Rob,
The last time I saw it (about two years ago), it was stored inside,
but little if anything has been done to it since it arrived from it's
former location in an Aurora, IL park. When it left the park, it was
in very poor condition. As I recall, the boiler was pretty well
stripped of most details except the major fittings such as domes and
stack. The boiler face may have also been off.
There is an IRM Yahoo groups which may be able to supply more current
information. Like all IRM equipment, each piece needs to have a
"champion" and necessary funding (donations) in order to be located
in the museum or to be restored. Many pieces await such champions. It
seems a strange way to run an organization, but that is the way they
have done it for years; and for those pieces that have been restored,
it has worked very well. It is a labor of love and a very slow
process. Some equipment never gets restored and a few, (mostly wood
freight cars) have deteriorated so much that the only recourse is to
scrap the piece. Fortunately, not many pieces have gone that route.
To it's credit, the museum has built many storage buildings and has
tried to get as many pieces under cover as possible. They have also
surveyed their fleet to determine those in most need and have made
major efforts to stabilize those pieces in serious condition that can
not be placed under cover. By museum rules, for a piece of equipment
to be placed under cover when space is available, money has to be
raised to "buy" a piece of track for it to rest on. Once purchased,
the piece stays under cover, but additional funds need to be in place
specifically for that piece in order for it to be considered for
restoration. Then, manpower and interest have to be available for
work to proceed. For steam locomotives, that work is slow. Diesels
seem to be easiest to restore, (they just completed a multiple year
restoration of a Q diesel switcher). Trollies are the next easiest
to restore, then steam locomotives. Keep in mind that once restored,
diesels and trollies are much easier to keep in working order than is
steam. Some steam may only be cosmetically restored because they
don't lend themselves to operation on the museum railroad. The N&W
2-8-8-2 or even the Q hudson are good examples.
The three Q steam locomotives at the museum, (637, 2-8-2 #4963 and
hudson #3007) are thankfully all under cover. However, all three are
pretty much in an "as received" state last time I saw them. None of
them look very good, they are not in good positions for photos and
they are not complete as they stand. Many other steam locomotives are
the same way. The museum tends to run smaller locomotives (the Frisco
2-10-0 is the largest run so far). There has been no steam operation
for the last two years because no locomotive is serviceable. They
have been working on a U. P. 2-8-0 for some time and, I believe, it
is nearing completion and may be the next locomotive to operate.
If someone has several million dollars that they would like to donate
or designate for specific projects, they museum could sure use it. If
I ever won lotto, that is what I would do with some of the money!
BTW, in recent years, the museum has been dealing with a new problem.
Their once remote site is not remote anymore. The public is
encroaching and more government (county) oversight is occurring.
Sorry for the long post. You may know all of this already, but I
simply wanted to let you know why the 637 is not in pristine condition.
Bill Barber
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