Executive Director John Garner says that additional mechanical work is needed, but has not provided a new schedule. The locomotive was to be wheeled in May, but problems with the delivery of parts from a machine shop postponed that work. The railroad has been trying to outshop the engine for two years, but a host of issues has kept it at the restoration site in Ridgeley, W.Va. The boiler was completed last September, and the engine has been steamed twice sans driving wheels.
The Chesapeake & Ohio engine, whose budget has skyrocketed from $800,000 five years ago to $2.7 million, was the last engine Baldwin produced for domestic use in 1949. Purchased from the B&O Railroad Museum, it was seen as the powerful locomotive needed for the 17-mile mountain railroad to eliminate doubleheading with diesel locomotives. But its restoration has been plagued with funding issues, employee theft of parts, and other missteps.
