If you are going to be traveling in Roanoke tomorrow, be aware of possible traffic obstructions. N&W M2 1151 will be traveling by truck across town from Virginia Scrap Iron & Metal to an NS siding adjacent to the Virginia Museum of Transportation. It will be travelling in 2 sections, the boiler & frame will be separated. 1134 will begin it's trip to the Railroad Museum of Virginia in Portsmouth on Monday. This Saturday at our (Roanoke Chapter NRHS) 9th St. facility, we will be installing a temporary track panel to hold 1134's running gear. 1134's boiler will go by truck to North Fork Inc.'s shop in Goshen Va. for cosmetic restoration. The running gear will receive painting and other work at 9th St. and be transferred to a flatcar for shipment to Portsmouth in the spring of next year.
The most exciting piece of news about the "Lost Engines" is that 1118 will be remaining in Roanoke. At our regular meeting tonight, our membership unanimously approved a proposal from Will Harris of North Fork Inc. to trade N&W 1118 to the Roanoke Chapter NRHS in exchange for our 0-6-0 switcher, ex-E. J. Lavino Co. # 34. This is a win-win situation for everyone, as Will is getting a locomotive that is more appropriate to his personal collection, and we are getting a locomotive that is more within our focus of concentrating on the preservation of former N&W and Virginian Ry. equipment. (keep those "Surviving Tender" posts coming, we will be in the market for one soon.....fund raising pleas to follow:)....)
Regarding the ex-Chesapeake Western Baldwin diesels, there is a proposal in the works regarding exchanging restoration work on VMT's #662 for the preservation of "orphan" #663. I will post further info if the deal is approved by all parties involved. North Fork Inc. is retaining the N&W flatcar. Right now, it is looking like everything left in the scrapyard will be preserved, and hopefully within 2 years, three pieces will be cosmetically restored.
We are planning on hosting an open house at 9th St. on September 26th. At that time 1118 and 1134's chassis will be there, and hopefully both diesels. It will be the great opportunity to view part of the "VaSI&M Collection". As with the recent N&WHS Convention, we will be having free rides on the "Southeast Roanoke not so Scenic RR" with our N&W diesels.
The true hero in the "Lost Engines" saga is Will Harris of North Fork Inc. Most people in the preservation community have never heard of him, but he has saved a great deal of historic equipment at his own expense, and found good new homes for much of it. Will has been instrumental in saving equipment that is now at the Crewe Railroad Museum, VMT, the West Virginia RR Museum, Altoona, and several private collections. Without Will's perseverance and deal-making ability, the "Lost Engines" would probably have ended up as razor blades.

Regards,

Looking at photos of the engines, I see that most appliances and fittings were removed. Haved they been set aside or are they all lost?

Joe, What you see is what you get. According to our best info, (we take most things with a hopper car load of salt.....) 1151 was in the middle of an overhaul by the railroad when she was retired, so she went to the scrapyard already stripped. The fact that she has no flues seems to support this. 1118 is pretty complete except for appliances and the obvious tender, we are hoping to play scavenger on other group's scrap piles.

That is excellent news! Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to get down to Roanoke to see it for myself, so if anybody gets pics of the engines being moved from the yard, please send them to me so I can update the Lost Engines website.

Does anyone have (or know of) any photos of these engines in service?

The second and third pictures on the Lost Engines History page (http://lostengines.railfan.net/history.shtml) show 1118 in service in the 30's, but so far I haven't come across any photos of 1134, 1151, or 917 in service.

There is a good picture and write up on the way things stand in Roanoake the new issue of Railfan and Railroad.

In fact there is a lot of steam in the issue with coverage of the recent steam event in Wisconsin.

There are the best pictures I have seen yet of the new standard gauge 4-4-0 steam locomotive replica. You have to see those red driving wheels!

Ted Miles

This video came through on my rss feed showing 1151 being moved.

http://www.wdbj7.com/Global/story.asp?S=10971530

I stopped by VMT after I got home from work this evening. 1151 is now back in one piece. Bev Fitzpatrick was beaming like a new daddy. I talked to Will Harris for a few minutes. Things went very smoothly, no problems were encountered. His only concern was that the weight of the running gear "half" was right at the limit of the tires on his trailer, but they held fine. Tomorrow we will be preparing things at 9th St. for the arrival of 1134's "bottom" on Monday and 1118 later in the week. Will is hoping that everything will be out of the scrapyard within 3 weeks.

