Easy, since I live in the Philadelphia area with roots in Northeastern PA, with $5,000,000 I'd want to restore either RDG T-1 2102 or T-1 2124. Both of those are gorgeous engines that would look great running again.
JanOlov wrote:Without any doubt I'd get this train back among the living. As Stevie Wonder sings......Isn't she lovely........?
You're on the same page as I am. But I would have restored the stream lined hiawatha set 1 from 1950 with the Super dome and the skytop lounge with a set of FP7s hauling it along. That would be wounderful. The stream lined hiawathas with the Atlantics and Baltics would have been quite a sight. If you can still find one of the steam engines still around.
James
A Baldwin 2-6-0 (class 8 20 D-117)
MopacBarrettTunnel wrote:How about something a little different - restore a Big Boy AND an Allegheny, and put them in a tug-of-war!!!! It would either settle or start anew many debates, believe me!! {We'd have to hire Ed King as the color-commentator, of course.}Make it a PPV-Webcast event, to recoup a little bit of the cost, and donate any excess to the NKP #190 Fund.......
biggest, baddest beast ANYwhere!
i'm with you. let's get 1604 back on the rails.
I think the greatest sight in railroading would be to see a Big Boy tearing along at about 60 with a nice size freight.A DM&IR 2-8-8-4 with an 18000 ton freight working hard at 35 mph would be impressive too.Consider too the ATSF 2-10-4's,PRR T-1,B&LE 2-10-4 and a P&WV 2-6-6-4.Iknow some of these don't exist.So maybe with a few more million you can build one of these new from the ground up.I f every railfan donated their annual salary-----maybe we should forget it.
Terry
First I would ask around, if encouraged would do feasability study to see if a NYC Hudson operating replica could be built for $5 million ! That was one of the biggest steam tragedies - two 4-8-2 Mohawks were saved, but no Hudsons !
James E. Bradley Hawk Mountain Chapter N.R.H.S.
I like to dream. I think there is a Hudson out there, but Bigfoot needs it to haul the Loch Ness Monster around!!!!
Joe
eric1987 wrote:No contest. I'd restore either N&W's 1218 or the 611. They are the finest steam locomotives in the East, and they deserve to be running. It might not take much ca***o restore them either; both are in excellent condition. It's time for them to come out of retirement.
Exactly! I would love to see the 611 and 1218 run again. Hopefully someday NS will change their minds or get some Steam fans in high places that will be more friendly to running steam.
Hmm, this is a tough one....I guess it would be to restore a 4 car North Shore Line interurban train. It would of course have to have the dining car (Car #415 would work as it still survives today) as well as the brass railed observation car (#420 would fit this as it too survives) a coach (many to choose from) and a combination coach baggage on the point. The remaining $$ could be used to have a long enough manline to let these beasts strut thier stuff at over 60mph. Then again a train of Montreal & Southern Counties wood interurbans would work pretty good too......
On a more realistic note, I would most likely donate it to the museum I currently volunteer at..Seashore Trolley Museum in Maine. That $$ would go a long way to protect the present collection(more barns) , give us a better shop to work in and possibly restore a car or two
Steve Loitsch
So you spend a bunch of this money to buy a steam engine then you
have to spend a bunch more to rebuild it.Then comes the testing and FRA
inspections,then if it passes where are you going to run it.Most of the big railways
wont even let you on the lines.Well gents your 5,000,000 is gone now
what are you going to do.I worked on many steam loco's in the last few years
as a contactor you need very deep pockets to make this work.Do you realy
think that you are going to make any money from this,you would have it for sale
very soon and you just wasted a bunch of money.
clash wrote:I'd pull one of the CB&Q, S-4 Hudson out of the park and restore it.
YESS!!! That would be the one that I would want also.
Bert
An "expensive model collector"
Not sure if it's been said or not, (no time to read all the posts yet), but I'd love to try to find, (if possible), an old 4-6-4 Hudson and re-streamline it as the 20th Century. There's something sad knowing that the New York Central was so efficient and confident that the Company would be around forever, that they cut them all up. It would be nice to think that somewhere in the world is an old J1 sitting and waiting for re-discovery.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
This is a perfect world dream... and a lot more than 5 mil. What I would like build would be a LARGE fully equiped restoration/training facility somewhere in the mid-west where museums and operators could send their personel to learn the process of steam locomotive restorations. The shop would be equiped well enough to be able to build locomotives from scratch if necessary, but the focus would be on restorations. Museums and tourist lines could not only send their workers there at no cost, but also their locomotives for full restoration. The ideal thing would for it to be backed financially so that the education could be done for free while the trainees were housed and paid while they learned their trade. Museums would be able to submit their locomotives for restoration and they would be chosen from a list of needs and worthyness. There would be a staff of "Subject Matter Experts" in each scope of repair where they could mentor the trainees in the process of a full scope of possible repairs. It of course would also have to have an operations/maintainence program in place where operators could learn best practices and safe operations. The facility would also have staff available and equipment that could be used to transport hulks inbound and the complete restorations outbound to wherever they are needed. Museums could then spend their funds on providing covered storage space and regular maintainence instead of funding the restorations. The end result would be a yearly output of qualified steam mechanics and a steady flow of operational locomotives for them to maintain.
Steve
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