ALTOONA, Pa. — A series of events, including a public open house, will be held next weekend to show the progress on building a 21st-century recreation of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s T1-class 4-4-4-4 streamlined steam locomotive.
The nonprofit Pennsylvania Railroad T1 Steam Locomotive Trust will display its 64-foot-long, 35-ton fabricated frame at the Blair County Convention Center in Altoona on Saturday, May 11, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
A day earlier, on Friday, May 10, the Trust will hold a reception for donors at the same site, as well as a contributors’ dinner at the U.S. Hotel in nearby Hollidaysburg, Pa. At the dinner, a silent auction will offer such prizes as throttle time on Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 Berkshire engine No. 765 (Lima Locomotive Works, 1944), a cab ride on Western Maryland Scenic Railroad 2-6-6-2 engine No. 1309 (Baldwin Locomotive Works, 1949), and a gift basket from the Age of Steam Roundhouse Museum.
Of 130 reservations, about 25 remain available, according to Jason Johnson, the Trust’s general manager.
At all events, Trust officials will answer questions about the project; sell T-shirts, hats and other items; and accept donations. The display is being held in tandem with the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society.
“We’ll highlight where we’ve been, where we are, and what the next 12 months look like,” Johnson told News Wire. “We set realistic goals, and our transparency is our biggest goal. We’re being funded through railfans all around the world, and we have to be good stewards of those funds.”
Of his duties with the Trust, he quipped, “My job is to turn dollars into steel.”
While the frame is “not 100% complete, it will be representative of what it will look like when it’s done,” he said. Fabrication is being handled by Dover (Ohio) Tank & Plate Co./Dover Design & Management Group, a structural shop that builds railroad bridges and other projects.
A qualified steam locomotive engineer who is a regular on NKP 765, Johnson also has run Western Maryland Scenic engines No. 1309 and No. 734 (2-8-0, BLW, 1916), among many others.
The Trust is building a new version of the 52-member class of high-speed T1 engines, all of which were scrapped by PRR. This is the first effort in America to build a large, modern steam locomotive, following the lead of British preservationists who in 2008 completed a 4-6-2 engine named Tornado, recreating a member of the extinct A1 Peppercorn class at a cost of £3 million ($5.5 million at the 2008 exchange rate).
Baldwin built two T1 prototypes in 1942. After World War II, PRR ordered 50 production models, 25 from BLW and 25 from its own Juniata Shops in Altoona. Designed to reach 120 mph, they were intended to parallel the performance in non-electrified territory of the road’s highly successful GG1-class 2-C+C-2 electric design, 139 of which were built between 1934 and 1943.
Built as Art Deco showpieces to pull the Broadway Limited, “The Spirit of St Louis” and other PRR luxury flyers, the T1s were prematurely sidelined, being downgraded to secondary duties upon the arrival of reliable off-the-shelf diesel-electric units. The Trust has designated its engine as PRR 5550, the next road number in line after the highest-numbered production T1, No. 5549 (BLW, 1946).
Two years ago, the Trust displayed another set of components – a boiler shell, nose and cab – hauling it some 1,500 miles from a shop near St. Louis to a previous PRR&THS convention in Harrisburg, Pa. (See “T1 Trust displays progress in building new steam locomotive,” Trains News Wire, May 14, 2022). “That made it real for a lot of people [who said] ‘Holy crap, this thing is bigger than we thought.’ This is not just a dream on a piece of paper but actual steel.”
By weight, No. 5550 is 43% complete, with more than $2 million raised so far. The Trust has obtained a PRR 16-wheel freight tender that is similar to a streamlined passenger version carried by the original T1s.
Biggest challenge may be in the controls, using some background modern technology to continually synchronize the two engines and prevent driver slippage.
Y’all are such Debbie downers. Do you think there hasn’t been physics and engineering advances in the last 80 years? Advancements will fix many of the operational problems, and I’m sure a rolling ambassador like this will be welcome on the bigger tourist lines that can host big steam, and even cooperation with Class 1s. Let’s see it happen!
It’s incredible isn’t it? So much complaining. Some of the peoplehere never have a positive thing to say about anything. If you said “it’s a nice day out,” there would be a reason why it was the worst day ever.
I’ll bet THOSE KIDS are on their lawns, too.
If they ever finish this thing we will re-learn why the PRR decided to replace them with diesels just months after the order was finished.
Or run it at more than 40 mph. It will never run, just drain money from the fools who are rich enough and willing enough to support their fantasy. A white elephant, sucking the air out of the truly meaningful restoration of K4s 1361 which is recognized world wide as being the iconic PRR steam loco.
Not many places to run the T1 or turn it!