...or so it goes.
The two 36" 4-4-0s built in the 60s by Bob Harpur in Wilmington, CA for Six Flags Over Georgia haven't run in the past few seasons. The locomotives were last fired on kerosene; and sadly, had shed their former glorious paint schemes for simple new ones; the park didn't even bother to pay for lettering! It's obvious that Six Flags didn't, and still doesn't care about the value of steam locomotives.
Unfortunately, Six Flags has decided to dieselize these two beautiful locomotives; an outrage among former crew and fans of the railroad. The locomotives were moved out of the shop to languish, while a leased former Henschel 0-4-0T-turned-hideous diesel ripped up the mostly-curved track. The "Texas" needs firebox work so I was told; the "General" could have been repaired for less than $1,000 and a few days and be in steam. The management was completely ignorant to the idea of selling the locomotives and using the money to buy a new diesel locomotive. Instead, they chose to take two more operable steam locomotives away from the steam world by converting them to diseasels. At least I heard there's a clause that the locomotives can't be touched; so the boilers won't be gutted out like a fish, and internal combustion junk put into the firebox.
Harpur's two other locomotives survive as steam; one operates occasionally at Astroworld in Texas, the other (formerly of Astroworld) is stored up at Durango. He also built several live steamers, formerly a Little Engines employee, and is a retired Disney Imagineer; having restored the four WDWRR engines from the U de Y, and working on other railroad projects with WDI.
Those that didn't get to see these locomotives run will be able to see them in one of the new DVD projects I'm working on; more than 20 minutes of both locomotives steaming through the park in all their glory! Nice smoke effects, too. You can also read about them on my site, link below.
Thanks,
Ed Kelley
