For legal reasons I have asked my employees and my team to remain silent on these issues. There are a few reasons;

McCreary County Heritage Foundation and Wasatch Railroad Contractors have in place a very detailed non-disparagement agreement. This is done to make sure that the legal process for both sides is allowed to play out and that the system remain fair and balanced for both sides. Jason S. of NeXt Generation Steam violated the agreement and he was part of the team on the MCHF side. My lawyers have encouraged me to remain out of this discussion and other discussions related to it. This legal process is not over and we have due process still in place. I am forced to to allow that due process to take place.

If any of you (which about a dozen or so of you have already done this) would like to speak with me in person about any of these details you are welcome to call me at:

307-778-7548

I will also answer emails, you can email me direct at

jrimmasch@wrrc.us

That is all I can and will say on this forum about K&T 14. Please call or email if you want direct information. Thank you.

Now, I would like to say one thing about the state of our industry and our society;

COVID-19 has created a lot of angry people. If you spend even 15 minutes on social media or Fox News or CNN or NPR or whom ever you side with, all you will see is NEGATIVITY. Nobody....not the Government, the press, the society or anybody has done ANYTHING right. It is a sad, sad commentary on the state of our Union and the State of Society. These are hard times. These could be harder times than the Great Depression. That said, these times will take stronger people than the situations that surround them. It takes courage, faith and bravery to wake up each day and try to do the best that you can do.

This thread, like society, social media, the press and people at large are all in the same boat. It is a fight right now to show the ills of others and to stand up and say.... "Look what I dug up on this guy.....But...I'm perfect, so stay away from me." The truth is, all of us, at some stage in life will face struggles, face hardships, face trials, face good times and face bad times. I am not too worried about this thread. It is a reflection of a lot of people who are acting as the rest of society is acting right now. Negative. I get it. I am not playing.

Show me some good news, please. I have plenty to share and I'll keep doing it. Keep reading this thread, it passes the time for many of you. I am proud of my team, I am proud of what we have accomplished, we have much more to do. You all hang out here and keep doing what most of you all do the best and that is a whole lot of nothing.

Please call or email if you want to know the "other side" of any of these stories.

Kindly yours,

John,

Is it true you laid off your “team” this past week and told them they wouldn’t be getting their final paychecks?

Will you pay the judgment or will you take steps to avoid paying it, like declaring bankruptcy or trying to roll up the company?

How can you be the victim if you charged a nonprofit nearly three quarters of a million dollars for work and they have nothing to show for it? How is an error of this magnitude anyone’s fault but your own as the head of the company?

BSFRYFAN,

My invitation to you is the same as it is to all others here at RYPN. You can call or email me, I’ll be happy to address your concerns directly.

307-778-7458

jrimmasch@wrrc.us

Thank you,

- John E. Rimmasch

Good heavens John. You are looking for some sort of sympathy party after several years of deceiving people out of hundreds and thousands of dollars. Then you are acting as if you and your lawyers have some sort of retribution out of this mess? It's the worst restoration since steam ended. Nearly all your work was unsafe, out of spec, violation after violation. You even tried to do a hydro static test on that locomotive knowing full well it wouldn't even raise a single PSI? What's wrong with you? Then you put in Covid as some sort of excuse when this project was started in 2013. Seems a lot of other railroads are steaming along just fine this year with reduced capacity.

Be a man and accept the fact you screwed up and take some responsibility. You are the Captain of this ship and you knew every nut, bolt, rivet, and weld on that locomotive. You got in over your head, and you should have resigned from the project like the last contractor did. As that old saying goes in this industry "when you are digging your self into a hole, stop digging".

Jason S did nothing wrong. Court cases are public documents open to who ever wishes to see them through a freedom of information request. Anyone can get them and anyone can post them including to the media and the newspapers. There is no retribution as nearly ever news station in the world would be censored when they say "according to court documents". Nobody like their dirty laundry aired but if you think your lawyers can sweep these papers out of the public domain it's not going to happen.

