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 Post subject: Re: Small Steamers, Big Deals
PostPosted: Wed Nov 04, 2020 4:28 pm 

Joined: Tue Nov 03, 2020 2:39 pm
Posts: 69
I am a new registered board member but have been reading and watching for at least 10 years now.

Restoration and expense is something we are personally going through now. The three of us all, products of the 1950's and even older, are at crossing 70 years old and are on our bucket list. We collected HO and O gauge in the 1950's, watched Engineer Bill while drinking our milk. With some 640 acres of more or less worthless ranch land I am slowly grading RR bed across the property. Considering size, expense and our remaining life it looks like a child's delight will be 2 foot ga. When you calculate in expense and sheer dimensions and the required man power, how does one factually restore, get up and running, operate and maintain a real beast of a steam loco. That is for a corporation, or large foundation. Again and again you see some non-profit acquire as a gift a 0-6-0, put on their website, seeking donations and say "" our goal is some day to get it up and running for tourist operations " then 12 years later it is sold, mostly stripped down and many of the small expensive items have been " lost " or redirected.

Looking at how this country is going the past 12 months, the likely-hood of the family tourism and enthusiast crowds needed to support a large operation to return is next to nil. That is why we are looking at what is in scope of our on hand combined budget.

So this past 3 months we have approached, talked to and with owners of possible candidates. I have a rusted out hulk stashed at my business in the Philippines, saved only so that the Chinese scrappers would not melt it down. That will never rise again.

A combined 2 foot ga diesel and steam is what we are looking towards in California , where the ghost of Joseph Stalin rules.

Dan



ted66 wrote:
The British preservationist are way ahead of the Americans when it comes to replica steam locomotives. Most everybody has heard of their Tornado; but there are several others.

The Ditcot Centre has at least three projects under way to re-create long gone Great Western steam classes.

And their Rail Motor project has restored the steam powered truck to power a body and trailer. Imagine a steam boiler with copper tubes!

The people with the two-foot rails (more or less) in Wales have built new locomotives and re-built others.

Here in the United States, the WW&F Railway Museum is building a replica of the WW&F #7 scrapped in the 1930s. They have a proven record in preservation.

Ted Miles, WW&F Member


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