New J3a?

Smaller and simpler, so probably cheaper to build AND capable of a broader range of excursion duties (the long wheelbase of the T1 would, I think, limit it!). So… building a J1 makes more sense than building a T1.
BUT… There's only so much rail-entusiasm and rail enthusiast money around. Try to get too many projects started and none of them will succeed. One of the most impressive things about Tornado is that the British rail enthusiast community was able to come to an agreement and unite behind ONE project until it came to fruition.

Forget about both of these, they will not happen, not enough people with enough money and there are already a number of steam engines around without a home (a place to run), we do not need more at a huge cost.
Noel Weaver

At the 1939 World's Fair there was a PRR S1 (?), in steam and stationary, operating on rollers which allowed the drivers to turn at the equivalent of a slow speed. I think that's about all that would be possible with a new T1. As pointed out above, where would they run it, where would they turn it, and what would it pull? A J3 wouldn't fare much better. (Now if they could figure out how to tie it in with a restored Maine Central Mountain Division .....)

After reading that stuff, I am even more skeptical than I was. I still don't think it will happen, it just is not practical. Especially a PRR T-1 which would be very limited in where it could go. They were not what could be considered a really successful locomotive in the first place. They weren't much good east of Pittsburgh. No major freight railroad management in their right mind would operate or allow an engine of this nature to tie up their main line for a day just so a bunch of folks could get their steam train ride. There are a number of other designs of bygone eras that would be much more worthy of a project of this nature but even those would be basically a gross waste of money. Anybody with any amount of practical common sense is not going to get involved with something like this. How many reasonable restorable steam engines today are just sitting somewhere simply because there is no place to run them?
Noel Weaver

Another point to consider is that permission to operate on a Class I (and where else would you want to run a T1?) would have to come from the CEO personally; therefore, all it would take is a change in CEO to deep-six the permission on very short notice. There's an example of that in living memory.

Gee whiz! The FAQ page from the T1 people (linked by AMTK822401 three posts up) READS as if they were serious!

One item on it (#14, I think) is of interest to locomotive history buffs, even if they think that the project is total pie in the sky: a discussion of the notorious T1 wheelslip issues. Sounda as if they were partly due to a gross (but apparently correctible) design error: lousy equalization arrangements! (Now, if the combined engineering talents of BLW and the PRR were capable of mucking that up in designing the T1… what does that say about the state of steam locomotive design engineering at the end of the depression?)

Noel Weaver wrote:Forget about both of these, they will not happen, not enough people with enough money and there are already a number of steam engines around without a home (a place to run), we do not need more at a huge cost.
Noel Weaver

Agree. Rescue one of the NYC Mohawks currently on display, and maybe we'll talk.

-otto-

One of the reasons given, on the T1 group's web page, for building a T1 rather than some other new steam locomotive, is that it would be a poppet valve engine, and no American poppet-valve steam locomotives have been preserved. A New York Central fan would perhaps suggest instead a J4b:
http://www.railarchive.net/nyccollection/nyc_5490.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(O.k., that was sort of a joke. I'm not sure I want to treat this idea as entirely a joke. I tend to agree with Otto and Noel that it is very unlikely that this project will come to fruition, but… The people behind it seem to be serious, and I'd love it if their fund-raising efforts proved Otto and Noel and me wrong!)

A. I think it is a waste of money and time as well.
B. I would rather see their energies directed toward an existing historic steam locomotive a few of which are in reasonably decent shape and could be restored.
C. I doubt if any major railroad would touch this thing with a ten foot poll. Even a short line might have better irons in the fire than something like this. There are already a bunch of fairly decent locomotives that could be restored to operation at much less cost, pull a bigger train over grades and have much more favorable clearances.
D. A PRR T-1 would be very limited in where it could operate and even more so what it could pull.
Noel Weaver

For what it's worth, someone who would like to build a NYC Hudson has at least got as far as putting up a web site:
http://hudsonrevivalproject.webs.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(I've only glanced at it: it doesn't look quite as professional as the T1 website. … May I repeat what I said earlier? One of the triumphs of the British "Tornado" project was that it got a large number of British rail enthusiasts to back ONE project. Railfans, I fear, are not in general good at compromise and cooperation: the existence of multiple build-a-new-steam-locomotive projects makes it (even) less likely that any of them will get enough support to succeed.)

And Railtrack appears to be far more hospitable to steam excursions.

AMTK822401 wrote:Since the T1 trust recently met with the FRA, does anyone have their hopes up for a possible J3a trust?

As the kids say: ROFL

-otto-

I'd love it if one of these projects came to fruition, but I think it is a very VERY long shot. I'm not going to roll on the floor laughing, but I'm also not going to take them seriously until they've raised their first million dollars (out of the maybe 10 million or more needed): until then it's just fantasy. But an attractive fantasy!

Division of (fundraising and organizational) energy into several projects is, it seems to me, an almost foolproof way of guaranteeing that they will all STAY fantasy. I don't think there is a good central organization of railroad enthusiasts in the U.S. to do this, but it seems to me that IF any project of recreating an "extinct" North American steam locomotive is to have any chance, the first step would be to get an agreement on WHICH one to try for. Perhaps the NRHS could poll its members and announce the results of the poll? Or one of the big railway enthusiast magazines could (i) run a detailed article on the Tornado project to raise interest and (ii) ask its readers to write (e-mail?) in with their ides and preferences. If, probably after several steps, a consensus emerged to concentrate on ONE locomotive type, then organization and fundraising might get started on a realistic basis.

((But: why does it have to be a steamer? I think that one of the great, tragic, missed opportunities of American railroad preservation is that none of Bush Terminal's GE-IR hood units was saved! (Grin!) ))

With ATSF 2926 about 2 years(+-) away from running,NS is reviving NW 611,and UP starting the restoration of Big Boy 4014,
any real chance of creating a J3a from scratch is pretty much shot,the same could be said for PRR T-1 bid.