Finally John as someone who has been a welder and fabricator most of my life, from building ships to passenger cars, this was wrong on every level. It was wrong to make all those people continue working knowing full well it would not pass FRA standards. It was wrong to not correct their mistakes. It was wrong to not ask for help or guidance. From a safety standpoint even if by some miracle this boiler passed, it was a ticking time bomb. Stay bolts made from all thread? All thread is some of lowest grade, crap, steel with no ASE markings of any kind. They would have busted on the first day.

I do give you credit for one thing (and only one thing). Your welds look decent. I think you have a bright future welding hard facing on railroad track. You want some positive news? How about you apologize for this fiasco, pay the judgement, and start a new business that doesn't involve steam locomotive restoration.

The thing was plainly cleaned and shrink-wrapped in Oregon, and still shrink wrapped when it was sitting in the port in Hawaii. Or someone spent a lot of time photoshopping it as such so they could post it as such on the Hawaii RR Society Facebook page.

Postings of involved parties speak for themselves, but the pictures are downright horrifying. I've seen better welding on pasture fences. My welding isn't the best but grinder wheels are cheap, try again!

Since earlier in this thread I was told my opinion was equal to that of a house cat I’ll just echo and agree with the following statements -

It is always tempting to pass judgement on others especially when the available evidence is so one sided, as is the case here.

I would suggest we reserve final judgement on Wasatch RR Contractors and John Rimmasch as its CEO until the final chapter in this sad saga is written. If John's remarks above are truthful then one would expect WRC to honor the arbitrators decision ( as confirmed by the federal court), pay the claimant and continue on in business.

Time will tell soon enough. IMHO-Ross Rowland

I agree. If there’s anyone here that’s has always been 100% Honest and upfront, it has been Ross.

BSFSRYFAN:

In some ways you are buying into exactly what John E was saying.

> And here's a pic of the fireup of the 81, with Wasatch employees, not contractors, present, and not even one, let alone two sight glasses on the backhead.

By looking at the photo, I would suggest they are doing a hydro on the boiler, using a wood fire to warm the thing up. I have seen this before and seems to work quite well. Again, its only a photo with no details provided as to what is really going on here. Shoving in a 2x4 is not a "fireup" of a locomotive. We can truly only guess as to what is depicted here. Nothing to see here folks.

And your comment relative to Ross again feeds into exactly what John is talking about. Why post an off the wall comment on what is a pretty decent technical discussion. Let's stay civil here and continue to learn.

J.R. May

I’m just a child of the 60s. I grew up reading of Ross’ exploits. I think he’s right that there’s nothing to do but wait. Are you saying Ross isn’t truthful or trustworthy?

As for your theory on the hydro, here’s a video. They were using the fire to raise steam pressure with no sight glasses.

https://youtu.be/A9jsNa-sl8I

BSFSRYFAN:

If you would actually watch the whole video you would see that they are doing pretty much what I described. They are using the warming water to raise the pressure in the boiler for the hydro, not steam. Having been part of one such approach to a hydro I found it to be a very simple, controllable process which works quite well.
J.R. May

Fair enough. It’s ambiguous.

What’s your excuse for the photos posted on 9/7/2920 showing a pressure gauge with an inspection date of 10/5/2020. You can go to Facebook and see for yourself. Also, is seal welding rivets on a boiler course good practice? What about a seam?

Does "10/5/2020" mean the 10th day of the 5th month, as used in some other parts of the World?

What is standard for the USA?

You don't put a fire in the firebox to raise pressure to do a hydro. If you have a torpedo heater, use that as it would be preferable. Hammering staybolts in the firebox would be easier with a heater than a fire, even on an oil burner. You do it to raise the temperature of the cold water to 100-120 degrees. Warm water hydros are easier on the boiler.
We had a little hydro pump that ran on air and pumped in strokes. Worked like a charm. Somebody stole it.
Standard in the US for dates would be 10/5/2020 means October 5,2020