowey's design does it for me, as well as the chance to make the machine mechanically effective and rescue the hard work of so many of our grandfathers and forebears from the scrapheap of history. It is for the young learners and their ancestors that I willingly encourage the leadership of the T1 Trust organization.

There will be substantial contributors and big supporters.
What will YOU risk to make the outcome a success?

To quote JFK and defending the concept of going to the Moon...
"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

As members of the engine crew, we watched the First Moon landing from a motel in Conneaut, Ohio -- with the NKP 759 simmering in the roundhouse --- at the conclusion of Ross's Golden Spike Centennial Limited.

The irony silenced me: a Nickel Plate Berk simmering and the nation cheering.
Would I dare to that again? You bet your ass, I would!

Wes.

Thank you Wes for overcoming your aversion to RyPN and posting your eloquent remarks. Your thoughts sure make sense to me and I repeat my best wishes to all involved for a great success.

Who knows, maybe a few years down the road we could see a newly built PRR T1 and a completely redone AT&SF Hudson barreling down the mainline to see which one will be the new holder of the world steam speed record??

Hope springs eternal.

Thanks again, Wes.

Ross Rowland

I will second the thanks to Wes for taking the time to explain his reasoning for supporting the project in a polite and easily understood manner.

I wish the T1 Trust could decide what size the drivers are on the locomotive. On their website they cite them as 70" in one place, and 80" in another.
Now, I know this sounds like I'm nit-picking, but this anomaly, combined with the grammar flukes sprinkled throughout the website do not augur confidence.
In my experience, people who don't care about details don't get very far with the 'big picture' either.
Good luck with the dream. I hope you can make the ground shake.

The mistakes on the site in question are under repair. They were the result of a bit too much misplaced enthusiasm taking content 'live' before its time.

The T1 drivers will be 80", and the stroke 26", just as on the 'original'. Most of the internal improvements will not be externally highly visible unless you 'know where to look' (the principal ones noticeable probably being a larger firebox/grate area, and the manifolding for the Cunningham circulator and the Snyder air preheaters. It's uncertain at this point how much of the design's higher-performance insulation will affect the 'look' (the cylinder blocks will likely appear somewhat larger, for example) but the effect is unlikely to spoil either the 'wicked cool' aspect of the locomotive or its clear identity as a PRR T1.

> Is anyone from the "Trust" going to address the elephant in the room?

> Unsolicited mailings from them?

There should have been none. It is my understanding there will not be any more such.

The actual 'elephant in the room' here wasn't the envelope so much as it was the 'Google stalking' to get his telephone number, and then the calling him unsolicited at work. It is my understanding there will not be any repetition of that, either.

If there are any more perceived instances, PM me directly.

Glad to see Mr. Ellsworth's statement that any 'stalking" practices would be ended.

Seems to me there are 2 issues raised by this. 1. Most folks I think would find it a turn off to be aggressively solicited for support and receiving ghostly type mailings certainly raises issues, and...2. If you're going to pursue such an aggressive sales methodology why not pursue an entity ( Jerry Jacobson, Warren Buffett,Bill Gates etc.) that's well known to be a potential large giver vs. a run of the mill fan?? Seems like poor targeting to boot.

Anyway, for the good of the project it's good that all this ends.

IMHO-Ross Rowland

Ah, yes, this is the "cool" factor in elegant language.

Don't discount it too much. Think of how much companies expend in automobile design, motorcycle design, telephone/camera phone design, clothes design, even design for things like washing machines and stoves. They wouldn't try to design "coolness" into products like that if they didn't believe there was a return on it.

Was that not the reason, if not the terminology, of the work of Lowey, Dreyfus, Stevens, and others, work that is now considered classic and iconic?

Now, I've got to say this is not a project I would have attempted. As others note, there are plenty of other steam locomotives around needing all sorts of attention, not to mention a place to run. It would not have been my choice of a new project, given the originals' well-known shortcomings (and that's discounting the bad rap the design seems to have had, such as about excessive slipperiness); my choice would be a Niagara.

There will also be a question of getting cars for it to pull.

Yet maybe that image of the shark nose--as distinctive as NYC's streamlined 4-6-4s--is what we need for success? And if this project does succeed, what doors might it open, both for new power and for places to run restored engines?

The odds are enormously long, but if the words in an earlier post are true--about some parts being fabricated and tested--then maybe they aren't as long as we've thought.

Very unprofessional to send what appears to be the group's official patch without a return address or correspondence letter, even if it was well intentioned.

Either the group has renegades in official positions who do what they please, or there is no official managerial structure.

The web and libraries are full of fundraising techniques to reach the general population for their causes. I suggest you review them, get your Federal tax exempt number, get some official stationary, and begin soliciting. Methods such as tracking down David Wilkins, Esq. for discussion aren't going to raise you one dime.

Chalk up another recipient of an unsolicited patch--sent to my old address, and only getting to me because I have a mail carrier who pays attention.

I knew what it was as soon as I saw the identical handwriting, "Mid-Missouri P&DF" postmark, and lack of a return address.

EDIT: Even my wife, who only sees this forum through an occasional glance over my shoulder at best and with whom I've had NO discussion about this topic, said, "Wait, is that a keystone patch from that guy who sent the stuff unsolicited?" JUST at the sight of the envelope and handwriting.......... (O.o)

Mr. Ellsworth has been more than understanding in handling the "issue". However, I fear that such an organization, without firm protocals in place, will face many stumbling blocks due to this type of behavior.

This is a good teaching moment. Whom you allow to speak on behalf of your organization is just as important as what that person says.



If anyone wants my T1 Trust patch, please PM me. While I would normally toss such nonsense into the circular file, I'm willing to mail it, solicited, to someone who wants it.

Post removed.

Perhaps that's the point of the patch. The group has no leader. Maybe the patch is like the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. Try pasting it to your chest to see what happens Sandymus Prime.

Unsolicited mail.. another good reason why "real names" are inadvisable.