Re: C & C Narrow Gauge Then & Now photos #14 & new details...

It would be interesting to search that site with a metal detector. There are bound to be locomotive parts that were lost in the shuffle of re-railing. They can range from unremarkable nuts and bolts to spectacular artifacts such as whistles, bells, and number plates. Of course, the latter are extremely unlikely to have been lost.

The most probable artifact of moderate to high significance that would have been lost during that upset would be oil cups, especially the one on the driver main crank pin. You can hardly tip a locomotive over without breaking oil cups off as the rods and crank pins punch into the ground. Then when they jack the engine back up, the crank pins come out of the ground without the oil cups, which are buried perhaps a half-foot deep or so. But the C&C engine rolled 180 degrees, so the rods and crank pins hit the ground and then pulled back out of it during the upset. If cups broke off, they may have gotten kicked out of the dirt they first punched into as the engine went over. Then they would have probably been picked up and saved.

Oil cups from the era of that engine could be brass or steel, and have a threaded fill cap, a threaded needle valve, and a needle valve lock nut. Brass cups might be somewhat ornate, but any cups will have the threaded nipple broke off from when the cup broke off of the rod during the upset.