Steam & Excursion > B&W 759 - 6 of 9 Series

As presented in previous posts, here is the continuing story of the NKP 759 restoration in 1968:

Photo 1 - impressive keep out office sign. However, the stall doors were almost always open.

Photo 2 - myself (on the left) along with Doyle McCormack and Willian Neil (shop volunteers) inspecting/cleaning the firebox

Photo 3 - the "Dynamic Duo" hard at it again! Wes Camp on the left and yours truly to the right.

All photos by Paul Prescott

Respectfully,
Hank Webber
"Scoopdejour"

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Historic photos. Thank you for sharing them.

Kennard Britton
Bedford, TX
 

Just released a DVD of 759 on the N&W's Last Pocahontas in April-May, 1971.
-JH

www.herronrail.video

Doyle had hair?

Posted from Android

Yes, a few strands!

You're welcome! Glad to do it and more yet to come.

Hank -  Many thanks for posting these photos!!  Where have all the years gone??   That brings back some great memories waiting for 759 to come to Lebanon, NJ with my parents and brother!

Ron

I'm glad we had the chance to encourage so many others, over the years, to restore and operate so many additional Main Line, BIG steamers.
Looking back over the past, its hard to comprehend the numbers of folks who've stepped up, restored & operated so many strong locos.

We also owe a debt of gratitude to Bill Withuhn, of the Smithsonian  Institution, for organizing and leading the fight to keep alive steamers --- capable of operating over Main Lines.
( Following the tragic boiler explosion of the Gattysburg RR 1278, Gardners PA. 1995)..

He led the campaign to modernize the FRA Steam Loco 'Rules", improve the safety and preserve opertional, Main Line, steam engines. 
Because of his position, Bill was the only one that could persuade the "Powers That Be", of the right way to preserve these running locos....   Yes, there are newer "operating obstructions”;  but, Steam Loco Safety is NOT one of them.
Thank You, Bill !

Fear and potential embarrassment rule RR managements, in today's world.
Fear of public, fear of Lawyers, RR 'managerial mistakes', and embarrassment of those consequences --
All being subject to public view & ridicule....
As newer managers come along, things are bound to change in the future...


But, for now let's enjoy the "Glory Days", so recently past...

W.

"Now I think I'm going down to the well tonight
And I'm going to drink till I get my fill
And I hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about it
But I probably will...

Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
A little of the glory of, well time slips away
And leaves you with nothing mister but
Boring stories of Glory Days "

With Apologies to Bruce Springsteen...



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 10/05/19 14:21 by wcamp1472.

Thank you, Wes Camp, for your detailed commentary on 759’s rebuild and operation. I’m certainly enjoying it. I enjoy the details and you certainly provide them. For instance, I remember an earlier post where you mentioned that the WM shop forces installed an additional steam/water separator on the left side of 759’s stack for the hot water pump exhaust. I had always wondered where that came from as the NKP only installed the separator on the right side for the compressor exhaust. Please keep up those details. I eat them up!I came home to a draft notice after the Harmon-Niagara Falls trips and Uncle Sam provided me with an all-expense paid,14 month trip to southeast Asia. I successfully managed to miss the entire 1969 Centennial trip but I tried to make up for it when I got home as I rode and chased you guys on many 759 trips.I grew up along NKP’s street running in Erie, PA during steam days with the house about forty yards from the track. I used to take NKP’s #7 at 7AM the 29 miles to Conneaut and spend the day walking around the shops and roundhouse, and sitting on the footbridge over the yard. I then caught the NYC back to Erie about the middle of the afternoon. If I remember right it was late in the summer of ’59 and all steam was dead in Conneaut of course but there was plenty of it sitting around. There were some 39 or 40 700’s in Conneaut at the time. All of the S-3’s were in a dead line at the west end of the yard, including the 779. One of the brakeman who was doing some switching came up to me and said, “hey kid, they are going to save that one,” and he pointed to the 779. The engine had some small tubing running along the left side running board and the cab numerals looked like they had been cleaned so that you could read them. I wonder if that tubing had something to do with some temporary brake or signaling equipment to be used in a dead move.They 755, 759, and 763 were in the roundhouse and I sat there and watched one of the Diesel yard switchers go around and pull several of the 700’s in the roundhouse out to the end of the turntable and push them back in. I found out later that the engines in the roundhouse were “laid up” with the possibility of being fired up while the ones out in the dead lines were “awaiting disposition.” The 759 was the last engine overhauled by Conneaut and came out of shop after a class 3 overhaul on May 14, 1958. I remember it sitting in the easternmost stall of the roundhouse and thinking to myself what a beautiful looking machine it was, resplendent in its brand new paint.​Jim Kreider

it’s rarely that you can point to one locomotive, one —- seminal— event and say that
“this one changed EVERYTHING !!”

This is that occasion...This is that locomotive, and these are members are that team...
It truly was a Team Effort, from the NKP workers ( who became our leaders) & who had worked on 759 in 1958, to the volunteers... .. like Jerry Joe Jacobson, Scott Lindsay, Doyle, and so many others..... we are so lucky to still have folks of that high caliber, by practicing their craft to this day ...

Nationally, the summer of 1968, and years following,  were filled with momentous, life-altering  events,   We labored in a ‘bubble’, isolated from those events... But we watched as those events swirled around us..

All the mainline locomotive restorations that have ensued have been masterfully carried-out, and made our collective hearts proud.

So, take-in these moments relish the trips that have been operated over all the following years..and especially the engines and those folks running them in 2019....

Time sure does fly...

Wes Camp
USAF 1960-64, Great Falls, MT.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/06/19 16:12 by wcamp1472.