Re: NNG-Why did 1744's stint in service end so abruptly?

I had the same "puddle under the locomotive" experience a little later in the 2007 season when I worked as a hostler for 1744;

Among the evening tasks was to fill the boiler with water and raise the steam pressure to just below setting off the safety valve before shutting the fire down for the night. This helps the locomotive stay hot, reducing stresses on the boiler as well as making the fire up the next morning easier. I would usually finish up the evening work on 1744 around 10 or 11pm and walk over to the motel for a few hours of sleep.

A little after dawn the next morning, I was back at 1744 to fire her up and get ready for the day's trip to LaVeta. As I approached the locomotive, I noticed that the ground around the cab was quite wet, which seemed a bit odd. I climbed in the cab and started the process of firing the locomotive up. I was a bit taken aback when I checked the sight glasses and they both showed exactly no water. I was sure that I had filled the boiler the night before, so I was at a bit of a loss until I opened the firebox door; water was trickling out around an ungodly amount of staybolts. That explained both the swamp under the locomotive and the lack of water in the boiler. Clearly 1744 was not going anywhere that morning, time to fire up the diesels.

I called Steven Butler (1744's CMO and Fireman) and he came over to have a look. We (well mostly Steven as I could not get my shoulders through the firebox door, thankfully!) spent the day caulking the leaking staybolts (well over 100 as I recall). 1744 was still hot from the day before so it was a miserable experience even on the outside, I believe that Steven could have given Dante some pointers on the levels of hell after his day inside the firebox. Steven was able to seal the leaking staybolts and we had 1744 under steam in time to run it up to the depot and great the incoming train that afternoon.

Thank you Earl for the description of 1744's firebox issues, explains a lot. It is amazing how long the "just patch it together" that started with the SP lasted.

Jason Midyette