Russo Loco Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Right on, John -
>
> Depending on whether you viewed the tipple from
> the south or the north - as in the old folk song,
> she leaned significantly either to the left or the
> right.
>
> Here's a Tom Gildersleeve photo from October,
> 1960, which I have rotated to the best of my
> ability to get the corner of the warehouse (far
> left) and a telegraphone pole (far right) as close
> to vertical as my tired old eyes could accomplish,
> and to which I subsequently added a (hopefully)
> vertical red line adjacent to the tipple for
> reference
:
> [attachment 36428 601011-tilt-tg.jpg]
>
Photo copyright © by Tom
> Gildersleeve - ALL Rights Reserved.
>
> Note that the pilot beam of the locomotive appears
> to be level, and other (supposedly vertical) poles
> also appear to be at right angles to the horizon.
>
> Hopefully the above will serve as a reasonable
> starting point for estimating the degree of tilt
> involved (which - IMHO - does not come close to
> challenging the (in)famous tower in Pisa, Italy).
Russ, the pole to the right of your winter shot is a POWER POLE for the coal tipple. The railroad still gets power from that 220v 3 phase line to run the hoist motor for the coal buckets. We replaced the circuit breaker panel years ago to prevent an 'historically accurate fire' caused by an electrical short in the old one. Great winter shot of operations, with a great view of the Gramps oil racks.
BTW, I just got a phone call from one of my guys who took home the beat up gauge we found in the tin shack on the top deck. Al did some tracking down and got ahold of the company who made it. It turns out it was a THERMOMETER with a wind up clock and the ability to record temperatures on a cardboard time paper for record keeping. He further got a copy of the RECEIPT with the correct serial number of the clock made out for $77 to the Lafayette Hughes company of Chama NM (owners of the Gramps oil fields) in 1937 for the thermometer. How amazing it still exists. Al is working on cleaning it up and replacing the broken glass face on it to be returned to Chama.
