Re: Rebuilding 489 -- compared to 463

Randy when they striped the 483 for asbestos removal, Mike tells me the parts were laid on the ground nearby for later storage. When 'later' happened, was the next summer.

I hear they hired some locals to strip down the 489 and parts went missing from that as well. Mark and Russ ended up bending ALOT of pipe to replace all the missing side of loco pipes. Even the Chama shop crew will pick parts off a sitting loco to keep the others running and not put the old parts back on so it will not be lost, so obviously the problem is widespread.

Years ago Earl brought out 2 brake test stands on loan from OERM to Chama as Dan Ranger wanted to set up a unit room out there. Dan left the railroad soon after that, and within a year they were rusting away in the swamp. When I told Dave Garcia at OERM what happened to them, he asked me to bring them back home to OERM.

So obviously the problem is widespread and no solution has been found yet.