| Posted by pjflstc on December 12, 2012 | |
Where is NPR #759 at these days?
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A terrific view! Well done.
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| Posted by Sport! on December 13, 2012 | |
per
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_bo ... /shs2o.htm
And here's an excerpt:
"After its last main line excursion, from Boston, Massachusetts, to Montpelier, Vermont, and back, over the Boston and Maine and the Central Vermont in October 1973, Locomotive No. 759 deadheaded under steam to Rouses Point, New York, for winter storage in the Delaware and Hudson roundhouse there, since the locomotive had been scheduled tentatively for excursion duty on the D. & H. the following April. Unfortunately, negotiations for that excursion broke down, and the D. & H. management in an apparent fit of pique had the locomotive pulled out of the promised warm roundhouse storage and set out in the icy winter of upper New York State without draining it. Various pipes, connections, and fittings containing water froze and broke. The Steamtown Foundation sued the D. & H. for its negligence.
No. 759 returned to Bellows Falls towed dead in a train in the spring of 1975. In settlement of the lawsuit, the D. & H. contracted out repair work on some of the freeze damage and on July 6, 1975, a Steamtown crew fired up the locomotive and tested it on the enginehouse lead at Riverside, Vermont. Then it rested unused until the spring of 1977, when Steamtown received a request to use the locomotive in a mainline excursion. Steamtown management planned the completion of freeze-damage repairs and an application to the Federal Railroad Administration for an extension on the deadline for replacing the flues. But when they gave the locomotive a preliminary hydro test a flue burst. Recalling the experience of having two flues blow out while one of Steamtown's older locomotives was in service, and at the suggestion of Steamtown's boiler-repair contractor, Steamtown management decided to reflue the locomotive. The boiler contractor removed all the older flues, and Steamtown ordered a new set. Then sponsorship for the proposed excursion fell apart, Steamtown cancelled the order for new flues, and a partially disassembled No. 759 awaited an uncertain future. She remained in that status during and after her move to Scranton."
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Sad. If only we cared about our Steam Engiens the way Great Britain does. I say thery're preservation efforts are arguably much better than ours, having gone there this past May where I visited the North Yorkshire Moors Railway and rode on 5 our of 10 or so steam engines participating. Of course, I have a soft spot for british steam, finding there engines more elegant and not as indistrial as ours, it is sad that we are losing engines like these and not keeping them in use.
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Thats an awsome picture.
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| Posted by Andrew on December 13, 2012 | |
Hello, with regard to preserving steam trains, on the B.B.C. we have had the first of two programmes about this subject. The programme is called "The golden age of steam railways" and the first one was about narrow gauge railways, especially the two in Wales. The second is going out on Monday 17 Dec. on BBC4, at 2100 hours (9p.m.) local time. I am not sure if it is available outside the U.K. on the net, but it may be worth a try using www.bbc.co.uk and trying to get it via the "iplayer". This is where we can watch programmes already broadcast, but I think this is only valid for one week after transmission. We have a fairly good industry going here in the U.K. with this as tousist attractions. The Settle-Carlisle line was scheduled for closure, but it was preserved by British Rail, the Ribblehead Viaduct was repaired at a cost I should imagine is about $7.1/2 million in todays money, but it now has 750,000 passengers a year. Think what that does to the local economy.
May I end with best wishes to all for a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.
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It's great that new steam locos are built in the U.K. It's sad that in the USA it's a scramble just to save what we already have!
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Exactly. They are filling in the gaps of they're preservation needs, building all new engines like "Tornado" if neccessary. We let Beauties like the A4 Dwight Eisenhower, one of Gresley's masterpieces -one GB was nice enough to give to us- sit as a static prop rusting away. I'm lucky I have Cumberland relatively close. I went there for my 30th last year, but just that's one engine. Again though, in my opinion, GB viewed their engines as works of art, naming many of them. I don't think we respected them, and now they are dissapearing.
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