Last I looked, she was essentially serviceable, in the Cotton Belt facility that is now a museum. I do not believe it would take much to restore her to service, and there should still be adequate 'volunteer' know-how to handle what would need to be done.
The difficulty in a nutshell, as it was explained to me, is that UP will not permit the locomotive to run on its tracks. This may or may not have involved Steve Lee directly -- now that he's no longer heading the steam crew, there might be some leeway for "other UP heritage" (I know it's almost sacrilege to refer to SSW that way, but it's true) steam to run. (Same issue can be brought up for 4449, perhaps)
To my knowledge, she's perfectly safe where she is, and good people are watching her.
There is so much more to this story than what was said above.
Check out Railway Preservation News
http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=33236&hilit=819
Steve
Just read the Railway Prservation News through the link. Sad, very sad. Gets to the truth of the old English saying "There's nowt so strange as folks!"
My God how I hate politics. National, local, office, or club.
Firelock76 My God how I hate politics. National, local, office, or club.
I am with you there and it seems to permeate everything these days. Maybe it has always been that way and I am just more aware of it now.
There are some more post about this engine on Train Orders.com too. A lot more of the same stuff and some more details. All sad stuff though. She is such a nice looking engine.
Yeah, the story I heard about 819 was it was a victim of the liability insurance crisis that affected many steam excursion operations back in the '90s. Now I wish it was that simple.
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