SP&S 539 On the Move

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Sun Apr 08, 2007 7:21 pm

Trainorders.com has coverage and discussion of the shipment of SP&S 2-8-2 539 (originally NP 1762) en route to the Grand Canyon RR in trade for ex-LS&I 18 and 20:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,1379793

As usual, thumbnail photos only to non-TO members.

Jim700 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 10, 2007 9:04 pm

Reported to be at Keddie, CA around 10 o'clock this morning.

Brian Fleming · **Joined:** Wed Mar 29, 2006 12:00 pm **Posts:** 30

I'm a little shocked that their have not been any in route photos taken.

Brian Fleming

Scott · **Posted:** Wed Apr 11, 2007 12:50 am

I'm in the Pacific Northwest and unfamiliar with the Grand Canyon operation.

Do they have the shop facilities to do the restoration on the NP Mike?

Scott

Les Beckman · **Joined:** Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm **Posts:** 6482

Scott wrote:

I'm in the Pacific Northwest and unfamiliar with the Grand Canyon operation.

Do they have the shop facilities to do the restoration on the NP Mike?

Scott

Scott -

In one word, YES!

Les

Thomas Travis · **Joined:** Sun Aug 22, 2004 4:39 pm **Posts:** 78

Scott, Yes big shop at GCRY and very capable shop crew to work
on it, Git R Done will be in 7th Heaven on the 539. Can't wait to hear
the restoration story

Tom Travis HVRM North Judson IN, Restoration

Scott · **Posted:** Wed Apr 11, 2007 12:54 pm

I hope someone documents this and posts regularly!

Thanks for the info.

Scott

William Diehl · **Posted:** Tue Apr 17, 2007 8:29 am

539 Arrived in Williams today, and was dropped of by the Santa Fe at 03:52 am...

softwerkslex · **Posted:** Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:24 pm

Trains magazine says:

Quote:

A timeline for rebuild is not yet established; however, the GCR tentatively plans to have the work complete in time for the 1,472 service days (or 15 years) Federal Railroad Administration mandatory inspections on Nos. 29 and 4960. These inspections are scheduled to take place in 2018 for No. 29 and 2011 for 4960.

Those dates are typos, right?

Robby Peartree · **Joined:** Wed Aug 25, 2004 11:16 am **Posts:** 767

How would those dates be typos? 4960 entered service in 1996 and meet the requirements of the current part 230. The 29 returned to service in 2004 but the date of the first tube I do not know so 2018 may be correct.

Robby Peartree

softwerkslex · **Posted:** Thu Apr 19, 2007 1:06 am

I am thinking, 6 months a year in service is about 200 service days, or about 7 years of service.

William Diehl · **Posted:** Thu Apr 19, 2007 4:44 am

softwerkslex wrote:

I am thinking, 6 months a year in service is about 200 service days, or about 7 years of service.

Actually...GCRy currently is only running 3 months out of the year (not counting the last weekend of May and first Weekend of September)...but from the Trains Newswire (evidence to back me up), Xantera the new owners have no plans on decreasing steam season, but "we shall see if they intend to expand our steam season"

Robby Peartree · **Joined:** Wed Aug 25, 2004 11:16 am **Posts:** 767

When GCR went to 363 days of operation per year the steam season was reduced to Memorial Day weekend to the last day of September. Since 2003 steam operations on the GCR have not gone past the Labor Day weekend. While each locomotive is typically given a series of test runs prior to each season, the schedule for the locomotives can be manipulated to ensure that each locomotive is not exceeding an average of about 98 steaming days per year which will give you about 15 years between 1472 day inspections.

Robby Peartree