Steam & Excursion > 127 - Winter Prep

Location: CNJ Communipaw roundhouse Jersey City, NJ and Nesquehoning Junction, PA
Date: February 17, 1968 (late night)
Purpose: Engine prep for the first "Steam in the Snow" trip

Photos from Hank Webber collection: 1) photographer: W. Botkin; 2) photographer: J. Helbok; 3) photographer M. Eagleson

1) Hank Webber - "Ghost" mechanic by concrete column, having finished the fire, water, and lube tasks, will begin cosmetic chores.
2) Hank Webber - steam cleaning the drivers is how I kept the whitewalls "pearly"
3) Nesquehoning Junction (February 18, 1968) - on our way to Jim Thorpe

This trip was derailed on the way home due to a faulty tender truck on the 90. Ross and company rose to the challenge and accommodated all our customers.

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Pic. 2...

Scoop, can you flop the negative, and put the power reverse on the engineer’s side?

Stilts...

Stilts

Not my negative, can't do a flop.

Scoop

Put it back up...
TrainOrders Magicians will flop the digits in it for you..

Watch it get fixed..

​W.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/18 14:20 by wcamp1472.

Keep these coming, Scoop.  Nice photo Keystone1.

The Roundhouse Shot at Communipaw is wonderful....in January, we had just blown-out and stored the 1286 & 1238...all bedded down.

Then!  Smitty called out the gang...get the 1286 & 38 to Reading ,Pa! NOW!!!
We did THAT...

Everything changed, barely a month passed, and we had two different engines for the two trips...
I liked the beauty of the second pair...

Glad we had you back then... Between Communipaw, Reading , Bellows Falls, Communipaw, WilkesBarre, Penobscot, Bethlehem and Martz busses—- we did it ALL..

Had sold out 2 duplicate trips..
That was wonderful... 

Ross did a superb job with managing so many irons in the fire....so many folks to convince...so little time, 
his managerial skills really shined on those two spectacular trips..

That was a helluva way to start out 1968....who knew it would end with the 759 STORMING over the N&W’s Roanoke Main lines...
( 1958 was the end of Roanoke’s steam Rule...., barely 10 years later —- HICO came storming into town...😁🏁)
Wowsers...

Thanks for all you did..

​W.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/18 14:22 by wcamp1472.

Here Ya go, Wes.

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 THANKS, NYCMAN.... WOWSERS

I like THIS side of Scoop better...😃
👍🏼👍🏼

W.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/18 14:36 by wcamp1472.

nycman

Cool, thanks for the flip. I appreciate it.

Scoop

Stilts

Thanks to you also. A lot of what I learned about steam locomotives came from you!

Scoop

The learning came from the DOING...

Ross provided the classroom, the locos were the teachers, and we were all the students.  
The lessons we all learned the best,  were the hard lessons of mistakes, do-overs and group support.


You did the learning.
We ALL were, are, still in the learning mode..it’s where our growth continues to come from.

Be kind to yourself, you are the person seeking the knowledge.
The best lessons are the hard lessons—- that’s where true learning occurs.
The key is to keep from repeating what doesn’t work.

New lessons are hard.
Re-learning old lessons, wastes time & resources ..

Luckily we rarely made the same mistake twice... made many first -timers, though..

Wes.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/18 14:59 by wcamp1472.

nycman - how did you do that flip? Very nice indeed. At least I'm "pointed" in the right direction.

Thanks again,
Scoop

Now, picture 1, and the pic of Scoop steam-cleaning are both lit from the roundhouse’s full-sized windows at the end of each pit track...

Back in the day, especially with locos equipped with dome throttles,
if not fully ‘secured’ engines could, and DID, chug right off the pit and out the roundhouse wall...

They soon learned to build low sills, ( about hip-height) and put in big glass windows at the head of the pits.... the windows were easier to replace than the walls...

The roundhouse foreman at Communipaw ( Curt Forner?) told me that, at one time, there were two roundhouses— one passenger & one freight—- in the 1930s, a loco’s main reservoir exploded in the Passenger roundhouse...the explosion knocked down a whole sidewall and collapsed a portion of the roundhouse...

In the 50s, the passenger roundhouse was demolished, as unneeded....

This stuff can be deadly..

W.

Posted from iPhone



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/18 07:52 by wcamp1472.

I'm sure it was rare that an air res let go, but they are deadly when they do.   I had a friend whose upright air compressor tank blew up in his garage and took part of the wall with it.  Now you know the reason for the Hammer & Hydro.

Is there a provision in the ‘new’ FRA STEAM LOCO RULES that allows new manufactured ( welded) main reservoirs to be ‘drilled’ , and used in steam loco service..??
( To Be drilled -uniform depth—in a grid-like pattern over the entire surface of the air tank...
about every 4-inches, IIRC)

That’s the practice for the current ‘other than steam’ rules ...

W,

Edit.... Google search answered my questions..

Essentially, the answer is ‘yes’, for new manufacture (drilled) main reservoirs... can be used on existing operating steam locos..
As of 1230hrs, EST.

Posted from iPhone



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/18 09:35 by wcamp1472.