has the Orange Empire Railroad museum ever fired up the Chloe? It would be nice to see her running. What exactly is wrong with the Emma Nevada? all i heard is she has boiler problems. I want to see Emma run!

From what I'm told, they both have riveted lap-seam boilers that are in really rough shape - they don't even want to try putting them under pressure, period. (Boilers going BOOM!! is really bad for community relations...) And I think they mentioned riveted lap-seam air receivers on the brake system, too.

Anyone wants to donate the OERM a couple of new ASME welded boilers and brake air tanks with fake riveted skins, I'm sure that would be appreciated. The rest of both engines (the frames, hardware, cylinders, trucks, lagging, stacks, lights, etc.) are supposed to be in pretty good shape.

I agree that just because it's in a Museum doesn't mean it should just sit there - they are moving works of art, and for that they need to be operable and moving...

You get them fully operable with new boilers and pieces as necessary, and you keep the original boiler & other retired parts for reference & research and/or turn them into a cutaway "How it Works" static display. (When ordering replacement pieces, you have the worn/broken original parts on hand as reference & pattern making.)

--<< Bruce >>--

I have a friend that works there. He said that if they could legally run the Chloe with no air brakes they would, but the FRA wont let them. As for the Emma, they are in the process of restoring her. I think in 4-6 years she may see a fire again. I know they have been working on the trucks and brakes on the tender, idk what the next step is.

Thats good at least they are reastoring the Emma back up and running. I bet good old Ward is smiling down on us waiting for the day he see's his bride and joy come back to life. How is the restoration going on the Emma.