482's tender was never used by the C&TS. The tender tank pictured is 482's tank. 489 has a "scar " on its tank resulting from repairs made to it on the C&TS after I left. The only tank that has been replaced is the one with the squared off coal bunker extension. It came to Chama behind 488. When 487 was returned to operation in 1974 or so, 487's tender leaked so bad 488's tender was used behind 488 for several years. Eventually it too began to leak. To don't remember the exact sequence, but 487 ended up with her old 1960's tender, and a new tank was made for 488. 487's old tank sits on a flat car in the yard.
483's frame has the remains of the PA/signal line cable. We had a signal line that ran the length of the train. The cable also contained the PA system. In the boxcar coaches was a small 3x5 index card box painted red. Inside the box was a push button. There was also a button in the conductor's station in the concession car and a button in nice weatherproof enclosure on the rear of the train next to the tailhose. In the cab of the engine, over the engineer's head was mounted a box about 15" square. In this box was a speaker, the signal siren, and batteries to power the whole thing. As long as there was continuity from the signal box to the rear of the train (out and back with 2 wires) the siren was silent. Punch a button, the continuity breaks, the siren goes off. Remember, we did not have radios on the engines. The concession car had the radio for the train, with the brakeman having a handset. The first signal box also had a "talk back" arrangement that allowed the engineer to talk to the conductor in the concession car. The second (and later)signal box did not have this feature. The first two boxes were built by C&TS' first genius superintendent (and electronic wizard) John Oldberg. Russ Fischer created the third. I built the fourth one and created a "mini" version for 463.
The original signal/PA cable was made of military spec cable and connectors. It worked great. When the new passenger cars were built, they used cheaper non-shielded cable and the system started to have problems - both with the PA and the signal line. I finally gave up on the signal system when it became too difficult to troubleshoot.
Then we started carrying the hated radios on the engines.
Before Russ built the 3rd signal box, a daily ritual was upon arriving for duty, one went over the other engine (we only had 3 running then) and get the signal box and install it on the engine we were using that day.
