Modelers didn't assume the wrong thing, it just depended on shop practice. My thought on this is that one of Southern's shops used this practice and some modeler somewhere assumed it meant that every shop did it.

And now to get away from the color question. Here is a repair question. 4501 has a front flue sheet that is the diameter of the boiler course in which it is installed. Now that the Worthington heater has been installed, How would you get a new sheet into it? The inter-smoke box piping channels make the distance across the opening too small to fit a new sheet through. Heaven forbid, do you have to remove the whole smoke box to do this now? (I am aware that the current front sheet is quite new having been installed in the 80's)

Pretty easy, you either turn it sideways to get past the restrictions in the smokebox, after removing the FW heater, or you just remove the smokebox extension.

NS posted this on their facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/norfolksouthern/photos/a.438794187547.232878.81452692547/10152144460227548/?type=1

Seems as though NS is purposefully trying to build anticipation...

I'd bet my savings on it... The whole purpose of this is PR, so why not stoke the masses in advance of the project's completion?

FB says she went for a spin on the turntable and burned the motor out, still sitting there, 1/4 the way around.

Oh wow...I'm going to have to check that out.

The turntable getting stuck was a hoax. The foamers ran with it.

>< I would have expected better from Mike Ray

4501 today (7/10/14)

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =1&theater

It sure is curious how there is fresh black paint on almost every area of the locomotive that would be painted black if they were going to paint the jacket green.

Not that I or any of us are owed any kind of update, but after a fairly open restoration, things have gone silent. this thread started on 2/28. Course the restoration has moved from really obvious work to detailed stuff that doesn't show like "look her wheels are back under her." Anyway look forward to her debut.

Someone else must have noticed the cans of green paint visible........ or was that just wishful thinking?

The post is there, but it's part of a private Facebook group. I'd re-post the picture here, but the guy who took it has gotten upset in the past about people hitting the "Share" button on Facebook and has expressly asked on many occasions that no one share his photos.

Basically, the photo shows that 4501 is getting really close to completion. The jacketing, headlight, bell, and pistons are installed, and the tender is being prepped for painting.