Oil's Well That Ends Well

It was hot today, and humid, so I was careful not to work too hard.  But everything that needed to be done got done, so things worked out well.  In the morning, Bob Opal helped by moving the 309 back to Barn 8 for me, and lubrication took most of the rest of the day.  I carefully pulled out the waste bundles on all of the axle caps on the #1 truck, and at least partway down on the #2 truck, to make sure we're lubricating the axles properly.

And all four cars got a fresh bag of crater in every gear pan, and the main journals were topped off.  By the end, I was really dirty, and it took a while to clean up, but the results are worth it... I keep telling myself.

A lot of switching was going on today; Jamie and Jeron were at work for a long time.  The steam leads were completely shuffled, the Zephyr was brought back from 14 to track 92, and the steam shop was partly reshuffled.  

This is one of the engines from Monee.  I believe it's still for sale, and certainly not part of the permanent collection, so make us an offer we can't refuse.  The switching put the streetcar into "ping-pong" mode, but provided some interesting views for the visitors as equipment was being pushed back and forth.

But the main benefit was that the Shay was pulled out of the shop and put on display on the lead into Yard 1 (or 50th Avenue).  It's been a long time, well before this blog started, that I've had a chance to take pictures of this interesting mechanism outside.

The triple threat: three cylinders with their valve gear.

A view of the center gearboxes, under the cab.

The smokebox, with its shiny new tube plate, flues, and superheaters.  Very professional looking.

The blind side, I suppose I'd call it.

The rear end, with its adjustable-height coupler.

The gearboxes under the tender.

A closeup of one of the flexible couplings between gearboxes.  These things could probably negotiate a roller coaster.

The double-expansion air pump, with cardboard to protect it from I don't know what.

As you probably know, the 1630 developed a problem with its front truck last week, and the steam guys were hard at work fixing it.  That's all I can tell you, but the news will probably appear on the department blog when it happens. 

And then the CA&E steel cars were holding down electric service on the main line.