The thread below that began with "What If", concerning replica locomotive building, was getting pretty long, so I'll start a new one. I have some different ideas, and welcome your comments:
First, before we get too carried away with dreaming about new locomotives, let's get out and restore what we have, at least cosmetically. Get them under shelter and make them look like they are operable, even if they aren't. This is a big job in itself, requiring several years of hard work by dedicated volunteers. Donated services and materials can reduce the cost greatly, and it is not rocket science. Unskilled volunteers can do the job, with proper guidance. One half to two thirds of the steam locomotives in North America range in condition from poor to derelict; let's improve their lot first. Boy Scouts and Jaycee groups have probably done as much work on them as we enthusiasts have, to our shame.
That said, I think some smaller replicas, like 4-4-0s, might be built using parts scavenged from derelict industrial saddletankers. There are more 0-4-0Ts extant than any other wheel arrangement, some just lying in heaps, dismantled. Often, there are several duplicates of the same engine and they get shuffled around, with no intense interest in saving them. Typlcally, they end up in front of an antique shop or ice cream stand, until the next owner gets tired of painting over the rust. A few have been scrapped since being saved. Thus, it probably would not be too big a sin, to sacrifice one or more as a parts source, much like the old car people do.
Some of the parts on these little engines are similar to those found on a 4-4-0. Cylinders, for instance, and journal boxes and axles, and a number of smaller parts would probably be usable, as might valve gear. Building a 2-6-0 or 2-8-0 might require sacrifice of two saddletankers. There are plenty of narrow gauge saddletankers around, but outside frame engines could utilize standard gauge cylinders. Of course, the donor locomotive would have to be carefully inspected first for fatal flaws in the iron that would negate use of the parts. Larger replica locomotives might use parts from an 0-6-0T, of which plenty remain.
And the donor parts would have to match the replica being constructed, especially the cylinder saddle height to frame distance. A generic, no-prototype locomotive would be easiest, but most railroads, at least standard gauge, had a myriad of 4-4-0s from various builders, some from their own shops; one could probably find something that would match their needs.
Major new parts would include the frame pieces, flame cut from slab steel, wheels newly cast, and the boiler, of new welded construction. If a proper tender could not be found, that would have to be built also, but might utilize numerous parts from old freight cars.
I welcome your thoughts here, but will elaborate further in the next post.
