In their February 28 press release, the Flying Yankee Restoration Group announced that they will auction one of the eight original piston and rod sets from the Flying Yankee's 8-201A engine at the upcoming April 1 banquet. See the Feb. 28 2006 release (the 2nd one on the page), fourth item in the listing of items to be auctioned:

http://www.flyingyankee.com/press.html

My only question with that would be, is that piston one of the replaced ones, or are they disassembling the rebuilt Winton engine?

I would hope that it was the prior, and not the later case.

Rich C.

The press release identifies the piston and rod as being one of the eight original sets. I have not heard that they had any duplicate connecting rods made for this engine, so it may make the engine incomplete. Perhaps someone else can offer a definite answer. They previously announced (I think it was last fall) that the Winton 201A will not be used in the rebuilding of the train, they will be installing a new engine.

This HAS to be some kind of spare. I am in the thinking class that said the engine should NOT have been restored into the FY (too many problems if something else goes, no spare parts, etc.).

Be that as it may, I would NOT be one to part out an engine, even if it IS for charity, if that engine happens to be one of the only (if not THE only) one of it's kind left in exsistance.

Does sound kind of nuts to me - who would bid on a useless spare part for something that nobody else has but the seller? Can't imagine there are many who would want to display a piston on the mantle.

dave

At the same time this reduces the historic integrity of the prime mover. The Winton 201 was a landmark engine design - and preserving the prime mover could lend greater significance to the Flying Yankee project. Selling parts in this way is a bit like selling threads from the Star Spangled Banner.

Tom Cornillie

This latest escapade begs the following comments:

Given that the leading expert on subjects Winton advised againstrestoring the original engine-why did the person(s) making the decisions completely ignore his recommendations-and then change their mind sometime down the pike ?

Why do I have a feeling that the 'project manager' who made this decision knew next to nothing about d/e locomotives in general ?

If some of the donors start asking questions about this tomfoolery, things could get interesting....

Dave

Not quite the only example left.
The original Pioneer Zephyr's Winton engine is at the Smithsonian.

Is'nt the engine in the Zephyr in Chicago the same design?

My two cents.

JD Johnson, Morehead and North Fork Railroad Historian

The original prime mover from the Pioneer Zephyr, now on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago was removed and donated to the Smithsonian. The trainset now has a 567 prime mover, which it had in its last years of service.

This wikipedia page (ever increasing in usefulness for such information) has a photo of the current prime mover

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_Zephyr


Tom Cornillie

The Wikipedia has a nice engine room picture, taken 10/19/2003 with a digital camera. The engine shown in the picture is a 201A. So if the Pioneer Zephyr got an engine change while it was in service, it appears that they installed a 201A out of another locomotive.

The Flying Yankee had engine changes during its service life, at one point getting another 8-201A engine out of an EMC switcher. Discussion on another internet board indicated that the engine in the Flying Yankee when it began the current restoration is its original one.

Here is a link to a past "dream" for the train, that was going to turn it into a very fancy restaurant. Note the optimistically predicted completion date of 1997 and the involvement of the Academic Community to "study" it:

http://www.ece.unh.edu/news/signals/1995/1995train.html

A follow-up on Dave's posting.

I went over to the Flying Yankee website to look through the past press releases. All the previous material on the work on the 201A engine seems to have been removed. However the November 17 2005 release (way down the list) says that they will initiate a "study" to determine a suitable replacement propulsion system for the train (which will include a new engine, generator, traction motors, and control system). So they apparently not only gave up on rebuilding the Winton engine, but have called it quits on the rotating electrical equipment as well.

Dave, (NH0401),

The original plan of the restoration group was to do a fully operational and proto-typical restoration, which included making the 201A fully operational. Then about 2-5 years ago, there was a change of management and they completely changed the goals of the restoration. This change of goals included a full modernization of the propulsion system, to make a reliable train set, where parts are redily available. Along with this goal change was the decision to change professional restoration company from the Clairmont & Concord Railroad to the Hobo Railroad.

If you go over to Railroad.net, and into the New England Forum IIRC, (on second thought it may have been here) and do a search in Flying Yankee, you will find an extensive discussion about this change of management & goals.

Regards,

Rich Cizik

Folks

As to other Winton Diesel engines, the US Coast Guard installed a number of them in their vessels to convert them from steam to Diesel in the 1930s.

At the South Street Seaport Museum in New York they preserve the Ambrose Lightship which has such a Winton of I think 300 horsepower.

It has been some years but I have seen that engine run. It had some valve problems at the time but it blew some of the nicest smoke rings that you ever saw.

The high pressure air start was a bear; but it sure beat a steam plant all hollow. The engine was still in the ship in 1968 when she went to the museum.

Ted Miles

The decision to abandon the restoration of the Winton 201A engine was announced last year, a couple days before the Amherst Railway Society's show in West Springfield. I remember it being a topic of discussion among those who were going to the show. At the same time there was a posting on the Flying Yankee website that said the engine, generator, and traction motors were going to be reassembled at a later date as an "educational" display. That posting was copied to another internet discussion board, but has now been taken down from the Flying Yankee website.