Steam on NS

[NW Mailing List]

My understanding is that she was pretty well worn out overall. 
Specifically, I know the cylinders are not correctly in line with the 
frame (kind of stuck with that, since it's a solid casting), but that 
can be dealt with once you know about it.  She also has a number of 
leaky flues and bad stay bolts.  I've been told that every time a crew 
member checked them, they'd find more bad ones.  Apparently 1218 had a 
habit (at least during the NS steam program days) of breaking stay bolts 
- don't know if that was always the case or not.

I got the impression that her problems weren't anything that couldn't be 
fixed, but they would require massive time and capital, neither of which 
NS was willing to invest in something that would never return a penny in 
revenue, let alone profit.  Certainly other engines have been 
resurrected from worse condition (look at some of the Southern engines 
recently rebuilt or under construction), but they're usually a labor of 
love and have the benefit of a wealthy foundation to support them. How 
many of us are willing to give up every spare evening, weekend, and 
dollar for the foreseeable future in order to see 1218 in steam again? 
It will take a lot of us...

NW Mailing List wrote:

> Does anyone know exactly what problems 1218 had when she was last used 

> in 1991?

-- 
Kenneth Rickman - krickman1 at carolina.rr.com
Salisbury, NC