bigkid posted:One of the things I am impressed with these folks is they seem to be pragmatic, they aren't it looks like insisting that everything be exactly the same as the original, ie that things be cast versus forged, that the tender be rivet by rivet identical and so forth. The point of this is to build a working T1, and if the paint isn't lead based, if the drivers use modern alloys, if there are 10 rivets/inch while the original had 9, if the valve gear is slightly different, if they have some kind of high tech monitoring of the systems on the engine, so what?
Yes, they're certainly taking a page out of the "Tornado" UK crew's playbook. Those folks decided to make a modern locomotive that was, in their eyes, what British Rail would build today if they'd wanted a new loco of that class with the modern techniques and materials. And they got something that appears to be quite reliable and capable of well over 100 MPH as they proved recently.
I see the T-1 group doing something along the same lines for their overall concept. Very smart of them.
I must be honest, I laughed at the overall idea as a pipe dream, same as many others. Now, I'm not laughing and I wish them well. I think they really could make this happen if everything falls into place and the money doesn't stop flowing.
