McCormack to Speak in Bellevue on May 16

Another steam impresario is coming to Ohio to help raise money for the restoration of Reading Company steam locomotive No. 2100.

Doyle McCormack will speak on May 16 at the Mad River & NKP Museum in Bellevue as part of the “Legends of Steam” speaker series sponsored by the American Steam Railroad Preservation Association.

The ASRPA is restoring the Reading locomotive at a former Baltimore & Ohio roundhouse in Cleveland that is owned by the Midwest Railway Preservation Society.

McCormack is best known for his work with Southern Pacific 4-8-4 No. 4449 but will also speak about his experiences with the Nickel Plate Road.

He also was involved with the American Freedom Train, which toured the country in 1975-1976.

During his talk McCormack his expected to tell some of his stories about steam locomotives and his work to preserve vintage diesels.

Tickets to the event are $99 per person. More information can be found at FireUp2100.org.

The ticket price includes admission to the museum, caboose rides and a catered dinner.

Participants will be able to inside the cab of Nickel Plate Road locomotive 757, which the museum has acquired and plans to restore.

Restoration of Reading 2100 Continues

Restoring a steam locomotive to operating condition is a long journey filled with many expected and unexpected challenges.

Just ask those involved with restoring Chesapeake & Ohio 2-6-6-2 No. 1309.

The financial and mechanical woes afflicting that locomotive have played out in a very public way as the time needed to get the engine out on the road has lengthened by months if not years.

The restoration of Reading Company T-1 No. 2100 has received far less publicity and it is difficult to gauge its progress.

American Steam Railroad, which is conducting the restoration at a former Baltimore & Ohio roundhouse in Cleveland, last updated the project’s progress on its website in February.

Without detailing that here, suffice it say that much has been done, but there remains much more to do.

I recently had a chance to see the 2100 sitting in the roundhouse that is owned by the Midwest Railway Preservation Society.

A casual glance at the engine wasn’t enough to give a sense of how much has been done and how much is left to do, but here is what it looks like these days.

Reading 2100 Fundraising Campaign Launched

A fundraising campaign to pave the way for restoration of Reading Company No. 2100 was launched this week amid a pledge from the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad that the 4-8-4 can operate over its tracks.

The American Steam Railroad Preservation Association is asking donors to give $21 per month for a year in a campaign seeking to raise at least $700,000.

Of course, donors could agree to contribute any reoccurring amount automatically. Those who donate regularly over time will be eligible to receive merchandise, the right to be first in line for advance ticket sales, and throttle time with the 2100.

The group’s president, Steven Harvey, said that if 3,000 people agree to donate at least $21 per month then the money needed to restore the 2100 will have been met.

Estimated costs of restoration include running gear repair, $270,000; appliance repairs, $50,000, and boiler work, $95,000, among other expenses.

The 2100 was moved by flatcar to Cleveland last April from Washington state. It is being stored in the former Baltimore & Ohio roundhouse that is owned by the Midwest Railway Preservation Society.

Harvey told Trains magazine that his group has received $10,000 in donations as well as received interest from regional railroads and corporate donors. Thus far, about 100 people have begun to donate $21 a month.

The CVSR just finished hosting Nickel Plate Road No. 765 and previously hosted Canadian Pacific 1293, which is owned by Jerry Jacobson.

“The allure of steam locomotives is demonstrated nearly every year at the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. We’d like to collaborate with [ASRPA] to operate a series of test runs with 2100 and participate in our Steam in the Valley events,” said Ray Kammer Jr., CVSR’s director of operations and planning

For more information, go to www.fireup2100.org/donate.

Reading 2100 Called Good Restoration Candidate

Reading Company No. 2100 needs lots of repairs, but otherwise “is an extremely good candidate for a return to service.”

That was the conclusion of a preliminary inspection of the 4-8-4, which was brought by flat car to Cleveland earlier this year with an eye toward restoring it to operating condition.

The locomotive is being restored by the American Steam Railroad Preservation Association, which in turn leases it from an unidentified owner.

