Re: Economics of restoring a locomotive

Dan:
Nicely stated. I have taken both paths over the years as a volunteer and then as an owner. I enjoyed both approaches, but owning my own engine was always a personal goal which I was happy to achieve.

I don’t see money as the big issue either. Rather, location to me is the biggest stumbling block. As I understand it you have quite the shop and storage location right on your property. My partner on my little Porter had a 20 acre farm here in NJ so plenty of room to work on it and even run it, but when he died suddenly I was left in a bit of a pickle. I looked at every option, but being narrow gauge, I did not have many workable options here in NJ. I had offers for storage at some great locations along the east coast and Ohio, but then distance became an issue, not to mention cost to ship it. Height wise it did not fit in a storage unit, and being an open cab out door storage was not really a good option. In the end, I let it go to the fledgling Arizona State RR Museum as it spent most of its life as Apache Powder #6 and just seemed like sending it home was a nice thing to do. But, damn, I do miss it.

Anyway, I would vote on shop/storage location as the number one stumbling block to owning you own locomotive or rail car. This is the lesson I learned with such disappointment. Today I am restoring a 15” gauge 4-4-0 built in 1907. Why this engine? Well, it fits in my garage nicely.

J.R. May
Wall, NJ