unexpected return

[JohnHamman]

The 10:00 train backed into the station around noon - what is up?

[Edwin Frey]

I have no idea what the issue was, but 488 was taken off and replaced by 489. The train pulled out again at 13:06. 488 is now out behind the engine house. At some point, #15 was called into action, but I didn't see what it contributed to the activity.

[Dave in CA]

Wow! That was a a soap-opera moment! It appears 488 may have lost the packing on the back-side of the engineer's side cylinder... or something went very wrong with the valve-gear. Couldn't really tell. Anyhoo, they shut off the steam to that cylinder, moved 488 out of the way (barely... it looked as though they were going to make use of #15 as they moved it into position to pull 488. Then, they decided not to. Guess the shame of a diesel pulling a steamer was just too much to deal with). The pressure was brought up on 489. They watered and coaled it, coupled up to the passenger train, and in about 10 minutes, they pulled out with a spectacular plume of smoke and steam (since they didn't have the time to de-ash the thing before leaving). 488 took the back way into the engine shed, and they are working on her now. Man... that was great! I'm exhausted!

[JohnHamman]

So am I - lot of action today! Hope the problem is not too bad or hard to fix.

[Steve Forney]

Just below Dalton crossing, the left-side connecting link broke, disabling 488. (This is the vertical valve gear rod that connects the crosshead and the valve stem; sometimes called the lap-lead link.) The train backed down and 488 was replaced by 489. 15 attempted to move 488 out of the way, but the left-side valve apparently was in reverse and caused the drivers to lock up when Jeff applied steam for forward motion. (I may have that part wrong, if someone could explain better please help out.) Anyway, Tracy got a bar and moved the valve to forward, and 488 moved on its own.
A replacement part was removed from 483 and applied to 488, which moved out of the shop before dark.

Excellent coordination and work by the RR personnel minimized the impact to the customers.

[Rich Murray]

A question or two for anyone who might know. Can the broken link be welded back to operating condition. Or at least to "static display" condition. When the organ donors have donated all they have to give, can these parts be made new in the machine shop? Or farmed out. I assume the answer to be yes but at what cost?