A few summers ago, I had the privilege of working on the Durbin and Greenbrier Valley Railroad, which owns and operates a 1910 55 ton Climax, #3. She was originally operated by the Moore-Keppel Conpany out of Ellamore, West Virginia, in Randolph County. This engine had a fascinating story to tell, which I may get into later. One intersting story, as I was told, that surrounds this engine is her construction and the consequences. She was built as a 55 ton locomotive, but her frame was not. When the order for the locomotive was placed, the company had a 40 ton locomotive frame already on the factory floor, and the company simply built the locomotive on the frame they had. As a result, when the engine gets up to speed ( 9 miles per hour) she develops a bounce that runs the whole length of the engine, and riding in her feels like riding a horse. This was a factory flaw, that the engine crew often griped about, because it made their job all the more challenging, and made the ride a bit more nerve racking. The track on which she operates is also not the greatest in the world. some of it is original Chesapeake and Ohio track, with little improvement done except putting in some used ties in place of the old rotten ones and tightening up of spikes and bolts. In other places, the track was severely washed out of place, and fills were created by hand and the track drug out of the river and relayed, which makes for very crooked, very rough track. The locomotive, with her geared design, traverses this with ease, and has no trouble pushing and pulling her two or three car train over this track. My job, on operating days. was night hostler, and I stayed up all night with this locomotive and kept her alive for the crew the next morning. They would bring her up next to the engine house, and open the cylinder cocks, and bank the fire. My job, for the mojority of the night, was simply to keep enough fire in her to keep the engine warm and keep the injectors operating. When morning came, first I would shake down the grates and clean out the ashpan. Then I would wash down the boiler jacket and the cab with car wash, a bucket and hose, polish the bell and brass gauges with Brasso and WD-40, depending on how dirty it was, and use windex to clean the headlight lens and all the windows and gauges. Then I would grease all the fitting on the linkage, oil the trucks, grease the gears, check the bearings, fill all the drip lubricators will SAE 30 motor oil, and fill the steam lubricators with 600 weight oil base tallow. I would also fill all the oilcans on the locomotive, make sure all the tools and supplies in the cab were in order, and start building up steam pressure. While that was building, I would sweep out the cab floor. Usually by the time the fireman got their she was nearly ready to lift. He would come down and check everything over, and back the locomotive under the coal loader. Then I would drag out the electric which the loader ran off of, and plug it in and start shoveling. A half an hour later, I had enough coal in the tender to keep her going for the day, and I would wrap up the cord and put it back in the engine house. Then I would guide the fireman as he back ed her up and coupled to the train. I would then couple up the air hoses, and walk back to thrown the switch for the mainline. The train would back through the switch, and then I would throw it again, and the train would proceed to the station. While we made our way over there, I would sweep out the caboose and the open car, and guide the fireman when to stop when we arrived at the right place at the platform. Then I would get everything ready for the passengers. I did this every Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night for the summer. This was a lot of work to do, and a lot of important things to remember, especially making sure there was sufficient water in the boiler, and making sure that I did not forget to lubricate everything. However, it was a very rewarding job, and lots and lots of fun.
More later,
Keith
