Re: 497 Question

497 spent a long time in the Alamosa shop for that last overhaul as well. How they allocated employee time to it, I don't know, but it was in the shop already, blocked up with no wheels, and the tubes and flues out of it, in August ,1966 when I saw it there. Interestingly enough, there were a number of engines hot in the roundhouse. 483 was under steam and just sitting, 487 was also under steam and getting some attention to the rods, or valve gear. The three of us 19 year olds, just wandered around and watched. As long as we did not get in the way of the guys working and did not look like we were going to be a problem, no one paid any attention to us at all. I suppose that if we had asked questions, they would have talked to us, but we stood well out of the way and let them work. No one was working on the 497 at all. From other things that have been posted here, since the main line was down because of the wash in on the Farmington branch for most of the summer, I would imagine that they would have had plenty of time to work on the 497, or maybe they just furloughed the shop crew as well as the train crews?