Railroaders' Nostalgia > Manure Happens

Date: 07/03/17 00:01
Manure Happens
Author: crackerjackhoghead

A few days ago, Martin Hansen posted a photo of a little mishap that the Virginia & Truckee #25 had, sometime in the 1930's, when one of her tender axles broke. Unfortunately, her retirement from revenue service would not preclude her from future incidents. The post reminded me that I had witnessed, first hand, one such event, thirty years ago this summer.

In the mid 80's, I was working for Shortline Enterprises at their Newhall Ranch Movie Train but, in 1987, they were busy overhauling the Dardanelle & Russellville #8 in preparation for her sale to the state of Nevada and they sent me, a skinny 20 year old kid, to Carson City, to work as an apprentice boilermaker. Who better to crawl into the tiny recesses of a locomotive boiler? In the shop, we worked four, ten-hour days, Monday through Thursday. However, at that time, Shortline Enterprises was the concessionaire charged with operating and maintaining the Nevada State Railroad Museums equipment. The agreement was that the shop employees (my boss and I) has first right of refusal on the weekend operating positions. If we opted out, the jobs went to the museum volunteers. This meant that I could work seven days a week, if I wanted and make some extra money.

My boss, I think, had had his fill of running trains because he rarely came around on the weekends. I usually chose to work alternate weekends, firing or running the engine one weekend and spending the alternate weekend hiking the old V&T right of way, exploring abandoned mines, shooting up the Comstock hills on horseback and chasing girls. Times didn't get much better than this!

Back then, the summer excursion schedule was that, Monday through Friday, rides were given on the gas powered Brill car #50, the "Washoe Zephyr". On Saturday and Sunday, train rides were given behind the V&T #25. The Brill car and the #25 shared the same stall in the engine house so, on Saturday morning, it would be set over to the adjacent track so that the #25 could be pulled out. On Saturday night, the brill car was put away first so that the #25 would be first out on Sunday morning.

On the day in question, I had run the #25 for the most of the day but, late in the day, my boss showed up and wanted to take over. I think he had some guests that he was showing around. I decided to go put the Brill car away. Once started, it took a few minutes for the air pressure to build enough to have brakes so I fired it up and strolled out to line the turntable while I waited. I had just moseyed back to the Brill car and was about to move it onto the turntable when I heard the rapid, staccato exhaust of the #25. She was moving fast. Faster than we ever ran on the museum grounds. I knew, instantly, where she was. I looked up and saw a plume of exhaust coming up along side the building. She was on the house lead approaching the turntable and I knew I was about to witness catastrophe! I heard the air dump and she came into view from behind the building, wheels locked up, sliding. Then she went into reverse and her drivers flailed wildly, trying to back away from the pit but it was to no avail, her train continued to shove her forward. For a moment, it looked as though she might just get stopped, but then, in slow motion, she went over the edge of the pit. First her pilot truck dropped and then her lead driver. She finally came to a stop with her middle driver right on the end of the rail and then slowly nosed down, her pilot landing abruptly against the side of the turntable and her cab hoisted into the air. The water was gone from her crown sheet but, fortunately, the fireman had had the foresight to dump the fire as soon as the sailing had gotten rough!

I'm not sure why my boss was running that fast. We were both much younger then and it's possible that he was showing off for his friends. He was also a known crane foamer and many of his friends and colleagues accused him of having done it on purpose, just so he could call out the big hook! Fortunately, one of his friends was also the owner of the local crane company who donated their time to get the engine out of this pickle. Surprisingly, once she was coaxed back onto the rails, and thoroughly inspected, it was found that the only damage to the engine was that several of the rungs in her wooden pilot were smashed. Although the incident was not my fault, I felt so bad about it that I spent all day Sunday in the shop machining and assembling new pieces for the pilot so that, by the time my boss walked in on Monday morning, all she needed was a little paint!

It's been thirty years since the incident so I'm hoping the statute of limitations has run out. The pictures that I've posted here have never seen the light of day until now.
Oh, by the way, for some time after this incident, the rear of her tender was adorned with a bumper sticker that said, "S#!t Happens".

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/03/17 01:54 by crackerjackhoghead.

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Date: 07/03/17 00:02
Re: Manure Happens
Author: crackerjackhoghead

First photo is the museum as it looked in 1987. The far left door is the shop. The second door from the left is the stall that the #25 and the brill car shared and the third stall, from the left, is where the Brill car was setting outside and where I was standing when the #25 came up the lead, along the right side of the building.

In the second photo, you can see that the lead (in the shadow of the building) has no view of the turntable until the last minute.

The last photo is the 20 year old me, at the throttle of the #25.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/03/17 00:10 by crackerjackhoghead.