Is the famed Civil War-era locomotive still who we think it is?
Frankly, that is one of the dumbest excuses for ‘historic preservation’ I have seen.
The only historic value of the “Texas” for almost any interested person’s reason is in its participation in the Great Locomotive Chase … an inherently Civil-War-related “event” by any meaningful definition. To put the cherry on this sundae of stupidity, the ‘restorers’ then chose not to use the historic name the locomotive actually carried when painted up drab. That’s as silly as painting up that plowhorse masquerading as 999 without restoring it to its actual speed-record configuration…
Charitably I will attribute this just to bad taste and ignorance on the part of the folks concerned until proven otherwise. I’d be very disappointed to find out that the decision was made, as implied in part of the story, for some misguided rationale involving ‘deglorifying’ the Confederate side of things.
I really, really really hate having the ‘story’ about the return of the ‘other half’ of the famous Andrews Raid engines becoming a National Inquirer style tale of alleged political correctness. Where is the story behind the physical restoration? Sheesh, even a narrative about how ‘the war might have been prolonged x months at x cost because the Raid failed, thanks in part to the Texas’ would be better than this!
RME, you nailed it. I’d have been a lot happier if “Texas” was restored to its 1862 appearance myself, what it looks like now isn’t the locomotive that chased the “General,” not by a long shot.
I can only accept the way it looks by rationalizing that my money didn’t pay for the restoration so I don’t have any excuses for complaining.
As far as “de-Confederatizing” the locomotive for political correctness’ sake (and has anyone said that was the reason for the appearance change?) let me say this; aside from history and Civil War buffs and the perpetually aggreived who seem to be having the time of their lives knocking down all things Confederate (Let’s see what they’ll let us get away with today!) no-one in this country really gives a damn about the Civil War anymore, so why de-Confederatize? Who really cares? The Civil War Sesquicentennial just past was a bust. I’m old enough to remember the Centennial in the 1960’s and there was a lot more hoopla back then then there was recently. Hey, there was a lot more hoopla for the Civil War 125th anniversary.
As a military history student who admires the heroes of both sides, Union and Confederate, I really wish someone would have the guts to tell the perpetually aggrieved and the politically correct to just shut the hell up. “If you don’t like it, don’t look at it!”