Last year a few friends and I hatched a plan to build a small locomotive from scratch. The impetus for the proposed project was the availability of a preserved 1900 era foundry and lineshaft driven machine shop to build it in and the owner's desire to put the place to some productive work. So we thought that building a steam locomotive, small enough to be handled by the shop's machines would be ideal. And since Porter was located in Pittsburgh and the shop is a National Historic Landmark and located up the Mon from Pittsburgh, we felt that some funding for this project might become available if we followed a Porter design. That was the plan at least until I found the J&L 58, and then our efforts shifted to restoring that locomotive instead.
However, we are still interested in pursuing the original plan after the 58 is finished. So if any of you are serious about exploring the idea of someday building WW&F no. 4, perhaps we should get together and talk sometime.
