Now that SP 2-8-2 786 has had its new saddle half cast, I wonder if anyone could detail all the work that went into producing this piece?

http://www.austinsteamtrain.org/news.html

Was it done with the usual wood patterns and sand cores or lost foam patterns? If sand cores, were they hardened with waterglass and CO2? Were the dimensions taken from Alco drawings, the opposite side of the saddle or another SP 2-8-2? Who made the patterns? What has it cost so far? Who will do the machining and where?

This is a major accomplishment and I think we'd all like to know more..

There's a lot more info if you follow the link: "Where's the Steam Engine."

http://www.austinsteamtrain.org/786-repair.html

It appears that our friends up at Strasburg are the lead contractors according to the article.

Ed

That is amazing!!! A casting that large and complex being completed in Pennsylvania in 2005.

What vintage is this engine? I ask because there's a 1903 Baldwin sitting in Rion (SC) with a badly cracked saddle. To get her running again would probably require having a new saddle half cast (as well as probably making a new boiler, tender tank, and doing a BUNCH of other work). I usually tell people she's "beyond economical repair" but hey, we all have pipe dreams, right?

In response to the vintage of SP 786, it was built in 1916.

She was built in 1916,and this is her second saddle casting in the fireman's side.
She was involved in some sort of collision less than two years after she was built and a new half saddle was constructed.
That side of the engine was involved in another collision but replacement of the saddle at the time was not seemed neccessary.
some work was done to make the cylinder look just like the other side of the engine,but other than that that was it.

The info on the Austin Steam site is interesting, but a bit general-- written with the "civilians" in mind, no doubt. It sounds like a lot of heavy work is being done on this engine, and more detailed descriptions would be welcomed by many of us. What is being done to the boiler/firebox, exactly? What engineering and fabrication decisions went into the cylinder work? The readers of this board can certainly handle and understand the technical details!! Can anyone intimately involved in the project comment?

I think the boiler work is being done in the Dallas /Fort Worth area, Sherman maybe. The SP 2248 in Grapevine was under steam this weekend following the repairs on the valves.