Re: Remembering Ernie - 493 and 497 east of Gato

Mississippi Wrote:
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> Some interesting details in this picture. The 497
> seems to be working considerably harder than the
> 493. The radius rod appears to be in the (or close
> to) full forward position and the exhaust from the
> stack looks to have a lot of force behind it. The
> 493 however looks to be hooked up in more of a
> company notch with a much “lazier” exhaust
> from the stack. I’ve read the stories of the
> 97’s hated throttle. Could this be capturing a
> “battle” between an engineer and his
> locomotive?
>
> Cool stuff! Thanks!
>
> Alan

Good catch. Not knowing exactly where the pic is taken, knowing how the engines are working and such make this a bit problematic. It looks to be along the Navajo Dam Relocation, which is essentially a descending grade to the Piedra River. In which case the 497 would be drifting, and 493 is hooked up and giving the train a light pull to keep it rolling. As the print is a bit over exposed, 497's exhaust disappears pretty quickly into the sky. Maybe they are at the bottom of a sag, 493 is working and 497's engineer is caught in the act of putting 497 to work - throttle cracked open, but he hasn't hooked 497 up out of the corner yet.

For the fireman's sake, one would hope if the engineer was battling the throttle, he would be doing so with the valve gear hooked up. Otherwise his battle would be sending most of the fire up the stack!