Re: K-27 at Knott's . . . Folklore!

Dry pipe collapsed? Folklore! I was there!

The reason we quit running it was the cement crew reworked Gate 2 (the Western entrance) in heavy street car rail and the radius was way too tight. Had no major problems before that. At the reworked crossing, the pilot set would lift the inside wheel about four inches in the worst part of the curve, Everybody scratched their heads about what to do. It was discussed at the time that maybe blind drivers would help the problem but we never got that far. Frosty Mann (the redneck sup at the time) got out the torch one morning with the engine in the bind and proceded to "give it some more freedom" by working on the pilot truck. It just got parked after that. I think we shipped it out in 1981. I'll have to check the dates on my slides. It was trucked to the nearest yard on the AT&SF and went by rail from there to Michigan.

It really was a huge engine for that operation. For some unknown reason, it was converted to a soak when it was put into service at KBF. I was told that "the superheaters were missing" so that's why it was converted, but I suspect that the condition of the tube sheets might have had something to do with it as I know that they were both new about 1973 and SOAK. Can't imagine soaking an engine because the supers were missing. The story goes that after the boiler overhaul, the State inspector would only give them a ticket for 128 pounds. I am not sure what he didn't like about the boiler but I know that is what it was run at. Did the Huckelberry get a ticket for more pressure? Anybody have any more info?

G.E.Sapp
KBF 1976-1989