The inspection report, which was made public on Tuesday, placed the cost of repairs at a minimum of $50,000 for the boiler and $185,000 for the machinery, and a maximum of $80,000 for the boiler and $600,000 for machinery work.

The high range of that is about $20,000 under the projected $700,000 cost that the group had stated when it began a fund-raising campaign.

The report also said that another $47,000 is needed for additional inspection work to make a more comprehensive evaluation, including driver and rod removal; checking of tram, frame and rods; inspection of crank pins, axles and piston rods; and an ultrasound survey of the boiler.

Jason Sobczynski of Next Generation Rail Services and Zach Hall of Steamman Rail Services prepared the seven-page report covering the firebox interior, boiler and firebox exterior, boiler interior, machinery, ancillary systems, and tender.

Among the notable parts of the report:

• The firebox interior is very good. “We were unable to locate waffled, bagged, or burned sheets in either the firebox itself or the thermic syphons, and only minor leaks were noted around a few bolts.” The engine needs repairs to its syphon diaphragms and replacement of 60 crown bolts. “Many locomotives currently in service would be lucky to have a firebox in this good of condition.”
• The boiler contains 120 flexible staybolt sleeves that had improper repairs, This will require removal and more inspection and testing of the boiler shell. “At that point, it will be determined if a patch is required or if the original fabric is of a condition which allows for continued service.” The riveted joint to the backhead has seen severe deterioration in two areas and more inspection and engineering analysis is needed. The barrel is in good condition and the seal welded repairs seem to be normal. A hydrostatic test and a steam test are needed to complete the inspection.
• The running gear, driving and valve gear, spring and brake rigging are in good to fair condition. Twenty-four areas were noted for further inspection or repairs.

The 2100 was built in 1945 in Reading, Pennsylvania.  After being retired by the Reading in 1964, the 2100 was restored in the 1980s in Hagerstown, Maryland.

It wound up in Ohio and, ultimately, in Tacoma, Washington, where it was converted to oil firing in the 2000s. Most recently, it has been in storage in Richland, Washington.

Restoration of the 2100 is expected to be done in a former Baltimore & Ohio roundhouse now owned by the Midwest Railway Preservation Society in Cleveland.

For more information or to read the report go to www.fireup2100.org.

Up Close and Personal With the Reading 2100

Made in Reading, Meet made in LaGrange. Two distinctive forms of motive power go nose by nose at Rockport Yard in Cleveland.

Reading No. 2100 arrived in Cleveland on Saturday afternoon en route to the former Baltimore & Ohio roundhouse that is now operated by the Midwest Railway Preservation Society.

The T-1 class steam locomotive made the trip via BNSF and Norfolk Southern on a flatcar from its former home in Washington State. The American Steam Railroad Preservation Association is leading the efforts to restore the 2100 in Cleveland to operating condition.

That means transforming it from being an oil burner into a coal burner again. To pull off the job, the group needs to raise $700,000. It has established a website to solicit donations and provide news about the restoration of the 2100. http://www.fireup2100.org/

No. 2100 was among a class of 30 Northern locomotives churned out by the Reading shops in Reading, Pennsylvania, between 1945 and 1947.

Carrying road numbers 2100-2129, the 4-8-4 locomotives were a hybrid built from salvaged parts of the railroad’s I-10a Consolidations (road numbers 20-20-2049) and new parts supplied by Baldwin and other contractors.

No. 2100 thus began life as I-10a No. 2020, a 2-8-0 built by Baldwin in 1936.

The T-1 locomotive was designed for fast freight service, but the final 10 of the class were equipped to haul passenger trains. This was largely limited to troop train duty.

All of the T-1 locomotives served in freight service and in their later years of revenue service the T-1s were pulling coal trains as diesels infiltrated the Reading motive power rosters.

No. 2100 was one of three T-1 locomotives that Reading assigned to its Iron Horse Rambles, a.k.a., Reading Rambles, between 1959 and 1964.

The Ramble was not a new program. The Reading began the Rambles in 1936, typically operating as excursion trains taking passengers out on mainlines and branch lines to see the fall foliage.

