steamer69 wrote:Cosmo wrote:steamer69 wrote:Why all the doom and gloom Pete? Really? Send it back to Wolfboro? There's no museum there either! Now you're just being combative. OH MY GOSH!!!!! WE CAN'T WELD A COUPLE OF PIPES!!!!! MAY AS WELL JUST CUT IT UP!!!!!
WWDCD........
Ok, right. We'll just... weld it all back up again. SURE! Noooooooooooooooo proooobllem!
Ya got the tools? You got the shop? You got ANYTHING to work on it with?
Oh HELL! YOU don't even have the ENGINE! Someone ELSE does!
Oh, hey, here's a thought! We'll just get Pete Bouley to come and fix up that boiler for ya! I'm sure HE can do it... CHEAP!
As a matter of fact smart a$$ I do have the tools to do it. You don't know who you're talking to. I have shop space....there is an engine sitting on the pit getting worked on as I write this. I have all the tools I need to do anything to that engine,
That's awesome. You still don't have #250, so what's your point? The "ya" I was referring to in the instance importante was our young Cullen. HE does not have all that groovy stuff you have. If you want, why don't you take HIM up there and teach him a thing or two at your shop on the engine you DO have?
steamer69 wrote: and I don't need some quack boiler guy like Bouley to come and do it for me. You wana talk about people who just cut stuff up not knowing their butt from a hole in the wall....here's your sign. Cutting the delivery pipes sounds like something that has Bouley or his cronies all over it.
I assure you I meant it purely in jest. I wouldn't let Bouley touch the heater in my house with a vaccum cleaner.
steamer69 wrote: I got welders, the lathes, milling machines....a whole shop.
Again,... awesome.
Again, YOU got all that stuff, but Cullen does not. SO, take him up to your place and teach HIM. Let him use YOUR tools to learn stuff. And give him a better project to tart with than WRR 250.
steamer69 wrote: You act as if the steam world revolves around the sun that is the Valley Railroad. I'll tell you what Pete....for a know nothing trainee you shure do talk a good game. The steam world does not begin, nor does it end at the shops in Essex CT.
Wrong. I use them as an example of a SUCCESSFUL steam operation. And I use JDC as a source of reference because he knows more about he business than you do, Brett. He was scraping muck off the frames of locomotives as a volunteer when you were in kindergarten.
steamer69 wrote: You doom and gloom wana be foaming tards can't get out of your own way long enough to see that the steam world in New England is dying a slow death because you harp this crap to death.
"Nooow you're getting naaaastyyyyyy...." -Indianna Jones
Ok, so... if we're all just sitting on our butts not caring and allowing steam to die off in New England, how come 3025 is RUNNING? How come Monson 4 is RUNNING? Why is Monson #3 being worked on?? Why the heck is BOOTHBAY still in business? And I don't just mean running teakettles in a circle, I mean boiler-making business?
I'll tell you why, because we're not throwing hundreds of thousands into engines that ate beyond help, were working on engines that CAN be saved. If we cant find a good enough candidate inside New England, we go OUTSIDE to find one that IS worth running. Some engines are beyond the scope of an operation, even like the Valley, of being worthwhile to repair. Those engines are best stuffed and mounted so that engines that CAN be saved DO get saved!
steamer69 wrote: Well...I got news for ya. You can weld the delivery pipes back on. They weld boilers, so how you gona sit there and tell me that they can't weld the stinking dry pipe! I've been part of welding them back together!!!! The crown sheet is not the death of the boiler or the locomotive. Judas Priest you just pop the stay bolts, cut the old sheet out and weld (yes you can weld on a boiler) in the new one.
I'm not. I'm telling you that 250 is not worth the effort. I do not in any way shape or form mean to belittle the efforts of you guys up there at Passumpsic, but you're not under FRA up there. You guys have the right idea working on a shay that has been in operation and hasn't had things welded together that shouldn't be, as well as things (not just the dry pipe) cut that shouldn't be. I know of one locomotive in particular that, despite the best intentions of a certain volunteer group, will probably never see service again because of WHAT and WHERE was cut and/or welded on it. It's boiler COULD be fixed, yes, but after that, then what?
steamer69 wrote: Not one thing you have said tells me that the wrapper, sides, mud ring, thoat, tounge, 1st 2nd and 3rd courses are bad.
And noting you have told me has made me belive that they're NOT. YOu don't know and you wont't until the thing is strippped down and exaamined, on that we agree. But then what? YOu fixx the boiler, then what?
steamer69 wrote: Re-doing running gear is not the end of the world. You saw this stuff being done to the 3025 in Essex, yet it can't be done. HELLO.....deet di deet deet da deet.....News Flash....That locomotive was burned up in a house fire and was rebuilt....even though it was a basket case!!!!
BIG world of difference between 3025 and 250. BIG! I'm talking STAR TREK big!
3025 had been running less than 10 yrs before we got it. She was mechanically sound when we got her. Most of the damage was cosmetic. The cab needed rebuilt, but the ultrasound proved out what we already knew from the get-go, that the boiler was SOUND to begin with! Why? because the Chinese OVERBUILD!
JDC was THERE in China when it was built, he helped writhe the SPECS for the thing before it came over!
But here then is the crux of the matter... the man that made 3025 run again was someone with years more experience in the field than you, me and Cullen combined. Oh, but don't just take my word for it, there are plenty other people besides JDC who say 250 is a lost cause. They're all working on engines that CAN be made to run again or they're cosmetically preserving those that cant. Why? Because they actually have ACCESS to those engines!
I'll wager Priscoli wouldn't let anyone near 250 with tool that doesn't work for him directly, why? "Da-da-da-DUPM-da-daaaaaaaaa...." INSURANCE! You get hurt on 250 it's his butt!
SO, pry it from his fingers first,.. then talk.
Were you or your buddy Cullen there at the Baldwin shop when 250 was built? No,.. didn't think so, neither was I.
steamer69 wrote:( Rebuilding engines is not that hard to do. )
Yes, it IS! It's HARD, dirty, frustrating, back-breaing, knuckle busting WORK.
And you, Brett, of ll people should KNOW this!
If it wasn't, EVERYBODY would be doing it.. but they're NOT. You gotta really know what you're doing... and Cullen DOESN'T.
steamer69 wrote: Yes, it takes money. Yes, it takes time. Yes, it takes people....but it is not the earth shattering, universe ending remonstrance it's being made out to be.
You left out sweat, skin, blood... a large portion of your SOUL... you left out KNOWLEDGE and CERTIFICATION...
My point is there are other engines besides 250 that can be worked on that CAN run again. You just have to LOOK! There are enginss being worked on now! But they're in better shape to start with than 250.
steamer69 wrote:
WWDCD?
how about WWJDC do? (Because we alredy know he wouldn't start with 250)
Me, I'd find a place that already has an engine running.. OH, like YOU did at Passumpsic,... and I'd work there for a while before I jumped up and said "I'm gonna make that engine RUN."
And I wouldn't go around telling kids "OH, fixing an engine is EASY," either! Because it's NOT.
It's hard, dirty, frustrating work, and it takes OODLES of cash!
But in the end it is worth it. You just need to pick a winner before you start.