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Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New England

Moderators: MEC407, NHN503

 #77450  by henry6
 
...that, although I always recognized the signifance of the streamlining of Flying Yankee and its importance in NE railroading, it has the origonal Winton engine, thus being a sole surviving Winton rail diesel! Very important.

 #85366  by b&m 1566
 
That new website is a lot better than the old one they had. There's more options with the new site (things you can look at and read). The old one (you would be lucky if it was updated ever 6 months), This one here may not be updated every week but it tells you what they are CURRENTLY doing, which the old one never really covered. It would just say what they had done. Boy I can not wait till the day the Flying Yankee is moved to the Hobo Railroad. I just hope they give us a few weeks notice because I plain to be there or with in the driving route when the move takes place. Though the website does not say when I over heard someone say that it wont happend till the winter has passed, but they do want it to happen ASAP (early spring maybe :wink: ).

 #86004  by b&m 1566
 
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20050 ... 327579.jpg

Here's a picture inside the restored "B" car of the Flying Yankee. The interior is being restored back to it's original look when it came out of the shop back in the 1930's.

 #97963  by b&m 1566
 
It's a sad day for the Flying Yankee :( On there website is said that the Winton 201A engine will not be restored because of the coast to restore it and the fact that its a 70+ year old engine that doesn't meet today's standards and could become a safety concern. Instead the Flying Yankee is going to be fitted with a new state of the art modern engine and tracking system that will be more reliable and a lot safer. However not all is lost.
the text below is only part of what was mentioned on the website.

The Winton Engine: As those of you who attended the Amherst Railway Society’s Railroad Hobby Show in Springfield, MA know, an official decision has been made to remove and replace the Winton 201A and the General Electric Generator in the Flying Yankee with a state-of-the-art traction system – including new traction motors and a new compressor. After reviewing the data from the recently completed detailed evaluation of the Flying Yankee, it became very apparent that the cost to completely rebuild the Winton 201A and bring it to a point where it might operate safely and reliably would be extremely cost-prohibitive. Combine the very high rebuild costs with the unknown reliability factor of a 70+ year old 2-stroke diesel engine, and it made sense to make the decision to remove and replace the Winton 201A with a more modern, off-the-shelf unit. Without question, most folks, including the Flying Yankee Restoration Group and the NH Dept. of Transportation, would like to see the Winton 201A rebuilt and installed in the Flying Yankee at some point, especially since it’s such a unique engine. However, after the emotional component has been removed and it’s considered from a logical and technical point of view, this change makes excellent fiscal sense for the project.

Given this decision, the Winton 201A and the GE Generator will soon be removed and set aside where they will eventually be reassembled with the traction motors and used as a moving educational display. Since a key component of the Flying Yankee’s mission is education, what better tool to explain the transformation from steam locomotive power to diesel electric power than use of the Winton 201A and the GE Generator. As time goes on and appropriate funds are raised, who knows, maybe these items will be rebuilt so they will operate once again. For now though, these two items along with the traction motors and air compressor will be replaced on the Flying Yankee with something much newer and much more dependable.

To read more click here http://www.flyingyankee.com/press.html#1

 #97986  by Ken W2KB
 
Looks like the practicable solution here. Without a dependable train, there is little potential for ridership. Looking forward to see and riding the finished product!
 #98183  by henry6
 
....a Soul or survivor of WINTON DAYS at EMD who can seek help from EMD or GE corporate? This engine is an important historical engine and all steps should be taken to find a way. Lets just hope....

 #98238  by highrail
 
It would be nice to use the Winton engine, but the exhaustive analysis done by the folks overseeing the restoration showed that it was not practical. If you want to see the flying yankee run at all they had to make some hard choices.

There was excellent info provided at the show in Springfield. I must admit some initial skepticism, but after really taking a look at the info, I think they made the right decision.

Does anyone have a date for the move to Lincoln?

Steve
 #98692  by wolfmom69
 
As one who enjoys and treasures obsolete power plants,I applauded the attempt to restore the Winton engine,but NOT the plan to use this prime mover,in actual service,including what some "idealists" hoped would be on "mainline rails". An analogy; a friend bought an American LaFrance pumper,with their great V-12 engine. Truck and engine 70 years old,but rebuilt. Fine for the occassional "parade",but this guy wanted to use it every weekend on the highway;constant breakdowns,so a later model V-8 Chevy and transmission has replaced the V-12 and the non synchro transmission. A much more reliable unit-and the original V-12 etc. has been kept well stored. His breakdowns did NOT tie up a mainline railroad,and inconvenience a number of passengers. Bud :-)
 #98804  by b&m 1566
 
