Rick,

Thank you for the information. The locomotive's design is much more modern than I thought.

Piston valves, roller bearings, 200 psi... That's why we call it "Saddletank Superpower".

What a monster. Have watched many of your videos and have been following this with interest. But every time I see this thing I shake my head. Not in judgment good or bad, but in the sheer mass of this thing. Between this and the ore shunter this is fast becoming a must see place. Keep on inspiring all of us with your adventures. Regards, John.

Well thank you John! That is much appreciated. I like the oddball stuff. Just about everything we have here is either something rare, last of its kind or an unusual version of a common machine. I'm quite proud of what has been built here and I'm quite honored that others see the value in it too.

Now if you could get one of the two Huletts at Whisky Island reassembled for display, that would be great!

"Now if you could get one of the two Huletts at Whisky Island reassembled for display, that would be great!"

I suspect Rick's motto is: "The difficult we do today, the impossible we do next week". I wouldn't be surprised if a Hulett isn't a gleam in his eye.....

Really great work on #58.

Howard P.

Actually, having had a hand in moving the shunter to Rick’s museum, I’d be interested in an already built model of a Hulett unloader. HO scale model kits tend to come up on ebay, but I am a lousy model builder, so if someone had one already built I’d be interested in it. Any scale would do really. There is a group on facebook supporting an effort to re-erect an unloader and who have a large scale model which is very well done.

In my mind its really difficult to tell the story of the shunter without some sort of model to show the massive scale of the unloader versus the rail equipment under it.

My first project was the 260 ton Tod rolling mill engine when I was 22 years old. So when the first real project you work on is something on that massive of a scale, nothing that you do afterward appears daunting.

My other motto is "Once you start calling in the cranes, it really doesn't matter at that point how heavy the parts on the hook are".

And, "Small engines fit on one semi. Big engines fit on several".

As to the Huletts, back when scrap metal prices were insanely high, I had the idea that then was the perfect opportunity to do something with the Huletts. They saved two, but if one of them could have been scrapped the money they made from it would have paid a large part of the bill to move the other one. Scrap was over $500 a ton then, and a Hulett weighs 800 tons. After expenses they could have netted a $300,000 down payment on the project, and with that much seed money it would have been easier to raise the remainder. However, land on the lakefront is scarce and doing big projects in big cities always adds costs and complications.

One of the biggest things the Huletts have against it is how the group in Cleveland advocating for preservation has decided to go to war with the Port Authority, to the point of having a website pretty much insulting everyone in City government. That is not going to win much support for the project in the least!

I am afraid that someday the pile of hulett parts will slowly disappear, and nobody will really care.

You're setting a fine example for us all, Rick. I must confess to being a bit envious, because you have a much better chance of living long enough to drive your engine, than I have of living long enough to drive mine...

Making the world a better place, one saddletanker at a time,
Sammy

Thanks Sammy!

Send her over to the Saddletanker Shop. I'll be looking for a new project once 58 is running!

Rick,

If you or anybody else is in a position to 1) repay my startup costs, 2) concentrate some serious cash on fixing up Miss Audrey, and 3) give her a better home than I can, we might have something to talk about.

VIVA J&L 58

Left side motion work is now on.
https://youtu.be/dfF3y8GtOjI

Can't wait to see her hauling ore up Horseshoe Curve! :-)

She seems to be coming right along!

Only thing is, as a steel mill engine, she looks like she'll be too clean! I bet her motion work and the like didn't look that good when she left Porter!