This visit was last year, and my memory may be foggy, so don't quote me on this, but I think the 1309 was purchased outright. I don't know about how much it cost to move it, but I seem to recall that may have not been too much; there have been comments that at least the charge for one of the two flats used was donated, along with the transportation itself by CSX. There may have been a donation of the side-boom tractors as well; perhaps someone can confirm or correct this.

The big expenditure, as usual, is the overhaul itself. Remember this engine has not run since 1956, and is going through a 1472 cycle. Although the management says it is in excellent condition, all that work still needs doing, and this is a large engine (about the overall size and weight of a 2-8-4), with two sets of machinery!

On top of that, there will have to be some trackage changes to accomodate it. One will be a lengthening of the passing track at Frostburg to allow handling the longer trains this locomotive can pull. The other change, also at Frostburg, will be to somehow ease a curve coming off the turntable that is just a bit sharp for this Mallet.

One of the interesting things hoped for with this Mallet is the ability to handle longer trains during the peak season without the diesel helper service now required by the 734!

Again, how many heritage roads do you know of have enough business to actually require a locomotive with as much power as this one has?

Time to update..

This should answer some questions about 734.
https://www.movingfullsteamahead.com/content/farewell

Here are some photos of the work being done by our WMSR Foundation volunteers this month. We also have a full time mechanical crew working in our shops and we hope to have 1309 completed in 2016.

Many photos are also placed on the WMSRF website under galleries and all WMSRF members receive a quarterly newsletter on all project updates. The 2014 newsletters are posted on the bottom of the webpage as well.
http://www.movingfullsteamahead.com

Replica number and builder plates are being sold as a fundraiser. Proceeds go directly to fund the Light My Fire, 1309 project. Replica number and builder plate made of cast aluminum and painted. Stamped Foundry and WMSRF on the back. Ships directly from foundry with a maximum of a 4-6 week arrival at your home. Each person placing an order will be added to the Light my Fire, 1309 Donor List.
https://www.movingfullsteamahead.com/gi ... egory/fund

Contributions are necessary for the success of this project.
https://www.movingfullsteamahead.com/contribute

Info on the 1309, the transfer, and the press release.
https://www.movingfullsteamahead.com/content/co1309

Photos by WMSRF volunteer Tim Reams.

Spread the word and come see us this year during 734's last season for some time! Hope to see you soon.

Jody Shaw
WMSR Foundation Coordinator

Good Afternoon everyone, I have been just as anxious as everyone else to see the C&O 2-6-6-2 stomp up the grade of the WMSR railroad.

However, I have been thinking about the 734 and the larger tender that was not only fitted to duplicate a WM 2-8-0, But also to increase the fuel and water capacity of the 734.

The smallish tender on the 1309 raises some questions as to the water capacity and coal capacity of the 1309 and the grades she will be working. Would it not be better to save the C&O tender from the CSX Locus Point yard http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=27969 and fit it to the 1309 during the rebuilt process?

Not historically accurate maybe. But, The larger tender would be better matched to the kind of territory the 1309 will be working.

C&O 1309 to me looks like a no frills industrial machine and the larger vandy tender would only add to the imposing looks of the C&O 2-6-6-2.

Robert

The new combination would have to fit on the turntable at Frostburg....... and I seriously doubt there will be any need for a larger tender. If water would be needed, they have in the past taken on water at Frostburg.

For the couple of years that the 1238 and 1286 ran on the mountain we always took on water at Frostburg before the return trip.

I would tend to think that WMSR and its employees are in a better situation than us to know about fuel and water consumption issues on the 1309.

That being said, I understand that coal consumption on the 1309 dropped when the stoker was installed.

In the steam era, bigger steam locomotives sometimes used less coal and water than their smaller counterparts. For example, when the L&N bought 2-8-4s in the 1940s, they consumed less coal and water while pulling the same sized trains as the USRA Heavy 2-8-2s they bumped.