wolfmom69 wrote:As one who enjoys and treasures obsolete power plants,I applauded the attempt to restore the Winton engine,but NOT the plan to use this prime mover,in actual service,including what some "idealists" hoped would be on "mainline rails". An analogy; a friend bought an American LaFrance pumper,with their great V-12 engine. Truck and engine 70 years old,but rebuilt. Fine for the occassional "parade",but this guy wanted to use it every weekend on the highway;constant breakdowns,so a later model V-8 Chevy and transmission has replaced the V-12 and the non synchro transmission. A much more reliable unit-and the original V-12 etc. has been kept well stored. His breakdowns did NOT tie up a mainline railroad,and inconvenience a number of passengers. Bud :-)
Point well taken. Though it is disappointing, it is reality and... Well this train is being restored for service not just as a display. I just hope that someday they can get the engine fired up just to say they did. A waste of money? maybe but your also starting and engine that change the face of time (railroading anyhow). Yeah the website says that maybe it will be put back in place someday, but with all do respect; I just think it's more for the people that may take it hard knowing the engine that was, will never be anymore. I do tip my hat to those who have been working with the impossible dream. I often heard many people say it would never happen, but it is and the Flying Yankee will ride the rails someday. How often will the Yankee ride? I don't think anyone knows right now or where it will travel to.

 #98891  by mxdata
 
There was a study done more than twenty years ago when the train was still at Edaville, at the request of individuals interested in restoring it to operation. The person who did the study recommended that if the train was to be operated again the 201A should be removed and made into a museum display and the Flying Yankee should be fitted with a new diesel prime mover for propulsion and a second small diesel for limited HEP capability. Both could be accomodated within the weight and space required by the 201A and GE generator. The study was written by an EMD District Engineer and included comments about reliability, the cost and availability of replacement parts, and specific recommendations for suitable replacement equipment. He contributed his own time to doing this and received a great deal of criticism and flak regarding his conclusions from certain individuals who had much different ideas. At the beginning of the present restoration he was contacted about providing technical assistance and declined to do so, in part due to the previous experience but also because he considered the requirement for the restoration of the 201A to be impractical and too costly. Many years later the folks doing the present restoration have arrived at exactly the same conclusion as was recommended in the mid-1980s study.

A famous GM executive (who helped design the engine), when asked about the reliability of the 201A, said:

"I don't recall that we had any problems with the dipstick."

:(

 #103690  by b&m 1566
 
There is a great article on the flying Yankees Website telling a great story about the Flying Yankee that everyone should read. Below is part of that story that to me was the most important part of the story its self.


Paul Giblin, the project consultant, says the group has spent $2.6 million on the restoration so far and needs another $1.5 million to finish the job. This is major money, which is why Paul is careful when asked how soon the Flying Yankee might be running. He hopes to move the train to Lincoln in a few weeks. And after that? “If we get the $1.5 million we can have it running in 24 months.”
To see pictures and the rest of the article click here http://www.flyingyankee.com/press.html#1

So the Flying Yankee will be moving with in the next few weeks everybody better get there cameras ready to take some pictures. Thought nothing has been posted yet one there website on when the move will take place, I've been keeping a close eye on the site as well as NHDOT website as well to see if they have anything posted on the route it will take.
Last edited by b&m 1566 on Fri Mar 04, 2005 11:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

 #103753  by Otto Vondrak
 
Copying and pasting entire articles from other web sites is not allowed. A summary and a link are sufficient.

A sad day that the Winton will be removed? NO- a sad day is the train never running again (but at least that Winton is still in there!!). The important part is getting the train running again, folks. We can figure out how to restore the Winton later.

-otto-

 #103770  by MEC407
 
In my opinion, it was a "sad day" when the FYRG suckered people into donating hundreds of thousands of dollars so they could rebuild the Winton engine.

 #103785  by ThinkNarrow
 
In 20-20 handsight, it is highly likely that too much time and money was spent on the Winton. However, the Winton work was part of the enthusiasm generated for restoring the Flying Yankee, and that enthusiasm is hopefully still there. Another part of the work was many hours of careful craftsmanship doing structural work and both restoring those parts that could be restored and creating new exact-duplicate parts where needed. Comparing the state of the Yankee a few years ago with the state of the Yankee in Claremont now, one cannot fail to be impressed. Seeing the work that the Clarks can do at Lincoln, especially on interiors, one cannot fail to have high hopes for the next phase of this project. Yes, the Winton efforts were probably a misstep, but as someone who donated over a thousand of those dollars, I don't feel "suckered" at all.

-John
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