Stone Mountain Railroad Rebuilding ex-Southern RR FP7's. - Trains Magazine

Pete, 

One of the problems that museums face, and some scenic railroad operations is, of course, limited financial resources to much more than maintain the locomotives to very minimum standards. The other is having people experienced enough to diagnose problems accurately and then fix them correctly. One of the blessings we have is that the man who is in charge of our rebuild has been working on the first and second generation diesel power for over forty years. He knows this stuff like the back of his hand! It's been amazing to work with him and be able to learn so much from his vast knowledge of what makes these wonderful machines work and how to deal with their individual idiosyncrasies!

I had the pleasure of being one of the crew members of the New Georgia Railroad and both working on and running the FP's and the E's (as well as A&WP 290!) for a period of four years and wish that Donnie had been with us in those days!

The plan is to rotate the two FP7's along with our GP7 running them singly a month at a time. This will allow us to extend the time between the 92 day inspections. Only during the high attendance days we will run two trains to handle the crowds.  

The two steam locomotives (#60 and #110) are still on property. Plans are to eventually put one or both back into operation, but that will not happen until the diesels are rebuilt, the train is rebuilt and repainted, and some other projects are completed.

The connection was removed several years ago. It could be restored some time in the future, but at this time that is not a priority.

Bill