Is there enough left for this relic to be used by a museum as a cut-away boiler display in the same manner as the 1923 Baldwin 0-6-0 Spang Chalfont display that J. David Conrad created for STEA back in 1997? It is a great way for visitors to actually see inside a steam locomotive and a great visual aid for docents to explain the inner workings of our favorite tea kettles.

I'm pretty sure there is.

But then the question is, who wants to pay for this sectioning work? Doing a quality job will cost more than the locomotive, even if someone's fool enough to pay that $200K. That's the reason there are only about fifteen such sectioned full-sized steam loco exhibits worldwide, plus a number of stand-alone boilers..........

On the other hand, I don't think Illinois Railway Museum has one yet, but they sold this off rather than fundraise for such a cutaway..................

Well, the asking price is not necessarily the selling price. Unfortunately, still a large cost just to move it. The original ad on FB is now down so I did not have an opportunity to see if the jacketing was still on with the expected asbestos insulation material underneath but Sammy's post indicates that it would require abatement. Abatement by a state certified disposal company would be cost hurdle especially if paid partial dismantling was required so that the abater did not damage part of the locomotive. Sammy also states that it is stripped of appliances so perhaps there is less to get damaged during the abatement process.

The actual display-creation work would make a great cooperative effort between a museum and a local technical college that teaches shop skills. With proper supervision the finished product could be very nice and more attractive to the general public than a plinthed locomotive that appears complete. My point is there are other fine uses of the form that lie between scrap and operation for locomotives in this condition. All should be considered for artifacts in a condition similar to this before they are relegated to the scrap heap.

The RR museum in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico had a very ratty, but mostly complete, Baldwin 4-4-0 that was deemed "surplus", and from which one of the drivers had been removed to make an "artwork". Fortunately the director told me about his plan to section this engine so "visitors could see how a steam engine works" before it was carried out.

I suggested that restoring a different 4-4-0 locomotive (in better shape) so that it actually worked might make the point more memorably, and he started working toward that goal instead, and they are still working on it last I knew. The 4-3-0 was sold to a winery in Central Mexico, where she is displayed along with a short train today.

Another suggestion I made was that Mexico has a lot of artistic talent which is under utilized, and that some of it might be employed creating a display to show how a steam engine works. How about an interactive display ?? Touch the injector, and the water level goes up, while the visitor hears the familiar whoosh. Touch the firing valve or shovel, and the firebox is shown to fill with flames while the pressure gauge goes up. Touch the throttle and the wheels start to turn while the sound system chugs. No doubt somebody who has studied how to create these type museum exhibits will have much better ideas than mine, and it might also help to draw people into rail preservation that otherwise might never have gotten involved. Computer gadgetry like this might even have more appeal to the internet/X Box/smart phone generation than half of a motionless real locomotive does.

For those adverse to display creation requiring partial destruction, no matter the condition of the artifact, another possible static display use for equipment in this condition is to partially dismantle the locomotive as though it is undergoing a heavy overhaul. This then creates sub-displays showing the different parts of the process. This requires more display space than a cutaway would but can also be a useful way to give visitors a look at the inner workings, a better understanding of what it takes to maintain these machines, and exposure to the trade skills involved without the expense of building a pit for walk-under viewing or a means of securing the locomotive on its side, like the steam engine on display in Mulhouse (where they also have a cutaway display).

Yes, the #8305 still has asbestos on it. The two locomotives mentioned in my "comparative shopping" post were already abated. If a person were seriously interested in buying the #8305, pointing out the asbestos liability to the owner (or whomever is trying to sell her), and offering to assume it, would be a way to negotiate a more realistic price.

Maybe a call to the state DEP if the jacketing has burst and it is leaking. Any snow on the ground under the boiler? Hell, the landowner would likely pay you to take it away.

Viva Audrey!

Getting somebody to pay you to haul a wreck away is neither far fetched nor unheard of.

HERE's an idea for the "showing how a steam locomotive works" display --- how about hooking it up to a steam locomotive cab simulator ??

And THANKS for your last comment. She hasn't made her debut yet, but you can be assured that... AUDREY LIVES !!!!

[Looks over his left shoulder to where the Six hat hangs in the corner behind the desk]

Faithfully waiting.

Thanks to you as well, Robert !!!

But, when I saw that OVERMOD had posted to this wandering thread, I was expecting a pile of brilliant advice on how to hook up an interactive "how a steam locomotive works" display to a steam locomotive cab simulator...

