Earl, I fired this engine in Utah between 1985 and 1990. It is true that she is a rough rider, the local advice to firemen was "don't let go of the firing valve, 'cause you won't be able to grab it again till you get to town!" In all fairness though, most of the roughness was the condition of the railroad at that time. She can pull, but was more at home flat running in California than lugged down on a grade. We regularly pulled 6 to 7 car trains of mixed Harriman heavyweights and converted open air box cars up the 3% below the dam at 15 MPH.
As for firing, at that time she really was a dog! We tried all the combinations of damper open or closed, blower set for takeoff or shut off; fire door propped open did improve some, but she just didn't breath and you really had to crowd your fire to keep up. All of these challenges made her a great instructor for new firemen (me) and made us all learn how to think way ahead and know the line, because if you got behind in steam or water, you weren't getting it back. In contrast, Santa Maria Valley #100 could be fired with a Bic lighter and made us lazy firemen!
But all these issues were solved in '89 or '90 when someone advised us to cut an auxiliary breathing hole adjacent to the burner, and this completely changed her steaming characteristics. This lifted the fire to fill the firebox more completely and she fired like a dream with an almost clear stack, you could make more water than you could possibly use. I don't know if they kept the burner arrangement during the rebuild in Texas, but Craig Lacey in Heber would know as he got to go back to the Big Easy and fire her during her short debut there.
As for the tender, it is huge and we always thought out of proprtion for her appearance and made tender-first operation a challenge, but we loved the capacity. The damage to the tender from the derailment was removing the illegal rear footboards and damaging the brake equipment as the rear truck rode towards the front of the frame, but as I recall did little else (bolster and pin OK). I seem to remember one of the drawbars needed straightening. But from what I have been told, Texas renewed just about everything on this engine, and I am sure you have already been provided the details of their rebuild.
I am so glad she has found a home, and look forward to seeing in person what she can do with those 63 inchers on good railroad.
