Report: Old Poway Park locomotive in ‘great’ shape
By Steve Dreyer
The boiler of the steam locomotive that runs around Old Poway Park is in good shape and is not in need of an expensive overhaul, according to the report of a recent city-commissioned examination.
The 105-year-old Baldwin locomotive.
“We have serviced (hundreds) of train boilers over the years and for a train boiler built in 1907 it’s in great condition,” inspector Chuck Anthony of Manley’s Boiler, Inc. wrote in a report released Tuesday.
That comes as good news to both the city and to volunteers at the Poway Midland Railway, who were concerned that a boiler overhaul might cost upward of $80,000.
Those concerns were presented to the City Council in June by railroad president Chuck Cross. He said at the time that the boiler had last been patched in January 2011. At the time, the expert who did the job said the boiler would unlikely last beyond its next leak.
According to the new inspection report, the boiler of “No. 3,” as the 105-year-old Baldwin locomotive is known, isn’t showing her age much.
“The train’s overall condition is good,” Manley wrote. Testing of the boiler’s various parts showed “better-than-average condition.”
The engine is owned by the city but operated by the all-volunteer railroad. The engine and passenger cars run around the park two weekends each month. The city bought the train, along with the balance of the estate of John S. Porter, in 1987. Porter had built a small station, house and shed on what is now part of Old Poway Park.
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Posted by Steve Dreyer
on Oct 16 2012. Filed under Local News, Poway.
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Good news!
So much for the experts opinion about it not lasting past its next leak.