Trainlover479 wrote:Well i have to admit, that it is people like you that surely just keep bringing our hopes down, but i will never loose my determination. I know that edaville is struggling to survive, and that john love money, for the right price it can be purchased and moved out of there.
And move it WHERE?
And do WHAT with it, and with what MONEY? On WHO'S TRACKS? Killing your hope? I'm just trying to get you back down to EARTH guy, cuz right now you're so far out you're in ORBIT!
(Hence.. the Star Trek refs.)
Do you have ANY idea what a new boiler for that thing would cost? And like I pointed out, there are other problems besides the boiler that would preclude it's use for hauling the public around behind it. Things that were
cut. Things that were welded. Things that don't grow on trees! Things that are no longer carried in stock by a dozen or so locomotive manufacturers!
Ok, ok... would
I like to see it run? SURE! But things were done to that engine already that would make it's return to steam a NIGHTMARE!
Do I wish that those things done to it were NOT done? OF COURSE!
But now that that kind of damage is already done to it, I would MUCH rather see it displayed in a place and in such a way that kids can have fun playing SAFELY on it rather than having it sit in pieces in some guy's backyard rusting away because a restoration was started and never finished because said guy ran out of money because they had no CLUE what kind of quagmire they were getting into with it.
That sort of thing has happened in the past. It's a "nobody wins" situation, and I do NOT wish that upon 250 or any other locomotive.
Now, if the thing was straight off the Wolfeboro with only the damage, wear and tear that it got from being run there, that would be a MUCH different situation. Then I would be ALL about, at the very least, preserving the engine in such a way that a future restoration COULD be done sometime.
Now, all that being said, here's what it boils down to...
COULD a new boiler be made? Yes. COULD all the damaged parts be either fixed, replaced or re fabricated from scratch? YES!
Is there any railroad in New England currently operating that would even CONSIDER
that particular locomotive worth the expense based on what it would cost to fix vs the potential capacity to pay for itself over time?
No.
Is there any way a fledgling operation (like, say, the DESR, just for example,) with a few cars and a diesel could feasibly make it financially worthwhile to restore 250 for operation and make it pay off?
I do not know of any.
B&ML tried to do something like that with their engine from Sweden, which didn't have HALF the problems that 250 now has, and couldn't make it work, for whatever reasons. Basically, time ran out on the Swedish engine and they were either unable or unwilling to go on without it. So, if nothing else, that proves that whoever or whatever operation should ever try to undertake such a thing today should have "a pile of $$" already on hand before attempting such an operation AND not be solely dependent on the steamer to provide them the revenue.
So,...
unless you are an operator who already has a successful and financially stable operation going with income well and above mere operating capitol to spare in expending upon a project that will, no DOUBT run the operator into the THOUSANDS, if not HUNDRED-OR-MORE THOUSAND,...
...not to mention a SHOP geared for steam...
...and people on hand who are able to fabricate the necessary parts to keep a locomotive like that going, (because nobody makes them anymore,)...
...OH, AND insurance, AND operating capitol for a steam operation, AND an EPA approved coal storage facility, AND an EPA approved pit to park it over, AND an EPA approved ash-disposal site....
...
...
...are you beginning to get the picture?
