Have there been any recent developments in the restoration of K4 1361?
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
All the parts are at least in one place. Not bad.
RaritanRiverRailroadFan4 posted:All the parts are at least in one place. Not bad.
I keep hearing that "some parts" have been lost. Also, wonder went they will have enough money to contract Strasburg Rail Road to complete the firebox rebuild.
I say 5550 runs first !
There is a facebook page (if you are part of facebook) that shows volunteer progress on various parts and posts updates.
What are the things with the holes? grates?
Gregg posted:What are the things with the holes? grates?
Yes.
What a huge job. That is going to take some serious money and expertise and dedication to complete it.
Ace posted:What a huge job. That is going to take some serious money and expertise and dedication to complete it.
Absolutely! Not to mention an outside contractor to "finish" the boiler/firebox work, in order to comply with current FRA regulations.
Its a "government job", there is no rush.
Last I heard, the Boiler was in the East Broad Top shops in Rockhill Furnace. When did it get back?
spwills posted:Last I heard, the Boiler was in the East Broad Top shops in Rockhill Furnace. When did it get back?
The boiler was never "in" the EBT shops. It was just temporally stored there at the shop area, on a flat bed truck trailer, since the family who's trucking company moved most of the 1361 components out of Steamtown, also owns the EBT. The EBT property was simply a good location for the storage, until the Altoona Railroaders Museum was ready for it. The move took place last year.
Hot Water posted:spwills posted:Last I heard, the Boiler was in the East Broad Top shops in Rockhill Furnace. When did it get back?
The boiler was never "in" the EBT shops. It was just temporally stored there at the shop area, on a flat bed truck trailer, since the family who's trucking company moved most of the 1361 components out of Steamtown, also owns the EBT. The EBT property was simply a good location for the storage, until the Altoona Railroaders Museum was ready for it. The move took place last year.
Thanks for clearing that up for me.
The amazing race: 1361 vs 844?
Is this actually going to be restored to steam? Last I heard it would be a cosmetic restoration. I thought it would never steam again due to the metal being too thin to comply with FRA regulations...
ES44AC posted:Is this actually going to be restored to steam?
Yes.
Last I heard it would be a cosmetic restoration.
That is not the desire of the museum.
I thought it would never steam again due to the metal being too thin to comply with FRA regulations...
Too thin to comply at it rated working boiler pressure. However, it could be properly rebuilt to fully comply, if the museum raises the funds and desires that. On the other hand, it could be simply "put back together" and operated at reduced boiler pressure, and still comply with FRA regulations. It gets pretty complicated.
From multiple articles I've read over the last 7 years, the goal of the museum with the 1361 is to bring her back up to FRA spec and operate her.
I do recall seeing that a comestic restoration was going to be the plan but due to "turnover" in museum leadership the goal is now once again to operate her.
I don't blame the new leadership for trying to do so since the incompetent leadership the museum had years ago really mis-allocated the funds needed to restore her and bring her back up to FRA spec in Steamtown. It's the attitude of: "We've come this far, we might as well keep going".
1361 was the hot button topic in train preservation for years until the recent debacle with UP in Cheyenne replaced it.
As I understand it, she steamed for about a year in the 80s and has been in various states of 'not ready to display' ever since. I don't know all the details so I won't rehash them here.
There's only two K4s in existence, the other is at the impressive museum at Strasburg. Sadly, the other doesn't look too good as it's displayed outside in a very unforgiving climate:
Too bad. It seems it will be a long time since we see mainline PRR steam. Of course we still have PRR #643..