Running steadily until World War II, the Rambles resumed after the war and became diesel powered in the 1950s. However, the trips became less frequent and seemed to have faded away until the Reading announced their return as steam-powered trips to be known as the Iron Horse Ramble.

The first of these operated on Oct. 25, 1959, behind T-1 No. 2124, which pulled 16 cars from Wayne Junction to Shamokin. The Rambles continued to be a fixture on the Reading with No. 2124 joined by No. 2100 and No. 2102 also sharing the duties of pulling the trains.

Citing high locomotive repair expenses and deteriorating track conditions, the Reading said that the 50th Ramble on Oct. 17, 1964, would be the last.

Including the 2100, four Reading T-1 locomotives survive today. A year after the last Iron Horse Ramble took a ride on the Reading, No. 2100 was sold to a Baltimore scrap dealer along with the 2101 and 2102.

But the 2100 was not scrapped and 10 years later steam impresario Ross Rowland Jr. purchased the 2100 in order to obtain parts for the rebuilding of T-1 No. 2101, which went on to pull the American Freedom Train.

The 2100 sat in Hagerstown, Maryland, between 1975 and 1987 before it was restored by a group known as 2100 Corporation whose leaders included Rowland, Bill Benson and Richard Kughn.

The group spent more than a million dollars to overhaul the 2100 but no railroad would agree to allow it operate on its tracks, although it did make some break-in runs on the Winchester & Western.

Over the next several years, the 2100 would embark on a long, strange odyssey that brought it to Ohio.

The journey began with a trip to the Wheeling & Lake Erie’s Rook Yard in Pittsburgh that eventually led the 2100 traveling to the railroad’s shops in Brewster.

The 2100 Corporation donated the 2100 to the Portage Area Regional Transportation Authority, which had plans to operate the steamer. But those didn’t pan out and the 2100 wound up on the Ohio Central in Coshocton where it was stored until 1998.

On Jan. 16, 1998, Tom Payne of RailLink Ltd. in Edmonton, Alberta, purchased the 2100 at an auction from PORTA. The locomotive made some test runs under steam on the Ohio Central in May 1998.

Payne moved the 2100 to a former Michigan Central shops in St. Thomas, Ontario. Now part of the Elgin County Railway Museum, the shops transformed the 2100 into an oil burner.

During that restoration the “Reading” name on the tender was removed in favor of the name “Ferroequus.”

He also purchased an auxiliary tender and 12 passenger cars with the idea of offering excursion train service.

Then he made a disturbing discovery. There was no suitable tracks in St. Thomas over which to operate a heavy steam locomotive in excursion service.

In June 2005 the 2100 was sold to the Golden Pacific Railroad in Tacoma, Washington., traveling there atop a flat car.

In Washington, the 2100 was steamed up and able to pull trips over former Milwaukee Road tracks between Tacoma and Frederickson.

Accompanying the 2100 on those trips was a former Amtrak F40PH. The train, which consisted of three bi-level commuter coaches formerly operated in Chicago by Metra, operated in push-pull fashion with the F40 serving as a cab car.

Tickets for the trips were $50, which included a catered lunch in Frederickson. The high cost of tickets was blamed in part for the failure of the service to make money and the last trip ran in 2006.

The next year the Spirit of Washington dinner train used the 2100 over the same route, but this service was short-lived, lasting just a few months. However, the dinner train united the 2100 with a remnant of the Reading Crusader, an observation car.

The 2100 was moved to Richland, Washington, for storage where it sat until it began moving eastward for Cleveland last month.

The Fireup 2100 group Tweeted on Saturday that the 2100 is expected to remain at Rockport Yard until Tuesday or Wednesday when NS is expected to move the steamer and its entourage to Campbell Road Yard and then the ex-B&O roundhouse at West Third Street.

Roger Durfee visited the 2100 this past weekend and sent along these images of it. Note that in the eighth photograph down an American Airlines jet is landing at nearby Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

Roger’s detailed images show a locomotive that has acquired some rust, but otherwise looks like with a little TCL it could be brought back to life.

Will it be? It is going to a while and will hinge on a number of factors beyond the control of any one person or organization.

Article by Craig Sanders, Photography by Roger Durfee