Re: SVRY #19

Again just my opinions. Have you noticed how some people are glass half empty folks and some of us try to to be glass half full folks? I think you have been talking to one of the glass half empty people. The #3 does take more maintenance in the sense that the crew has to keep a close eye on a few things such as loose bolts on the trucks and be more hands on with the engine each day throughout the day. 19 is a bit more like hopping in your caddy and hiting the road, leaving any maint. to the dealer back home. On the other hand #3 doesn't require hostling to the degree the 19 does. To run the 3 the crew shows up at 6:30AM on the morning it is to run does the fire up, lubrication and by 9:00 it has plenty of steam to go to the depot and couple to it's train. With 19 the crew reports at the same time, but the engine will have been hostled usually the previous day which took about 6 1/2 hours. If you condsider the time spent at the wood yard cutting and splitting wood for #3, the time (volunteer hours) spent on the average weekend for #3 is probably about the same as the 19. Instead of 2 guys spending 6 1/2 hours hostling, they can spend the same time at the wood yard.
I am not suggesting that it is overall as easy to operate the rr with #3 as 19. #3 requires a lot more physical labor from the volunteers, some of which like myself are a bit non-athletic these days and heading into or well into middle age. Ideally the rr buys wood logs at truck length. Volunteers with chain saws have to buck the logs into 4' lengths. Obviously you can't expect non chainsaw experienced volunteers to do this. Actual splitting of the wood is not an unpleasant task, as it is done with a hydraulic splitter powered by a small Ford tractor that just putts a long at a fast idle. Often times splitting wood and filling the racks was part of the #3 engine crews task to do the night before we were to operate and something additional to do at the end of the day if enough wood wasn't split. Mostly if you don't go at it like killing snakes splitting and stacking the wood I recall as a fairly relaxing bit of moderate work with some pretty good comraderie.
So, my notion is "calm down, take a deep breath" and anyone that is interested, volunteer to help get the 720 operational by donating labor or money, help with operation of #3 next season in the interim, and help with the overhaul of the 19 when it goes down through actual labor donation or money. Life does go on.....