PennsyPride94 posted:For what its worth, if you go on their website you can see that the steam trips are no longer up for the month of July, but for the month of August suggesting that they have been forced to move back the original first trip date.
Setting a date for trips with this engine before it was running was a TERRIBLE decision and horrible business practice. It's a no-win situation for the WSMR! Why management couldn't see that is beyond me.
Setting an arbitrary deadline like this puts tremendous pressure on the mechanical crew to get it done at all costs. That is never a good practice when working on an old machine like this. New and unforeseen problems can be discovered almost every day until it is up and running. Then it will take a few hundred miles of proving runs under the wheels to make SURE everything is OK.
You cannot rush restoration work like this. It will get done at its own pace, in a manner that insures that everything is right on fire-up day. Pressuring the mechanical guys to get it done - NOW! - is just asking for problems. If the arm-twisting is sufficient, they could be tempted to take a few shortcuts, or repair something "...just good enough so it works today." without time to plan for tomorrow.
I know some of the guys working on this engine. They are not the type to take shortcuts or do things so they are just barely serviceable. But when the engine is not ready for service at this arbitrary deadline because of financial problems, THEY are the ones who will get thrown under the bus. That's not fair to them.
