With some trepidation, I relay the information from RyPN that [url=http://csrail.org/3463]CSR/SRI has updated their information on ATSF 3463 in Topeka.[/url] Plans to convert this into a true high-speed locomotive, their so-called ‘Project 130’, have been officially shelved, with their priority now given as doing the necessary fundraising to move the locomotive to a proper work facility, make the necessary connections in the Topeka area to start proper work, and investigating the practical return of the locomotive to operable condition. Not cosmetic, stuffed-and-mounted, condition – operable, as in 2926.*
I confess to being a bit disappointed we won’t find out what a 3460 class could do with proper valves and tracts, but preservation of the locomotive is a big ‘win’ and even starting up the restoration that the volunteers were conducting before the GOS contretemps would be a likely path towards the stated goal. Building a suitable enclosed ‘base’ for the locomotive is an intelligent step, too.
Save your snark: not the year, the 4-8-4 in New Mexico.
The good news is that a great deal of the actual restoration of 2926, both ‘knowledge’ and process, ought to be applicable to her ‘Big Three’ sister. (Who now needs a name, which can’t be ‘Alice’ … who has suggestions? I am tempted by ‘Ethel’ and someone really, really needs to come up with a better alternative fast.)
wanswheel, isn’t there a filk about PRR 1361 that’s a parody of that song?