Re: NNG - Cass Climax in Jeopardy?

Bob Yuill worked on the boiler for #4 off and on (depending on whether there was money available or not) for at least 5 years. When I would stop by his shop, part of the educational part of my tours would be to have him show me what he was doing and what was wrong with every boiler that he worked on in that time frame. That included the boiler for SP 786, the D&RGW 463, the 4, SP 1744, and several others. I learned an awful lot about old repairs (made during the steam era), new repairs (made after the end of mainline steam), the minimum that you could do to get a boiler to pass a form 4, and all sorts of other things. Mostly I learned that I did not know enough about any of this to do any more than talk about it a bit and understand a bit more. (A little knowlege is a dangerous thing).

Every time Bob and I would walk over to #4's boiler, he would simply shake his head. I asked him about it the first time, and as I remember it, his comment was that he did not think that they would ever have enough money to fix it properly.

The only blessing is that #4 is a soak which is how it got its nickname of "old slobberface".

Bob never did finish it, or even get close with the money that he was allotted.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2016 09:15AM by Everett Lueck.