Executive Director John Garner says that additional mechanical work is needed, but has not provided a new schedule. The locomotive was to be wheeled in May, but problems with the delivery of parts from a machine shop postponed that work. The railroad has been trying to outshop the engine for two years, but a host of issues has kept it at the restoration site in Ridgeley, W.Va. The boiler was completed last September, and the engine has been steamed twice sans driving wheels.
The Chesapeake & Ohio engine, whose budget has skyrocketed from $800,000 five years ago to $2.7 million, was the last engine Baldwin produced for domestic use in 1949. Purchased from the B&O Railroad Museum, it was seen as the powerful locomotive needed for the 17-mile mountain railroad to eliminate doubleheading with diesel locomotives. But its restoration has been plagued with funding issues, employee theft of parts, and other missteps.
If they do get this operating, is there any opinion on the operating costs of the 2-6-6-2 compared to 734 or an equivalent?
Perhaps they would have been better served leasing Southern 630 or a similar unit while 734 was overhauled.
But that horse has left the barn.
This has been a JOKE since day one !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is a great undertaking. Give them time!
Al Dicenso,
Apparently we can’t here in the U.S. but they can in the United Kingdom….something is wrong with that picture. Of course they also have a national lottery that provides funds to such programs, so there is that difference.
This reminds me of NASA’s rocket launches. There are glitches that delay every launch. I wish Western Maryland Scenic great success in their No. 1309 programme.
Well… Looks like a lot of us will now have to formulate some new plans for Independence Day Weekend.
This is the steam restoration that should never have begun. The loco was a piece of junk before they pulled it out, but a couple of starry-eyed promoters took it upon themselves to sell the fans a bill of goods. Let’s face it folks, we can’t afford to restore every rusting hulk of a steam loco just because it happens to be a unique model.
We’ve been over this ground before, but apparently 1309 toward the end of its service life was one of those engines that was “Rode hard and put away wet,” to use an old cowboy phrase. As everyone knew the diesels were coming the shop forces were told to only do enough maintanance on it to keep it alive until the diesel replacements showed up. That, and knowing they were going to lose their jobs would have led to a less-than-motivated work force.
Lynn Moedinger of the Strasburg RR was absolutely correct concerning steam restorations when he said it was always going to take longer than you think, you’ll find more issues than you think, and it’ll cost more than you think.
I think if the Western Maryland Scenic knew what was coming they’d have passed on 1309 and put the efforts into rehabbing their 2-8-0, but I can’t fault them on this, old steamers don’t come with crystal balls.
Well I’ll bet some of us thought that C&O 2-6-6-2 #1309 was going to debut before the UP Big Boy 4014, but apparently that was not the case. I understand that they ran into problems while restoring this engine, as mentioned before, but I agree it’s better to take the time to do the restoration right.