Which explains why it is important to keep the large steamers in a ready state, raising funds as they can. If your steam friendly CEO is in the job for 3-6 years, there might not be time to conduct a ground up restoration and still have years to have significate operations to justify the expense.

What is worth watching is how steam operations can adapt the current 1472 day process to these evolving concepts of operations - spreading as much work out over several years instead of trying to do everything in one overhaul.

I mostly agree with Brother Rowlands.

However, the gist of my point is that there's seemingly a vast disconnect between what's possible versus the (alleged) reality of the rail environment in question.

My maps show two ways by rail to get close enough to Pueblo: the Union Pacific (where popular legend says non-UP steam is effectively "banned"--and don't showcase exceptions from thirty years ago), and BNSF (official description, supposedly: "steam will be considered on a case-by-case basis").

When the British A1 Tornado project was still working its way up from a delusional fantasy around pints in a pub, one of the first issues to be addressed was "can we run it?" The nature of British Rail, and then later Network Rail, was that if a steam locomotive met specific published criteria and standards, it would be permitted to operate, or at least be towed from location to location. This was the equivalent of meeting specifications in the AAR Field Manual and CFR. Meet those, and you can't get rejected. Contrast this with private companies in the United States, where "NO" is now seemingly the default response even for would-be freight customers................

So what does trucking a T1 to Pueblo cost?

I will personally bet you $ 100.00 the 5550 will travel to Pueblo by rail.

Brian

Brian, If he accepts your wager suggest you have the money put into an escrow account as at his age he could well be gone by the time the PRR T-1 is up and running.

Just saying.............Ross Rowland

I must say I am enjoying this conversation. I have addressed this topic several times and we get it asked a hundred more times at every event we attend. Think of the speed record as the sprinkles on top of the icing on the cake. While it is not our main focus, it gets a lot of attention and gets a lot of people talking about us which equates to $$$ (Public Relations 101)

We are mainly focused on fundraising and building very large sections of the locomotive. We are currently getting close to start construction of the massive frame. Once this is complete, we feel we will have crossed the top of the hill and can start cruising as nothing should be more complicated going forward. Stay tuned for updates soon.

As for the speed record, The PRR T1 Trust has NEVER said we will go for a spin on the NEC. There are height restrictions we can not meet to run over this section of track. That leaves a section of 110mph track in Michigan and Pueblo, CO. The most logic place is Colorado as that is a closed facility designed for high-speed testing. We have already be in contact with them to see if we qualify to be tested there. We do.

As for getting there. We already have a deep-pocket sponsor willing to pay for transportation and testing costs (roughly $250,000) for exclusive video rights. We have no issue putting it on a TTX flat car and shipping it that way if we have too. Small details to worry about after completion. Getting it there is MUCH easier than building it.

So all we have to do is finish it.....

~Jason

Typed by someone 23 years older, who somehow apparently harbors delusions that he will personally be invited to run the loco for a speed record attempt..............

I'm sure you cannot fit under the wires into Penn Station NY.. If my memory serves me, 14' 6" over top of rail is the max allowed. So of course you can't even be towed through there.

Can you fit in Hoboken Terminal and under the NEC wires from Hudson on west?

As a Track Department employee I didn't need that level of qualification. That was the ET Department's "A" man's job.

Brian

Just how tall is a PRR T1?

Yes, and hopefully 23 years ( at least ! ) wiser. As Jason Johnson correctly states the job now is to finish her. Between now and when she boils water the decision makers at Amtrak and the Class 1's will be folks not now on the radar.

First things first.

As to being too tall for the NEC maybe, maybe not. We ran ex. Rdg. T -1 2101 ( AFT 1) from Wash. DC to Wilmington, Del. under the wire and IIRC she is 15ft. 5 5/8 inches tall.

In any event it is possible for a special event to de-energize the wire and that's a possibility.

First things first. Ross Rowland

PRR T1:

Height: 15' 10" including air deflector on cab; 15' 6" otherwise.

http://prr.railfan.net/diagrams/PRRdiag ... &sz=sm&fr=

BTW a K4s is 15' 0"

Phil Mulligan

Correct.

They could be EVEN MORE risk-averse; indeed, that's likely.

Two of the top decision-makers at Amtrak, whose actual jobs it was to specifically figure out both the clearances and the track geometry involved on the Corridor, just recently retired. I've known one on a first-name basis for ages, and have met the other. They both qualify as railfans.

These people rejected the proposal for PRR GG1 4935 to attend the centennial celebration of Washington Union Terminal, for several reasons. They were personally overruled by the top brass of Amtrak, who said "shut up and make it happen."

If Amtrak's top executive(s) want to facilitate the presence of a PRR T1 replica anywhere on the Corridor, then whatever the physical limitations involved will rule.

And I type as someone who has a part "ownership" in a diesel locomotive that was seriously damaged by a catenary flashover through it while operating on a mainline excursion in Britain. Thankfully, every party involved was fully insured, and the catenary that had worked its way loose enough to cause the flashover was deemed an "accident" by the insurers, but the logistics of both getting estimates and doing the repairs turned into a multi-year ordeal...............

Now now Alexander,
You are still too much of a youngster to be trying to unseat either of us for the role of Resident Curmudgeon...

... and by being very conservative initially they they received not only permission but a clear mandate.

GME

I don't know, he's doing the best as he can to unseat everyone for that label.

In my lengthy experience:

Better to by cynical/pessimistic and be delighted to be proven wrong, than to set impossibly lofty ambitions and repeatedly have the rugs pulled out from underneath you, with the resultant disappointments and depressions.

Others are disappointed that UP didn't reactivate 3985, 5511, etc. and run excursions with them, or even quadruplehead them with 4014 and 844. I, by contrast, get delighted every year that UP doesn't just scrap the whole steam program willy-nilly and sell off 4014 to some deluded millionaire.

I think a pragmatic approach is best - who, what, when, where and why all need to be answered eventually and since we know what, and why carries a bit less weight, we’ll just have to wait to see if who, when and where resolves themselves in the future. Anything else is speculation at this point in time.