The 473 and 478 had power reverses .The 478 had its reverse installed first ,(I think) in 1950 . The 473 may have received its power reverse in 1952 . The story I heard was the 476 was going to stay in freight service ,so it never received one .Indeed ,the 476 worked freights a lot right up to 1967 . Sometimes 476 was called to run light from Chama or Alamosa when one of the other two broke down . Some engineman felt 478 was the weakest of the three .It definitely did not ride as well as the other two . 478 was the Favorite of Steve Connor ,and he hardly would work any other engine .
The reverse would constantly slip out of the ideal higher notch .Yeamans did rebuild it ,but with the long grade on the Silverton and the heavy trains the valve gear would beat against the power reverse ,damaging its seals .
So about 1985 , the reverse were replaced with hand-operated cutoffs (Johnson Bars). Most engineers found the constant readjustment of the power reverse annoying ,and were glad to see them go . Not so with His Majesty ,Sire King Elwood the 33rd ,a.k.a. Punkinhead . Punkinhead was not bothered by the power reverse slipping down to a lower notch . As Brother Ramsey noted , he liked running down there anyway ! The new cutoffs were very stiff at first(oldtimers often noted how stiff all the hand-operated controls were on new steam locomotives). Punkinhead whined and whined about how "unacceptable" this was . I was with him a week on the 473 and he cried and cried .Finally one day at Tefft ,I told Punkinhead ,"Dave, I wouldn't whine too load about those Johnson Bars .Some might think you weren't man enough for the job!" Boy did that bring a quick end to the whining !