Railroads tended to tailor the tenders to their specific requirements. Water capacity is generally not an issue as water can be taken quickly at any station. Coal or fuel oil was the bigger issue as they required dedicated plants to load.

Weren't the Vanderbuilt style tenders for the 1300 and 1400 series C&O mallets from the Mountains, and as they were retired, shifted over to the mallets? I recall reading some literature awhile back about that. I have seen photos of C&O 2-6-6-2's in various classes of the H designation with regular square and also the Vanderbuilt style tenders while I was doing photo research for some of the Bachmann models a few years ago.

James, I think you are correct. Also did not some of the C&O tenders go to the Union Pacific?

Robert

Chesapeake & Ohio had a whole lot of different tender designs over the years.

The original tenders on the engines delivered prior to the 1920s or so were short rectangular jobs that would have looked right behind an early Mikado.

There was a shorter Vanderbilt tank that was delivered with Mallets built in the late teens and early 1920s.

The big Vanderbilt tank that's the subject of this discussion was of a type used by later large 2-8-2s, 2-8-8-2s, and was also a replacement tender for the modern 4-6-2s and USRA designed 4-8-2s.

The C&O did a lot of tender-swapping over the years, and at least one older 2-6-6-2 got one of the bigger Vanderbilt tanks.

Another engine type that wound up with these was a group of former Lehigh Valley 2-10-2s with Wooten fireboxes, inside bearing trailing trucks, typical Lehigh Valley cabs, and twin sand domes that looked like inverted kettles. Overall the series was of a design that looked really alien on the C&O--which it was!

Some of the USRA-designed 4-8-2s later received short Vanderbilt tenders from Mallets; this was when these engines were assigned to run from Ashland to Louisville, Ky., and had to fit on a short turntable at Louisville.

The tender that's with 1309 now is the original tender. One interesting thing is that this tank rides on a heavy-duty version of an ASF Ride Control truck, which was a common standard freight truck in the late 1940s and for a while after. The variation on this tender (and on sister 1308 in Huntington) also has attachments for safety chains, something you normally wouldn't see on a standard Ride Control truck.

This tender is quite large compared to the original tender that came with the 734 (and is also a good deal larger than the original tenders on the earlier 2-6-6-2s); I don't have its capacities in front of me, but I think it will be quite adequate for this Mallet on a run of only about 12 miles or so. It and the engine were built for stoker firing, as were all C&O 2-6-6-2s but for the first one. (Could one fire the 1309 by hand? It would be a challenge!)

Oh, the stoker motor, as is common in a lot of later steam engines, is in the tender; the frame has a mounting for it at the front left corner.

The tender does have an old touch in that instead of a drawbar and single heavy safety bar under it that's typical of later steam design, the engine and tender have the drawbar and two safety bars, on on either side of the main one. The two safety bars are not attatched at center on either the locomotive or the tender, and thus have one end with a long, oblong opening to allow for swing on curves. This was a feature more common with engines designed around 1911--which is the original design era for C&O's 2-6-6-2s. This is characteristic of this locomotive, which has a lot of modern touches (some welding in the boiler that would not have been done in 1911, welded air brake components such as air tanks), and a lot of older features (bar frame with seperate cylinders, plain bearings, and a backhead or dome throttle instead of a front-end type).

I had the chance to talk with one of the employees working on this engine. This fellow, a veteran of a number of steam projects (including 614), said he was amazed at the good condition the locomotive was in, including the boiler. He said the worst of the damage to fix was from the locomotive being out in the weather for years on exhibit, not from wear and tear in service!

The C&O tanks that wound up on the UP were a later rectangular design purchased to replace Vanderbuilt tanks (more tender swapping!), and in the case of the ones on the UP, came to the road with 30 H-7 2-8-8-2s that were purchased in WW II. After the powerful but too-slow H-7s were retired, I believe some of the tanks were sold to the Southern Pacific; converted to oil, they wound up behind AC-9 2-8-8-4s! (Conventional version of the famous Cab-Forwards, built to run on coal for a division in Texas, and built by Lima with a Daylight style skyline casing!)

