Re: Durango, January 22, 1963

Now, that's the HARD way to get a pilot truck wheelset out...... I would guess 478's pilot truck wheelset had some fatal flaw that kept it from being sent to Alamosa for replacement. They removed the pilot, put jacks under the pilot beam and jacked her almost into the rafters. Note the front driver is off the rails. To get the wheelset out, they have chained the pilot truck frame up, but still had to lift the engine high enough for the wheel set to clear the trick frame and the pilot beam. I would guess 478's nose was a good foot higher to get the wheelset to clear.

Then they set her down on cribbing, under cylinders squishing the rear head cover and cylinder jacket. On each end of the cylinder casting is a rib which contains all the cylinder head bolts. This is what is holding the 478 up. It looks like the jacket made serious contact with something in the past. In the far left you can see a bit of the air jack.

We had similar problems with 1744 and 18 in Alamosa. Our solution was to find a dead end track, dig a deep hole in the end, push the engine out on the track, and let the wheelset down into the hole with a big fork lift. Back the engine out, raise up the wheelset, back the forklift out with the wheelset and plop it on a waiting flatbed truck.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2017 08:44AM by Earl.