487 water incident

[Pete Stagg]

This morning 487 left the EH, cleaned it's fire, took on water, switched to the main, came down to the coal track, coaled, then moved down to the station. 463 then did the same, but while in the coaling track, 487 moved back up to the west side of the water tank and took on more water. While this was happening, a river appeared on the west side of the main which flowed south past the coal track. 487 then backed up again to the station. Apart from the yard being flooded, everything now appears back to normal. Weird.

[Rich Murray]

This has happened before and there could be several explanations. Like the coal they just took on was considered too 'dusty' and they used the tank to flush it. Could be a lot of reasons

[John Cole]

Washing the coal really works, when I was last out there Mike Thode was showing me the tender where the engine crew had washed most of the load in the tender. The amount of dust and extra 'stuff' in the part the spout couldn't reach was very noticeable.