News
Bid Awarded for Steam Locomotive Asbestos Abatement and Remediation
Published
5 years agoon
By
Ron Richter
The Sheridan City Council this week awarded the bid for asbestos abatement and remediation services for the steam locomotive at the corner of 5th Street and Broadway, to Wasatch Railroad Contractors in the amount of $179,000. City Public Works Director Lane Thompson said that despite Wasatch being the second lowest bid of the three that were submitted, they were the most qualified to handle the work that’s needed on the locomotive.
Mayor Roger Miller, prior to the Council’s vote on the bid award, discussed why he would be voting in favor of the project.
The project will be funded with $100,000 from the general fund and the remainder coming from the optional one-cent fund.
Anthony burrell
April 23, 2020 at 9:11 am
The asbestos in that engine never hurt anyone nor will it ever. A complete waste of money
Max
April 23, 2020 at 4:36 pm
Agreed. Seal it up and use the money to build a shelter for the locomotive.
Dave
April 23, 2020 at 6:58 pm
The asbestos holds moisture against the boiler, literally rotting the engine from within. This will extend her time as an exhibit
Sean
April 23, 2020 at 11:34 am
In the overall scheme of things getting the jacketing and lagging off the locomotive will extend its life as an exhibit.
Harry
April 23, 2020 at 11:57 am
They should remove the locomotive and have it restored and running
Will
April 23, 2020 at 12:11 pm
They should build a roof over it, too, to keep it from deteriorating out in the weather.
kyancey262
April 23, 2020 at 12:28 pm
There would be little gained by returning it to running service. There’s already several operational northern type engines already, and none of them can run in regular service without special permitting, and with a diesel in tow. Most popular, 844, has been operational it’s whole existence.
Big Dawg
April 23, 2020 at 7:03 pm
The government and the Mayor should stop with the health hazards and get this Steam Engine up and running again
Joe
April 23, 2020 at 11:17 pm
Why do people continue to call this a train??? It’s a LOCOMOTIVE & Tender, nothing more!!! It doesn’t become a train till some cars are coupled to it.
edward
April 24, 2020 at 8:15 am
This locomotive has NOTHING to do with the city of Sheridan, besides the fact that it has been there forever. It was originally used around the Chicago area and has NOTHING to do with Sheridan. Instead of wasting $180,000, Give it to a scrapper and have it hauled away for FREE. Stop wasting tax dollars!
Darryll
April 25, 2020 at 10:59 am
There’s a third option: Restoring the locomotive to operating condition would cost a minimum of $2,000,000. Then, you need infrastructure to support it and somewhere to run it. However, given the current situation, what about a combination of solutions: bring in people who are currently unemployed. Have the contractor agree to take them on as part of the deal. Teach them how to partially restore the locomotive and, as time and money permits, slowly restore it over a period of 10 or 15 yrs. This would give local people who are having a difficult time some hope and the end result would be pretty amazing.
I know it’s very easy to say this. I know there’s a lot of money involved that the community may not have. I know that it requires dedication and commitment – so it has to be carefully thought through.
When you look at other restorations that have been successful, 100% of the time it was because they were organized and realistic about time-frames and costs. They also had people with restoration experience as part of the team.
Contact groups that have been successful and build around their successes.
Scrapping the locomotive would kill something that could never be brought back.
Restoring the locomotive lifts the spirits of thousands of people who see it and have a connection to it.