Welte cardan shafts in the Krauss-Maffei ML 4000 C'C

When the locomotive of the last Krauss-Maffei ML 4000 C'C (built in 1964) was taken over from the California State Railroad Museum (CSRM), no one had any idea at the time that 11 years later a fully restored and remanufactured diesel locomotive would once again be on California's rails. Howard P. Wise, the chief restorer, and his team accomplished great things, considering that originally no one believed the diesel-hydraulic locomotive would be operational. Only a few optimists were ever convinced that the old locomotive could once again be made roadworthy.

When Mr. Egon Welte, who is a self-confessed railroad enthusiast, read about the restoration and missing cardan shafts in the magazine "Modelleisenbahner", he contacted Howard Wise directly and offered to manufacture the missing cardan shafts.

Based on the original Krauss-Maffei drawing, the cardan shafts were finally made by Welte according to the original specifications. The complete restoration process of the ML 4000 can be read here.

On July 20, 2019, after years of painstaking work, Howard Wise's team was able to get the ML 4000 running again. Since then, the ML 4000 has once again been running under its own power on the landmarked 16 km section in California (Sunol).

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