Re: Frankenstien

Gerald Blea nicknamed the 497 Frankenstien shortly after we put it in srevice. The reason he did so was because: (A) it was bigger than the other engines we were running ie- a monster, and ( it was transformed from a previous locomotive. Remember it started out as a standard gauge C-41.
When we made the trade for it I had to fill out a new "form 4" for it and it passed with no problems. The D&S had provided it with extra lateral in the lead truck because of their tight curvature at Rockwood. After we returned the spring rigging and lateral to the blueprint configuration we had no problems with the way it tracked during the time I was there. When we first got the locomotive it was suffering from leaky stays under the jacket and it had several broken stays as well. We had to replace a bunch of stays and deal with some radial cracking around some others. As I recall once those repairs were made the boiler behaved rather well. It had to be fired differently than a K-36 and because it only had 12 flexible stays it was important not to let the boiler pressure vary widely. Other than the fact that it has had more years of service than the other K-37s I see no reason why it cant be given a 1492 day inspection get an updated "form 4" and be returned to service. I can not speak for what may have occurred with the engine since 1996 however.