December 18, 2014 04:20AM
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Registered: 13 years ago
Posts: 492
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Earl, it did run in 1970. At one point after trains had started running, I was sent with a man (whose name I have forgotten, but he must have run it previously for the Grande) to assist him in getting the pump running, and filling the tank.
When we got into the building, the first thing we discovered upon filling the water jacket around the cylinder was that the water jacket had been allowed to freeze with water in it, and had a crack. The first hour or so of our time was taken up by brazing the crack in the cast iron so that the jacket would hold water again.
Then the man heated the glow plug with his blow torch and tried to start the engine. The process involved using compressed air previously stored in reservoirs on the wall (from the last time the pump ran) to turn the engine over. The thing was massive, like the one in the Chama coal tipple, only bigger. The air supply remaining in the reservoir wasn't enough to get it started, so the fellow left me there while he went back to Antonito to get an air compressor.
After recharging the air reservoir sufficiently, we tried again. It was a tricky operation, where after getting the engine spinning, you had to quickly turn the air off and the fuel on, and hope the engine would catch before the engine stopped turning. We were successful after a few tries (each time having to start by heating the glow plug red hot, then spinning the machine with air, then switching over to diesel fuel).
When it did start, the noise inside that stone building was deafening! But the son-of-a-gun pumped water, the pipes held, and eventually put water in the tank. I don't recall how long we ran it, but it seems like over an hour, and I don't recall how one knew when the tank was full. There may have been something like a return pipe that ran back to the pump house to indicate that the tank was full.
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dougvv |
December 13, 2014 04:32PM |
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Paul Davenport |
December 13, 2014 04:52PM |
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December 13, 2014 05:17PM |
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December 13, 2014 06:31PM |
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December 14, 2014 10:59AM |
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dougvv |
December 14, 2014 12:07PM |
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rehunn |
December 13, 2014 07:46PM |
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December 13, 2014 08:31PM |
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capchris |
December 13, 2014 08:42PM |
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dougvv |
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Greg Scholl |
December 13, 2014 09:12PM |
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December 15, 2014 08:42AM |
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dougvv |
December 14, 2014 07:43AM |
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rehunn |
December 14, 2014 09:58AM |
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John West |
December 14, 2014 10:30AM |
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NGJunkie |
December 14, 2014 11:34AM |
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December 14, 2014 01:23PM |
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NGJunkie |
December 14, 2014 02:47PM |
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rainbowroute |
December 16, 2014 08:58PM |
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dougvv |
December 14, 2014 12:15PM |
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davidtltc |
December 14, 2014 12:33PM |
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rehunn |
December 14, 2014 12:35PM |
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Greg Scholl |
December 14, 2014 12:44PM |
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NGJunkie |
December 14, 2014 03:10PM |
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John West |
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rehunn |
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John Cole |
December 14, 2014 08:39PM |
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John West |
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NGJunkie |
December 15, 2014 01:11AM |
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ROW Explorer |
December 14, 2014 01:42PM |
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dougvv |
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Paul Davenport |
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Earl |
December 14, 2014 03:30PM |
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Ed Stabler |
December 14, 2014 03:43PM |
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Earl |
December 14, 2014 04:12PM |
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John West |
December 14, 2014 05:10PM |
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NGJunkie |
December 14, 2014 06:44PM |
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hank |
December 15, 2014 11:13AM |
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Earl |
December 14, 2014 05:38PM |
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dougvv |
December 14, 2014 05:43PM |
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Earl |
December 14, 2014 05:46PM |
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John West |
December 14, 2014 06:01PM |
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dougvv |
December 14, 2014 06:35PM |
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davidtltc |
December 15, 2014 06:10AM |
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NGJunkie |
December 15, 2014 10:13AM |
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John Cole |
December 15, 2014 10:40AM |
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rehunn |
December 15, 2014 11:01AM |
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dougvv |
December 15, 2014 11:24AM |
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Abqfoamer |
December 15, 2014 11:47AM |
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John Cole |
December 15, 2014 08:55PM |
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rehunn |
December 15, 2014 09:16PM |
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NGJunkie |
December 15, 2014 09:31PM |
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dougvv |
December 15, 2014 09:40PM |
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John Cole |
December 15, 2014 10:02PM |
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GeorgeGaskill |
December 17, 2014 12:11AM |
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employee2 |
December 18, 2014 04:20AM |
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Greg Scholl |
December 18, 2014 06:53AM |
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John Bush |
December 16, 2014 03:49AM |
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dougvv |
December 16, 2014 04:27AM |
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davidtltc |
December 16, 2014 11:38AM |
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NGJunkie |
December 16, 2014 12:01PM |
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Greg Scholl |
December 16, 2014 12:25PM |
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Greg Scholl |
December 16, 2014 12:26PM |
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hogger42 |
December 17, 2014 05:39AM |
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Wayne Hoskin |
December 16, 2014 11:14PM |
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hogger42 |
December 17, 2014 05:34AM |
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davidtltc |
December 17, 2014 06:10AM |
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Earl |
December 18, 2014 08:54AM |