I have been searching around on the web, and have discovered Canadian Pacific Railways 4-4-4 Jubilees, 2929 and 2928 rotting away in Delson Quebec (exporail), and at Steamtown. The poor engines are just rusting in to nothing, and it makes me sad to see it. It is to bad that both engines can’t be restored, or at least one of them. There are only 3 4-4-4 in the entire world. Would look really neat if they could be running together pulling excursion, or working at the museums. You don’t find engines like these every day.
Here they are…
Here’s what they used to look in all of there glory…
Victim of the times - plus a criticism often levelled at STeamtown, aprticualrly int he early days of it becoming a National Park, was that most of the stuff they had wasn’t even from the US. Still isn’t - the most used steam locos that they use to pull trains are former Canadian locos.
They’ve left a Reading T-1 and a Big Boy out to rot after cosmetic restoration, so I don’t see them doing anything to a Canadian loco anytime soon. They’ve had the PRR K4 undergoing restoration work for years now.
Look at the steam they’ve restored to working order in the UK, much of it in far worse shape and missing major components and that didn’t stop them. And they are almost all volunteers and they’re restore hundreds, yes hundreds of steam to working order. They even build a brand new one though much of that work was done by professionals.
Trainobsessed. It is a shame. Why dont you start a drive to raise awareness, money, volunteers to repair these or at least take steps to protect these units ? In our church our Pastor has said something along the lines of this, if you see a need fill it. Dont expect someone to do it for you. I can tell you the staff is overworked , under paid and will welcome any help.
… and, at least in the UK, the Tourist Board, who acts as a sponsor for many of those restoration projects. The restoration of a steam loco from a pile of scrap into working order costs millions of $$$.
It’s not just steam locos, even older diesels, while parts may be available, especially for EMDs, there are specialized tools needed. A small outfit like ours can;t afford to buy all those specialized tools so we end up makign them. It’s a slow process - over a year into it already but eventually we will have a runnign GP-7 The Society volunteers have put a lot of hard work into doing what a full railroad shop force in the 50’s would have done in a week, but with many home made tools and the loco itself stored outside.
There is a surprisingly large part of the population who thinks that preserving anything of the past is a complete waste of time and money. Not just locomotives, but cars, boats, airplanes, and even buildings. These are some very shortsighted people.
Of course, today’s regulatory climate makes it harder to restore and run a steam loco. I’m kind of surprised the same treatment hasn’t been given to the stored equipment at STeamtown as it has at Strasburg - the boiler lagging removed so the asbestos insualtion aroudn the boiler removed. Or maybe it has, but STeamtown put the lagging back on - which is a significant improvement over the naked boiler, particularly on a streamlined loco.It may be rusting, but at least the loco looks like it is supposed to. It could always be worse - with the price of scrap metal the loco is probably worth more cut into little pieces than it is whole.
Many rail museums have this problem. The collection is larger than they can possibly fund for preservation or restoration or even just a roof over the heads of the stuff. Here in the midwest, the museums in Green Bay WI, North Freedom WI, and Union IL all have precious and irreplaceable stuff that is deteriorating. They cannot save it all. At least some of them also, understandably, could not resist the opportunity to “save” something for which they had no space and no funds rather than see it be scrapped on the spot.
Much of the damage to the engines pictured is cosmetic. The cladding around the boiler is easily manufactured and installed. The lagging under the cladding will not be used again because it contains asbestos, so that will have to be swapped out with a suitable product.
Most inner working parts just need cleaning up and non-destructive testing to determine if there are stress fractures, particularly the rods. Boiler would need a rebuild and hydro testing, with all the inspections and final certification. Wheels would have to be removed and sent to the Tenessee Rail Museum or some such place for turning. Bearings/bushings all redone. Lubricators rebuilt. Controls dismantled, cleaned, tested, calibrated, and installed. And so on.
It is almost aways the labour that slows a project if qualified/federally/state approved inspectors and builders are used for the sake of obtaining insurance if the engine is to run (why rebuild if it won’t?!). Parts, though, can be manufactured. Costly, yewbetcha, but they can all be manufactured.
The CP Jubillee class has the N. American offical speed record. I don’t know about unoffical…it might have been the T1 Duplex. [swg]
Indeed. They have two US loco in the shop right now, a 0-6-0 and a B&M Pacific. The 0-6-0 was a plant switcher for Baldwin, in the shop right now for a rebuild and frame straightening. The pacfic is somewhere along in its restoration. Word on the street is that Timkin donated roller bearings for the restoration and that the cistern is being reworked.
The K4 lost it’s funding for restoration and is currently sitting in a stall in the corner, all the removed parts in cosmoline in crates on a flat next to it.
The West Coast Railway Association in BC do a lot of renovation work and rebuilt the Royal Hudson over a number of years. http://www.wcra.org/
If there is a will the work can get done. I think some of the delays in Steam Rebuild are finding someone that knows how to work with the boilers as it is “ancient” technology. Would be nice to see those Jubiliees repaired an back in service somewhere.
Here in Europe, we are lucky to have quite a few places available which can still maintain/service steam locos - even built new ones (according to old plans). But, again, the cost involved are tremendous, a major overhaul (not re-built) can easily exceed 1mio. $.
I agree it does look like out side stuff. Anyone know how much it would cost to get the engine of one of the museums? The engine, outside and inside are almost the same as the royal hudson, so the guys on the west coast should be able to help.
Also, the CP jubilee F2a had the official record of 112.5 miles per hour, but 2929 and 2928 are F1a, which could only go around 100 ish.
Where there’s a will and a large sackful of rare gold coins, there’s a way.
Having rebuilt crashed aircraft, I consider it repair if there’s less than 25% new metal. What those two would need is restoration - or maybe reproduction.
I don’t think jacking up the whistle and rolling a complete `fabricated from new metal’ locomotive under it can be honestly described as repair. With present-day FRA boiler requirements, the boilers would almost certainly have to be completely replaced.
Nothing is impossible, but `repair’ of a loco that far gone is 'way up there on the improbable scale.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with steam that won’t be allowed to rust away)
These locos should (MUST) be put under protective cover now, be restored, or sold, or donated , if none of the aforementioned solutions are not met, then destroy them, they are already being destroyed.
