We could call this a tale of two 44 tonners. I think John Hammond would tell you that it is possible to put #19 into the condition of #15, but it will take a considerable amount of time and money.
I think the important thing is that one guy be made responsible for the locomotive. It should be one of the C&TS crewmen, someone who is local and sees the locomotive on a regular basis. This person will be the "point man". He may not do all the work himself, but he will oversee anyone who does work on the locomotive.
Some time ago, I wanted to spend the time to get #19 running again, but I found it to be a large job and I didn't have the know-how needed to do the job alone. John brought in George Greenbaum, a qualified diesel mechanic with experience. The problem is that George found some of the idiosyncrisies of #19 to be a bit much of a challenge. Simply stated, it just seemed like we were swimming upstream, for whatever reason. George operates and maintains a fleet of SD40-2 units for Escalante and Western, and I learned a lot from George about reversers, traction motors and diesel engines in general. I enjoyed working with George, but I would have to say that our progress was very slow.
You guys ought to try to change a traction motor on a locomotive without a reasonably heavy duty hoist or a drop table. We jacked and blocked, jacked and blocked again, then used a 2 ton hoist secured to the overhead pre-stressed concrete joists of the roof. Each time we would pull on that hoist, we would ask ourselves if we were exceeding the 2 ton limit. I'm pretty certain that the weight of that motor, combined with the associated gearbox did indeed weigh more than 2 tons.
Earl, I don't think you should feel bad about following your bosses' instructions. If you had done anything different, it would have been insubordination, something that is rarely tolerated on any railroad or business. GB did indeed tear the h*ll out of that locomotive, plowing snow, removing covers on traction motors so they were exposed to the elements and allowing it to leak diesel fuel all over the place. Those with knowledge of diesels tell me that a crankcase explosion was possible because of the fuel dillution of the oil. We were fortunate that didn't occur.
In short, C&TS needs someone like John Hammond who will take responsibility for that locomotive. I wish it could be myself, but I'm 5 hours away and as time goes on, my available time seems to shrink. It needs to be someone local who can work with it long term and with reasonable regularity.
#15 and #19 are sisters and it is possible to put them in reasonably similar condition, don't you think?
Jim Burrill
Loveland, Colorado