PS (and thanks) to Jason Sobcynzski, the weight calculations were dead on, within 5000 lbs.


Regards,

Gary,

Is the actual weight of the two sections available?

Dave, Send me your regular email address and I'll forward what I have. I'll try to get more actual weights as the moving continues

Link to newspaper article on 1151;

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/216268

Interestingly enough, thanks to this story we had 3 possible new members show up at 9th St today.

Link to some photos on the web;

http://wizzy.rrpicturearchives.net/arch ... x?id=47992

We finished the panel track for 1134 about 4 pm. Some of the logistics may be changing, but 1134 is still scheduled to move on Monday, and 1118 probably on Tuesday. The 9th St yard is going to get rather crowded very soon.

Regards,

The last 3 days have been very busy. On Sunday, we worked at the scrapyard for several hours. We removed the waist sheet bolts and a considerable amount of piping from 1118 and moved a number of smaller parts from 1118 to 9th St. We then did some switching to clear our #3 track for the incoming equipment. 1134 moved yesterday, and is still in 2 pieces, with the running gear on the new panel track and the boiler just ahead of it on cribbing. At 7:30 pm tonight, 1118's boiler was dropped back into place on it's frame at the east end of our track # 3. Some of the waist sheet bolts were replaced and the smokebox and cab supports were tack welded back into place. 1118 was moved without any rotation of the wheels and rods. Preliminary inspection of the driver boxes (by Mk 1 fingers) showed that the axles seem to be very smooth, considering the 59 years spent in the scrapyard.
North Fork Inc. will start working on the tender moves tomorrow. If they continue at their current pace, the scrapyard will be empty by this time next week. In the four weeks since our trade with Will Harris on 1118 has come together, I have been greatly impressed by the abilities of Will and his crew. These people don't just talk about stuff. They get it done. North Fork Inc.'s motto should truly be "If there's Will, there's a way".
Because of the time constraints imposed by the Railway Museum of Virginia, whose purchase of 1134 is financing the move, North Fork's crew (which now includes several of our people on a part time basis) will also start working on 1134 tomorrow. This work will include surveying 1134's condition and testing of different rust removal methods on certain areas. Although there are several areas where severe corrosion is an issue, all in all the locomotives seem to be in much better condition than could be expected. The current plan is for 1134 to be shipped by flatcar to Portsmouth early next year.
Wizzy Strom has been documenting the movement process since 1151's move on Friday. As soon as she has the next batch of photos up on the net, I'll post the links.

Regards,

There was an antique dealer the scrap yard owners said they could run around and pick up pieces. I believe they picked up one of the side rods to these engines.

I believe I have contact links but I'll search them later
Be sure to scrounge around areas around the engines for misc metals etc which probably belong on the engines.

most appliances which whomever could grab are removed, restoration means finding or duplicating those appliances. There are resources out there that can deal with that, perhaps build new components to replace missing parts.

There is a company building new steamers for tourist operations, small engines easily worked and managed for a small tourist outfit, they could easily be checked on for new parts customization.

I have no clue if any of the organizations desire to bring the engines to full steam, I have always said if you have the want and werewithall thats always possible. Me having worked with NKP 765 theres always the chance of it.

But know this, 765 was virtually taken apart and put back together in its initial restoration, well, never separated the boiler from the chassis.

Moving the scrap yard engines is a huge undergoing and doing it right was so crucial. Kudos to Will Harris.

Its not a problem if 1151 was undergoing rebuild when retired with superheaters/flues removed because you can put new in, if you desire to go further on that engine.

Any serious rebuild you will pull superheaters and flues out for checks rebuild or replace.
If 1151 is done anything for it you have a head start because those items are already pulled.


-edit-
found info on the salvage company who picked up things.

blackdogsalvage.com
540-343-6200

call them and check on items they picked up.

Once the cylinder heads are opened, it'll be interesting to see if they remained oil coated after all this time. I visited the locomotives back in 2001, and while stripped and rusted, they were hardly beyond salvation. As I said before, I've seen park locomotives in worse condition. Might I assume that lubing the axles and running gear so they move freely will be a priority? Pretty fine reclamation thus far!