Hi Mark!
I'm glad you tuned into this. I figured you had a big hand in getting 484 back on her feet, but I didn't want to give any mis-information. I am always amazed at how you guys kept this stuff on the road back then. Having to only run 4 train a week, plus 2 helpers went along ways to keeping the fleet from wearing out too fast. Today, the C&TS runs 14 trains a week, plus helpers!
The C&TS was in a very fragile and precarious condition back then. Thanks for keeping it on its feet.
Mark Yeamans Wrote:
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> Earl,
>
> Thanks for sharing your photos from July 1976.
> I hired on as a machinist in April of 1975 with
> the main objective of getting into engine service,
> and with the much-appreciated cooperation of
> Bernie Watts and John Oldberg, I was lucky enough
> to get a few trips in the cab. The trip you
> photographed had to be one of my earliest on the
> right side of the cab, though I was still a couple
> years from being promoted. If you'd have had a
> telephoto lens, you would surely have seen a big
> grin on my face, as I was in hog(ger) heaven.
>
> I built the crankpin grinder you mentioned,
> which was conceived and designed by Bob Keller.
> It did a good job of making the main crankpins
> round again, though the surface finish was not the
> best. Clearly, it could have used some
> improvements, but as an experimental prototype, it
> was satisfactory.
>
> In the early spring of 1976, 484 received the
> first running gear overhaul attempted by the C&TS.
> As you mentioned, the machine shop was quite
> primitive, consisting of a 1910 vintage Lodge &
> Shipley 16" lathe, a pedestal grinder, and a small
> bench-mounted drill press. Bob Keller ordered the
> bronze castings for the side rod bushings in the
> winter, and when I got home from sea in the
> spring, we began the overhaul. All the bores in
> the side rods were egg shaped, and with no means
> of re-boring them, we installed (with sledge
> hammers) the newly-machined bushings into the
> oblong bores, which, of course, resulted in oblong
> bushing bores. These were then fitted up to the
> oblong crankpins. Pretty crude, but it amounted
> to an improvement over what we had before and
> allowed us to squeeze a few more seasons out of
> 484.
>
> The 487 was the first engine to try the
> crankpin grinder in the spring of 1977. In
> addition, I loaded up all the side rods into the
> back of my 39 Chev pickup and hauled them down to
> my dad's fledgling machine shop in Los Alamos
> where we were able to re-bore all the bushing
> bores. So now, with the main crankpins round and
> the bushing bores round, we were able to fit up
> the main rods with a much closer fit. We still
> had no way of re-grinding the 1,2, and 4
> crankpins, but at least the rod bushing bores were
> round. At the same time, we completed a valve
> motion overhaul and a complete spring rigging
> overhaul, so by opening day, 1977, the 487 was the
> Cadillac of the fleet. But for the poor valve
> timing, which none of us knew how to set at the
> time, it really did run nicely and was the main
> workhorse until we got the 488 running a year or
> two later.
