damn shame what chessie did to the WM F7 fleet. WM took care of those locos. WM Fs were the last intact fleet of Fs. 1 to the museum and the rest scrapped. CLOWNS! I saw and photoed almost all of them. I even photoed the 7163/73 on their run to baltimore for the "farewell to WM Fs" trip. august 30,1979.
501 certainly has gained more attention now that it’s been repainted. And while the money spent on the repaint could have been used on 1309, I like that they chose to do something that would add some color, and make a locomotive stand out amongst an otherwise all-black diesel fleet.
No steam this year... and maybe never again. The idea to fix a 2nd Steam loco was great! But picking a mechanical oddity that is massively complex and has been sitting out side for 40 years was probably a really really stupid idea that someone should have nixed from the get-go. 734 would have been 1/4 the cost, and would have been done by now. As it stands, now they have the funds to finish neither loco, and may never attain them. The passenger fleet is deteriorating, track work is never ending... It was also "just realized", somehow, that the lead track to the turntable at Frostburg (the bypass track that the engine usually takes) is too sharp for 1309 to negotiate, meaning that the loco would have to back up or down the hill, or that the passengers would have to disembark on the track away from the station and cross over... The whole thing has been a disaster... it is depressing. Ugh.
the work on 1309 has resumed. WMSR has hinted that 734 is too far gone to be put back into service. what's really depressing is everyone's lack of faith.
