Re: Smithsonian Holdings

Erik,
I took a look at the site for the Smithsonian's l move of the narrow gauge locomotive "Jupiter" that you provided. It was one of the most amazing articles I have ever seen! I do not know Mr. Withuhn and assume he does a great job with the collection. BUT, if I understood the article correctly, they took about FOUR days to move the Jupiter across the mall. I do not think in my experience I have ever seen anything take that long for such a short move or use such sophisticated radio controlled gantrys to move the Jupiter around the floor while it was up in the air! It was simply amazing!!!
I'm just a simple citizen out here in Nevada. However, it seems it could have been a whole lot easier if they just dropped a low boy outside the entrance to where the locomotive and tender were located and then put a couple 30 foot lenghts of rail from the display track to the track on the lowboy, and then pull each up on its trailer.
I dont want to get into a contest with whose method is better, but I routinely move the sister locomotive "Eureka" across the West in a couple days and have it up and steaming. Our methods are pretty primitive. We have a a couple trucks, a few guys, a lot of Gatoraid and Pizza. In about 6 hours we are loaded up and on the road. I guess I simply do not have an appreciation for the difficulties that are encountered moving a locomotive in Washington DC.....and I should probably keep my mouth shut! However, that radio controlled contraption for wheeling around locomtives in the air was really impressive! If I saw my engine on that thing I think I would faint. My congratulations to the Smithsonian crew for remaining conscious.