Re: Snow Fighting at Windy Point - 05/13/73 - Roll #3 ... (?)

Yes Russ, the first several attempts to rerail the 484 failed. The rails had initially spread due to the side-thrust when the 484 hit that big drift. The ties in that area turned out to be rotten so that they couldn't hold under that strain. Each time we tried to rerail the 484, the rails would spread a little further.

The bulldozer was finally called in to clear the snow on the deep side for some more working room, and to provide better control when trying to rerail the locomotive. It's very difficult to control a precise movement such as it takes to rerail a locomotive, with the steam locomotive itself as the source of power. It takes full throttle to lift the weight of the engine over a rerailing frog, and then it's impossible to shut off the power quickly afterward. The steam pressure in the superheaters is beyond the control of the throttle, and keeps pushing the pistons for a considerable time. We only had the length of the flanger separating the 483 from the spread rails under the 484, so the 483 soon ran out of room to be able to help without becoming derailed itself. The bulldozer was able to pull with tremendous power at very slow speed, and could stop immediately when necessary.