Chinese QJ 2-10-2 Locomotives

[Anonymous]

Recently TRAINS reported that steam will be gone from Jing Peng Pass in China by the end of 2005, thereby ending mainline steam for the entire globe. Considering the numbert of people I've met who regret not having done more (or for that matter, anything) to preserve steam in the US in the 50's when lots of locomotives still existed and could have been put in storage for later use, I'm wondering, has there been any serious thought in the US to buying and importing the QJ behemoths to the US as they go out of service and entire the scrap lines in China? After all, they are basically US locomotives, being based on the USRA designs the Russians gave the Chinese after the Communist takeover in 1949. So bringing Chinese QJ's to America and just storing them until problems like liability and where to run them can be solved would be somewhat like bringing home American orphans stranded abroad. I have no idea what the cost of purchase and shipping would be, but the locomotives shouldn't be worth more than their scrap value as they go out of service which should be affordable to American groups despite the fact that scrap is relatively expensive in China today. So the practical problem becomes how to set up a group of Americans willing to put up some money to bring back to America a part of our heritage that they we thoughtlessly threw away in the 50's. Anybody have any ideas on how to go about doing this?

[Anonymous]

To quote the Baron von Trapp from the 1960's movie Sound of Music; "Your idea sounds very nice, but it also rings as very expensive." -----But you're right about more than one thing, it would be great to have several of those steamers preserved in China. The old girls would be instrumental in the development of a real tourist industry and encouranging national pride. With this the economic benefits of foreign currency inflows, profits, better living conditions and international understanding, that flow from those sorts of things could be most helpfull in how the people of china get along with each other and not putting to light a point on the matter, us . The final thing would be that they would be excellent teaching tools on the types of machines that made the industrial revolution possible. No history teacher could find a teaching aid with quite the presence of one of those things. Just a few thoughts I thought i might share along the way. PL

[Anonymous]

If you were able to get the QJ locomotives to the US you would not be able to fire them. Chinese steamers do not meet ASME codes for fired pressure vessels. The few steam locomotives that were constructed for export to the US required years of design negotiations, welder certifications, and inspections before the US fired pressure vessel stamps were issued. To expect the boards to certify a used, non compliant boiler, for operation in close proximity to the public is very unrealistic.