There are, in Old Tucson, some pieces of iron that were once part of a locomotive known as V&T #11, The Reno. Prior to the fire the tender had been gutted, the throttle and throttle rod removed to make room for a pipe intended to conduct compressed air from the compressor in the tender to the saddle. I didn't get to see the inside of the smoke box but I imagine that the dry pipe was removed to allow for the pipe. It was cobbled into the steam chests.
Then there was the fire which consumed all of the wood on the engine and tender. The shell of the tender tank dropped down around the tender trucks, the babbitt melted out of the journals. The cab is gone and the glass and brass fittings ran like water in the intense heat. All the paint burnt off precluding any physical research. Castings broke, brass melted, the whole thing became a giant pile of poo.
I was invited shortly after the fire to survey the remains. The Reno for all intents and purposes is gone. There are some wheels and drivers, a frame, sort of a boiler shaped thing, some other miscellaneous iron, and bits and pieces. Given the butcher job that preceded the fire and the fire damage it is all junk.I haven't wasted my time since then to revisit the carcass.
Just this past week an enthusiastic person who has stars in his eyes and no experience in restoration was extolling the virtues of their plan to take possession of the Reno and restore it. One would do better service on so many other projects than to waste their time on this. Even if someone got the locomotive and put it back together they couldn't call it a restoration. It would be a recreation of a once proud locomotive.
Regrettably someone should cut it up and put it out of its misery. It really did deserve much better than a brutal raping by the movie/tourist trap industry. It saddens me greatly.
