Re: 346 tender back in Golden

I really hope you're not saying that the reason you work at the museum is to please me. Because if you are, you really should have written first, so I could let you know what the requirements are to please me.

But I don't really think that is what you meant. I think, like many of us, you really enjoy working on the real thing, and others make the choices of how it will be painted and dressed up.

I want to thank so many of you for sharing your OPINION. It was equally valuable as mine. But thank you for thinking that this is a "historic restoration". I'm sure that whoever made the choice to replicate the patches meant for you to think that. In fact, the frame was aparently restored, and a new cistern was built out of stainless steel. This mimics a common practice on the D&RG(W) of replacing the cistern when it wore out. However, the D&RG(W) would never have installed a new cistern and patched it to duplicate the old patches. That is purely art, or modeling, which ever word you want to choose.

Trueth is, Bob Richardson meant for his engine to be a runner on his little layout. That is why he put the dome back the way he wanted it, rather than being historic and preserving the engine the way it was. He sure could have jsut kept it running, and kept it looking the way it did the last 10 years of the Grande, but he didn't. He put the steam dome covers back on cause that's how he wanted the world to be represented. Same way we modelers build our models to look the way we want them.