Rebuilding Steam

Anyone who likes trains knows that at one point in history, the steam locomotive ruled the country. But in the late 1940s, the diesel locomotive started to dominate the transportation empire, and the steam locomotives were scrapped or left to rust. There were certain types of locomotives like the NYC Hudson that were all torched, not a single NYC Hudson survives today. But anyway, if you look in the February 2009 edition of TRAINS magazine, you will see an artical about a resurrected UK steam locomotive. Its true! A trust foundation in the United Kingdom rebuilt a dead steam locomotive! They started in 1990, and finished in 2008. There is now an A1 4-6-2 steamer running once again. It took 18 years and $6 million dollars, but they rebuilt a lost locomotive! Now on page three of the artical, you will se a bit on if we were to re-build a steam locomotive, which would it be? The Union Pacific ‘Big Boy’ came in first, altough I don’t think that’s quite fair. Don’t get me wrong, it would be amazing to see a locomotive that huge to operate! But the A1 pacific was a dead engine, there were none of them left. They didn’t just put an existing locomotive in operating condition, they started completly from scratch. That’s what I think we should do! I was disappointed to see that the Pennsylvania T1 duplex came in second-to-last (sorry to be grouchy, the T1 is one of my favorites), I would love to be able to see one of the 1930s streamliners in action! So I’m going to start my own polls, send in comments and let me know which locomotive you would like to see re-built. I’ll be back with the results!

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