1630: great to see 1630 so close to operation. Many thanks from all of us steam fans as you volunteers have done a fabulous job, even though we pay you guys lots of money (hah-just kidding) i want to visit at least twice and look forward to seeing 1630 in steam. My grandpa may have worked on her at Spri ngfield shops.
it's a Russian dec, so it was built for 5 foot gage. Do you just use wider tires to get it on standard gage?
Robert, Hope you can drop by at some stage.
We still have a whole lot of work to do but are commited to getting her running.
The gauge conversion is interesting and I may try to get some photos. When making them ready to sell to US railroads Balwin replaced the wheels on the truck and tender so these are normal. Far too many key parts are positioned relative to the driving wheel centers so these are still the original 5 ft gauge parts. Wide tyres (which project significantly behind the wheel center) are shrunk on to the 5 ft gauge wheel centers. Looks very noticable when under the loco.
Nigel