Steam & Excursion > Leaving Steamtown - Summer of '68

Wes and I arrived a Steamtown on June 6, 1968 and proceeded to get the 759 ready for transport. Some of these details are in a previous post "Rusty Relic" from a week or so ago.

The railroad got us out of the display area several days later and got us ready for the ride to Conneaut. Since we couldn't drop the main rods, Pop Moses (1st photo-left) had me work on getting the nuts loose on the front steam cylinder covers. Once removed, we replaced them the heavy oak wood cut into semi circles which were then bolted back on each cylinder. The open space was then filled with rags which we soaked with oil. Got to Conneaut with nothing burnt. You might be able to see our "remedy" in the third photo.

Pop and I rode the cab from Steamtown to Conneaut and along the way encountered a rather unique railroader. I don't remember if he was a yard master, train master, road foreman, flunky, or whatever. At any rate, he charged Pop and I $30 cash each (Pullman Fare??) to ride our own dead engine or it wasn't going to move. Not being a professional railroader, I paid my "dues" and we moved on. Railroading's finest!

Wes drove one of our vehicles and was a great help all along the route. In spite of all the railroad nonsense, The Dynamic Duo was going to Conneaut!

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Very interesting story.  What is the B&O Round Observation Car behind 759's coal tender?  I'd love to know about that car if you can tell me.  Thanks.
John in White Marsh, Maryland

Actually, under Pop Moses’s guidance and the NKP practice, we simply ‘restored’ the NKP shipping preps.
When originally shipped to Steamtown (Bellows Falls, VT), the ehngine was( ingeniously) shipped with the valve gear ( eccentric rod and the crossheads’ union link removed  —— stored in the coal space of the tender.

It was NKP that had used the oak half-cylinder heads, we, under Pop’s guidance, replied the pre-drilled, wooden half heads.
That arrangement was necessitated by the main rod’s clevised connection to the rear driver via the tandem rod.
The big end of the Main rod was spread at the main crank pin, and the ‘tandem rod’ was inserted in the clevis...

The clevis is supported by a pressed-in steel bushing.
The tandem rod’s front connection is a large diameter, fitted with a pressed-in brass bushing.
 The combined main rod/tandem-rod make the two rear-drivers effectively become one driver.
The  tandem rod’s bearing does NOT rotate on the crankpin—- it simply carries the weight and piston-thrust loads to the rear driver.
The tandem Rod only rotates a few degrees from horizontal—- as the rear axle moves up and down, with respect to the main driver crank.  

The inner bore of the main rod’s steel bushing fits on the main crankpin.  The main crankpin spins inside the bronze (segmented) 
cran-pin bushing at the rpms of the drivers.  The whole ingenious scheme was conceived by Lima’s Chief Engineer,  Wm. Woodard.

Meanwhile, ( in 1964?) the NKP Roundhouse crews prepping the engine’s shipment to Vermont, removed the  “rod packing” from the piston rods, applied temporary oil cups for the lube-line’s holes in the crosshead guides.  The ‘lube cups’ ( visible in Scoop’s photos) were made from sections of superheater flues ( 5” diameter —- Formerly, used to surround ‘Tyoe A’ superheater units—— The Berks used smaller superheater flues, suited for the Type E unit’s that they were built with...)

These ‘oil cups’ were filled with journal box waste, from the old days, and the cups were then filled with car oil before shipment...

The engine was shipped to Steamtown, 600 Miles, probably with a Steamtown rider, back in the day....his job would have been to refill the slopping-pistons and the crosshead cups as the stops made on its way east.  Or, maybe it was shipped without a rider.
Accoring to Pop Moses, NKP often shipped Berks with the pistons and rods, intact, across their system...without ‘riders’

Hank And Pop rode the 759 to Conneaut, I chased, brought food and ran ahead —— to each major freight yard on our journey
to learn the schedule plans , etc.... A couple of nights, the engine was not scheduled until a morning departure...so we got to rest then.

The Trip was uneventful, we ran at track-speed, because it was then common practice, with all the rods in-place, to OK the engine for no speed restrictions —— because of ‘mechanical concerns’.

I left Hank and Pop at Buffalo, under Ross’s instructions, to prepare and ride Steamtown’s 127(8) CP 4-6-2 BACK  to Bellows Falls,
after our use of the engine in February and May ( Cape May!!) , 1968.  
(As I & 1278 , left N.J. on the dead-in-tow 4-6-2, Ross asked me to run a week’s-worth of trips on the B&M RR along Lake Winnepesaukee , & Laconia NH......A whole ‘nother episode...).

Hank, Pop and 759 arrived in Conneaut midday, after having left Buffalo...and returned to 759’ ‘home’ rails —- west of Buffalo.
(Scoop can tell you about the warm welcome they got at Conneaut —- when 759 arrived at the empty Conneaut Roundhouse...)

The Legend of 759’s rebirth was just beginning....

“Stilts..”

Not proofed, yet..
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/14/18 16:25 by wcamp1472.

I'm sorry John but I don't have the info you seek.
Hank