Serious preservationists might not care for a great deal of what I'd do with something like this -- where the historic fabric has comparatively little value compared to entertainment and educational value. But here's what I would do, and I hope it doesn't get slammed over to railfanning too quickly.

Some of the modern Disney attractions are comparatively large-scale simulations, and guests are assigned different roles to play, a bit like a 'live' cosplaying version of a multiplayer game. This, then, is the model for the 'sinulator': not just a bunch of levers that do software approximations, but an actual "trip" over a road, complete with all the action involved. (As with early chess programs, you could arrante things so "characters" fill in for any absent roles...)

The hard part for a clapped-out Northwestern Steel & Wire engine is that the wheels have to be able to roll, for consistently long periods of time, and the motionwork bearings need to be reasonably free. You will have inconspicuous rollers recessed under the track to make the locomotive wheels turn proportionally.

Instead of approximating a simulator in some sort of VR, you make copies of the various controls -- the throttle linkage, the brake stand, the reverser in the cab, etc. -- and you install proportional encoders, probably optical, that can indicate both how far a lever is moved and how quickly it got there. Force feedback has been a 'thing' both in resistance and back pressure for decades, So has appropriately-located audio 'feedback' You simulate the gauge with actual water, and try cocks with an internal switch that provides water or ultrasonically-generated fog or smoke depending on where the "water level in the boiler" is simulated to be. Starting an injector, responding to 'breaking, etc. is something easy to design feedback effects for.

The reverser controls a simple thing like a ballscrew with encoder that runs the gear either side of mid. Throttle has proportional feedback based on "pressure" and poppet activation (or for more simple operation just acts like what foamers expect a throttle would feel like...)

It would be simple to build what is basically a set of tables corresponding to different throttle and reverse, if necessary no more complicated than adapting PLAN (with pressure calculated by how the boiler and fire are being handled) You could simulate surge with motor modulation, slack with an actuator on the engine drawbar. Cylinder cocks, air pump exhaust, feedwater heater vent, various auxiliaries and turret, all simulated as above, with what we used to call loops for the various sound effects. (We can dispense with proportional blowdown effects, I think!)

Whether or not you have 'train simulator' widescreens outside the cab as in a professional flight simulator is probably a cheap option as bigger and bigger TVs originally selling for under $1000 each become obsolescent for 8K streaming... but perfectly suitable for simulator-grade 'prompting'.

Be fun as hell to run, and fun as hell to watch from 'trackside' as it simulates all the things that make a steam locomotive 'alive'...

Even back in prehistoric times when I worked for BN, they had locomotive simulators similar to flight simulators, constructed using full size locomotive cabs wired up to various electronic or hydraulic gizmos, and video displays. These were used to train student engineers, and it was helpful because most guys got an idea of what they would soon be doing for real. (A small percentage became great simulator drivers, but never could transfer that skill to the real world).

I don't see why this couldn't work with an old steam engine cab. The animated graphics could show wheels turning, rods going around, valves sliding back and forth, and the flow of water, steam, exhaust, or braking air, much easier than propping up and making half of a full size locomotive go through the requisite motions. Besides, when you're sitting on that seatbox, you can't see inside the steam chests and cylinders, or air brake apparatus, anyway. I'm thinking that maybe the old fashioned master mechanic's model, turned by a crank sticking out of one of the drivers, and showing the valve events relative to the crankpin positions, could be a starting point for a modern version of something like this.

Just a crazy idea, who's game ??

Not saying a simulator is a bad idea, but I would rather simulate an interesting long lost engine. Something like a Boston and Maine K-8 consolidation would look nice based with this sized boiler and chunk of drive wheels. It needs a different tender anyway.
O. Anderson

This is starting to be reminiscent of an article about live steam in Nn2.5 scale from sometime back in the '60s..... but is practicality necessary in an already irrational situation?

One of the positive aspects of the Age of Steam Roundhouse operation is that a visitor usually gets to see more than one locomotive in various states of repair, or rebuilding, and the components associated with the work going on. You might see a pallet of newly machined driving boxes, or a bundle of super heater tubes waiting to be installed in an engine, and the tour guide can point them out and explain what they are and how they work. I like the idea for having a mock-up steam locomotive cab simulator. Maybe you could have "smell-o-vision" with it for the smell of coal smoke and hot lube oil. You need to have a fan outside the cab window to simulate the wind rushing by. There was a guy who went around to fairs and train shows about 15 years ago with a small trailer that had a Diesel loco engineer's control area set up in it and was selling "throttle time" to simulate operations. I had thought getting a salvage cab from LTEX and setting up a permanent simulator somewhere like IRM would be a neat display.