
I'd be a little cautious about the rumors appearing on the Gote about the scheduling of locomotive work at the C&TS shops.
When 463? There has been a consistent pattern over the years that, even when there is little work left to complete on a given locomotive before returning it to service, the elapsed time necessary stretches out once the season starts, simply because everyone is preoccupied with operating requirements having a higher priority. So nothing new in the fact that 463's completion date is hard to predict. Certainly 463 is not needed to cover the schedule since all four K-36's are in service. However, there are some uses for which 463 would be especially well-suited this season, so I wouldn't be surprised to see an effort to wrap up the remaining tasks (which according to my information are fairly minor, but obviously necessary).
About 484. Don't know why the rumor of doing 484's boiler this winter. At the end of last season 484 had used up 1,093 days under steam out of its FRA-mandated limit of !,472 days. At a typical 130 days under steam each season for each of the four K-36's, 484 would not reach it limit until late in the 2014. If 484's boiler rebuild was done right by the Chama Shop back in the winter of 2003-04 there should be no reason to do its boiler until the winter of 2013-14 at the earliest. Of course, since HRM now has overall responsibility for operations at the C&TS, such future scheduling decisions will be for HRM and the Commission to decide.