Locomotive histories do get involved sometimes!

Thanks for the information. I do want to add a little info to the UP C&O tenders. Two of those tenders became steam generator cars. UP B-1 and UP B-2. They were later sold to the SP. Two of the surviving UP rotary plows still have the large C&O tenders behind them as well.

I would love to see a better picture of UP B-1 or B-2. Specifically the roof details and such. A decent diagram of the original tender configuration giving basic dimensions.

I have a fellow who designs HO kits that would be willing to do some 3D Printed models and offer them in kit form.

Robert

UP bought a number of old C&O articulateds (N&W, too) near the end of WWII. The tenders got used for a number of things. 2 boiler cars, as noted, 2 rotary snowplows (the Lima-built late ones with Shay engines inside), and 2 were used for the underframes and rear trucks on 2 other rotary plows.

There are photos of at least one exC&O tender behind a UP 2-10-2 in service.

Well, A precedent exist for that lonely C&O tender to be mated with UP 5511 if she were to be restored to running condition.

Surely, There has to be a use for that big old vandy tender in the CSX Locus Point Yard?

Was the bad ordered draft gear not repaired 3 months after being reported? If so, Than it is a shame CSX does not donate the time and fuel to move the tender on a weekend when there is little traffic in that area.

What would moving that C&O tender to the WMSR grounds cost anyway? Assuming it is not loaded onto a flatcar But, Coupled into the rear of a freight train.

Robert

I'm surprised this hasn't shown up yet; source is the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad Foundation's Facebook page:

Thanks to the Mountain State Railroad & Logging Hist Association and the David R Greenacre Fund for the support awarded to the C&O 1309 locomotive. David Greenacre was a railfan who died an untimely death in 2012. He was actively involved with the Association and left money in his will. The Association's Officers and directors, with agreement from David's surviving brothers, Evan and Charles, have determined that the restoration of this locomotive is a worthwhile project and an appropriate use for David's bequest.

Donation to benefit two nonprofit rail groups in West Virginia
August 19, 2015
Chase Gunnoe

CASS, W.Va. – The Mountain State Railroad & Logging Historical Association has granted about $24,000 to two nonprofit railroad organizations to help preserve significance pieces of West Virginia’s railroad heritage. The decisions to make the donations followed the Association’s August Board of Directors meeting.

The association has donated $11,930 to the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad Foundation for the rehabilitation of Chesapeake & Ohio 2-6-6-2 No. 1309. Money will be used to continue restoration work on the Mallet-type locomotive on its proposed return to steam in 2016. The locomotive was used in coal service throughout the southern West Virginia coalfields of Logan in the mid 20th century and was transported to the Western Maryland Scenic from the B&O Railroad Museum in July 2014.

An additional $11,930 was also donated to the Collis P. Huntington Railroad Historical Society in Huntington for the interior restoration and upgrades to the Braddock Inn, a former Pennsylvania Railroad passenger car. The money will be used to make interior improvements to the car for use in charter service and on public excursions operated by the society.

The Cass-based association has also allocated an additional $25,000 to its project to complete the restoration of its own Climax No. 1551 to operating condition. The money will be used to contract out some of the remaining machine work. The association hopes to complete the restoration by the end of 2016.

https://www.facebook.com/WmsrFoundation?fref=ts

I think this appeared on Trains Newswire.

"The other change, also at Frostburg, will be to somehow ease a curve coming off the turntable that is just a bit sharp for this Mallet. "

And while they are at it the approach track needs leveling out BEFORE it gets to pit edge. When AC ran the G5 the engine would drop onto the table much to Jack Showalter's concern. FRA inspector said it wasn't a violation as they never thought anyone would be so stupid as to have a track on a grade go directly onto a table. Unless of course this was fixed after Jack left. Somehow I doubt it.