I'd be very surprised if 542 was the last engine to operate at Spencer, and I'm not even sure there would be a way to prove that outside of some logbook that is probably long gone. That said, it was a Spencer-based engine, so no surprise that the museum wanted it. Great to see the engine being taken care of--far cry from the state of things in the 80s.

Here’s where that info came from Kevin (link was in my original posting).

http://locomotive.wikia.com/wiki/Southern_Railway_No._542

Not sure how accurate that info is, no sources listed.

Ah! Very interesting.

As of the mid 1980s at Spencer, the rear tube sheet was badly bowed forward into the water space. Story was at Stone Mountain she was converted to oil and test fired with tubes out and the heat made it sag...... never certain about believing that story. Why would Stone Mountain do something that dumb, or remove tubes and convert and test a locomotive they had no wish to operate for track condition reasons? Something doesn't add up here. Perhaps the truth has been lost in time.

Edit - old guy memory glitch. can't recall if the tubes were in at Spencer, in which case the test was made without water, not tubes, with the tubes pushed out into the smokebox at the front end...…. when you've been in a lot of these old boilers they start to run together in your mind.

Anyone know the story of what the engine did at Johnson City?

Winner for best advice yet. The preservation community could also see this kid "in the flesh" to see if his abilities match his desire. I'll bet folks would give him a bit more latitude for daydreaming if he can actually do the job.

Go for it Tweetsie!

C.

OK, this is not going to be a fluffy fuzzy message that blows sunshine up your ... on the other hand I'm not going to tell you to give up.



Notice something that is the downfall of many. Look at all the "I"s. "I" this, "I" that. Doesn't work. You cannot succeed in preservation as a solo artist.

Especially not as a novice when you don't have a body of experience. For instance one fellow at WRM was a very significant fraction of the total effort to restore a PCC. But he had 40 years of experience doing that, and it was his fourth lead restoring a PCC.

If you are not able to pry yourself out of the "solo" mentality, get a speeder. An Onan. You have to be able to complete a project.



That'll get you too. If you want to get good enough at this field to even think about restoring a steam engine, it takes cubic hours. These days, especially if you're young and grow up with a smartphone embedded in your hand, you have to work harder than most to get out from behind the screen. However, skill at social media representation can help.


That's a GREAT start. Prepare to spend 10-20 years climbing the ladder. If you're not that patient, well, then you *really* need to find the time to distinguish yourself. That's possible. I've seen very young preservations do spectacularly well, although they had a great deal of trouble on the "people" side of the equation. You can't develop core skills on everything at once, and the people skills are the most important.

The only hinderance to that is time and transportation. I live in Winston-Salem, NC, can't drive yet, so I'd have to figure something in that regard. If something CAN be arranged however, I'd LOVE to help y'all out.