I just caught a quick video of 2926 moving under it's own power. Results of a ~20 year restoration effort. Wonderful news.
Beauty, brawn, bodacious speed. Can't wait to see her at speed! Six thousand horses taking baby steps. It's like watching an injured athlete's first physical therapy session after surgery. It just feels good.
This four hour, forty minute YouTube video from last Sunday has 2926 running back and forth on a test track. Includes her whistle, bell, and air pump talking.
Give them a minute. They didn't even have all the boiler jacketing back on yet. It pays to check your work before final reassembly where you can.
Heck, I have never, once, put something all back together only to find I messed something up and had to take it all back apart to correct a mistake. Never in my 60 years of model railroading. I also invented the internet with Al Gore and am on the verge of curing the common cold, not to mention Covid. Doug
And keep her running. There are a number of privately-owned and museum-owned engines that have been rebuilt in the last 30 years at great expense, only to have brief careers before being stored away in need of maintenance. Enthusiasm is strong during rebuilding and in initial seasons in service, but it seems to quietly fade along with funding in the years that follow.
Sad, but too many times it has been true. Idiotic insurance costs and demands have also been dream wreckers.
Could be that most, if not all the rebuilders are/were older who remember steam from their youths. Now those who would normally take over operational responsibilities never saw steam in revenue service and just barely remember early second-generation diesels. So, therein lies their interest, Also diesels are a lot easier to operate than steam.
While there are a good number of older folks involved with such efforts, often there are also a surprising number of younger people.
As I recall, many of the locomotives in The Age of Steam Roundhouse (Sugarcreek, Ohio) collection were restored to operation, but the insurance costs were so high that only one or two per year could be operated. Sent from my moto g(7) play using Tapatalk