The current plan (subject to change) is that the two cars that were on the bridge with the engine are being restored year after next and the bridge is getting work next year. There is consideration being given to covering the engine as no matter what we did to it she will immediately start to deteriorate sitting in the weather.
The locomotive was completely disassembled and every square inch of old lead paint was removed. She was sandblasted to bar metal. It was then primed with a epoxy primer followed with a polyurethane enamel. The complete tender underframe was replaced as was the cab. The underframe is a combination of white oak and fir as the original was and the cab is ash. The old cab was part fir and ash and it was deemed the fir would not hold up to the elements with of course the original cab would of been ash or oak. The journals were all serviced so she could roll once again. A skim cut was taken on the boxes based on the polished journal dimensions. It took a 100 ton puller to get some of the rod bearings off after the engine was taken off the bridge they had galled so badly after years of no lubrication. Very poor prep work was undertaken before moving the engine. All rod bearings were cleaned up with about .010 removed and we made it possible to grease them with a standard grease fitting.
Except for a few exceptions the metal portions of the engine are in better shape than one would expect quite frankly. The tender tank is absolutely completely dead. Its approx. 5000# less than its original weight would of been. That is a lot of corrosion. Our rebuild of the tender underframe included what amounted to what was way way beyond the scope of the bid. We did not want to build a bobby trap for somebody down the road so the underframe is completely serviceable and rebuilt to basically new standards. The running gear of the locomotive is in pretty good shape. No signs of any cracks were seen in the frame, the drivers tires are all good. The journals have the signs of serious water pitting in places but water pitting is not all that big of a problem. The axles are near or at retirement and one hub has a large repair in it from a crack from the crank pin to the axle. But the repair is old and seems to be holding just fine. The cylinders are beautiful as are the valve faces, valves and chests. The valve gear while in need of a few pins and bushings is also in very good shape. The eccentrics are solid cast bronze. The brake rigging is in need of some serious pin and bushing work. Same with the spring rigging. The lead truck is pretty much a complete disaster but its what the Grande did to get buy. It could be easily fixed to function better than its current state. The domes, pumps, smokebox, smokebox internals, grates, ash pan and all those basic pieces are perfectly fine. The boiler by all appearances seems to be in excellent condition. What few UT readings I took seem to prove this opinion out. The boiler was built by Cleveland Boiler Works around 1911. All sheets are stamped and bear this out. The outside corrosion one would expect is pretty limited due to the fact that she was stripped of insulation in the 70's. One area of exception was the dome knuckle and riser which while bearing corrosion is not completely gone as the done retained its original insulation to trap water. The cab had original insulation but was somewhat protected by the elements by the cab. Interesting it took us the better part of a day just to get the original cab of in one piece it was so far gone.
The cab now of course is completely new. The piping needs to pretty much be all replaced. Much of it has been subjected to freezing and bursting from I imagine the Grande no caring knowing they were going to donate the engine and probably just parked the old girl outside with water still in the lines. It could not of happened on the bridge or in Montrose unless somebody tried to put water in the old girl.
A fair amount of the original engine remains. That would be the frame, some cylinder components, some spring components, Johnson bar, Johnson bar rack, turret, both domes, smokebox door and ring, some lead truck parts, some tender truck parts and a number of smaller pieces. This was determined by the fact of what had Baldwin castings number on them and what had Rio Grande. Some of the items in question are the driver hubs and journal boxes. Neither of these bear any Grande casting numbers or indications but its hard to beleive they lasted this long. The cylinders were replaced in 1923. An interesting note is one tender truck journal box lid is original.
After examining, measuring and playing with this thing for close to 18 months and 6000 man hours it is in my humble opinion parts of the tender tank are original. I am not going to get into a serious discussion here about some of this but we did just spend more time than anybody since the thing was build playing with its respective parts. We also found some very faint traces of original Baldwin class and serial numbers stamped on the front inside of the cab above the boiler which was per their standard practices. Some parts of the engine still bear original Baldwin number stampings.
Before we are hung in effigy over something we may or may not of done lets get a few things straight. The lettering for instance was detailed in the bid to be a reproduction of what was on the engine. When we got into the engine we found traces of 16" and 12" silver lettering on the cab. Currently its in 12" white. That makes sense for the white as during the war silver paint was strategic and would of been not allocated to the railroads after their existing supplies ran out. Companies like Harley Davidson used a replacement color up into the 50's. I cannot speak directly for the railroads but I imagine it was pretty much the same. The shape and style of the railroad roman cannot be completely agreed upon so what was used was again over 200 man hours of drawing time on a cad program with the old lettering as a style to follow. We found in many places the original lettering had moved as much as 4 or 5 inches in one direction or another over the years. So what we have it a educated compromise of what may of been what at some specific time. All the pictures out there show different things at different times. Sometimes items are highlighted in 1938 and they are not in 1949 or visa versa. Case in point. A really good detailed picture of the large tank on the tender in Dorman's book shows no "drain only" lettering on the tank yet is was there on the #278 when we received it.
So what do you do. The best you can. No one is trying to satisfy all the railfans on the planet. There was not enough money in the budget for that. I have ended up working for nothing the past 18 months, but at least the other help made something and a historic artifact was saved from what amounted to criminal neglect. Lets hope the NPS comes to their senses and comes up with a plan to protect the #278 from the elements. They seem very concerned on the local level of the NPS to protect the engine and preserve it. I know within the constraints of budget limitations they will do the best they can.
If you want to PM me on this thing fine. Those of you who have been waiting patiently for pictues you will need to be more patient until I find time to get them all together.
