That now begs on the question, what bean counters *do* know the historical value of anything? More importantly, would they ever let that historical value override their monetary value of an item?

Well, it looks like the Silver Dollar folks have put some money into the Stone Mountain Railroad....

From a recent picture in the Atlanta paper, it looks like one of the other diesels (GP7 or GP9) has been overhauled and is now on the line sporting a new paint job. Earlier in this thread, I posted a picture of #6661...now, #2184 is the main motive power.

If only they had put some of that money into fixing up one of the steamers...

I was thinking the *exact* same thing.

I think the 2-6-2 Prarie is their best bet because from what I have heard about the boiler being in the best shapes of the bunch and viewing of the running gear, the 2-6-2 looks most restorable to service, they should raise funds to bring that 2-6-2 back to life and resume the steam excursions for good. After fixing up the 2-6-2, the 4-4-0s should hit the restoration shops. Too bad the restoration of their beautiful steam engines is just a dream.

Looks can be deceiving. The running gear is completely shot on the 2-6-2. I hear that it came completely unglued one day back in the 80's. The boiler is probably in RELATIVELY (to the other SMRR engines) good shape, but no boiler that has been idle for that long or had that many years of service with minimal maintenance is going to be properly restored and certified without spending a hefty sum. I would imagine that if Silver Dollar ever does do anything steam related out there, it will be with an engine they bring in from somewhere else...easier to write it off as a capital improvement that way!

5 or so years ago...I heard a rumor that Silver Dollar was looking to purchase a steam loco for the park as the ones on property would deemed to cost too much to overhaul.

I also heard that they had a problem finding an affordable steamer for standard guage - which the park is. Had they been looking for narrow gage, there were a variety of operating, steam locos to choose from at that time.

Another issue management has...the grades around the mountain are pretty steep. So, they need a pretty stout steamer to pull the coaches.

Again...most of this is hearsay - I am not sure how accurate the rumors are/were.

Apparently, Stone Mountain Railroad has refurbished the Southern Railway FP7 they have on property. You can see a picture of it on the park's website for their Christmas train: http://www.stonemountainpark.com/attractions-shows/attraction-detail.aspx?AttractionID=54

Wow, they sure *love* their diseasels there, don't they?

Yeah...as I have said before, I wish they would put that money into refurbishing one of their steamers - but I guess that will continue to be just a dream of mine!

They haven't refurbished anything from a mechanical standpoint. The FP7's both need wheels and the one that they're running is plagued with loading problems. When the New Georgia was running the F's, they used Delo 400 motor oil, which has a high zinc content and is not supposed to used in EMDs (it eats the chrome in the bearings). Stone Mountain has not learned from this mistake, and ever since Kevin left they've been using the wrong oil. I suppose they're too cheap to use the oil that's formulated for EMDs. The F unit runs sporadically, when it's not running they use the GP7 or GP9. One of the Geeps has a burnt up electrical cabinet at the moment, though.