LEFT: Engine No. 3025 enjoys a breath of fresh air! Out in the daylight for the first time, Locomotive Foreman Wayne Hebert (foreground) and Dave Wantz check lube levels on the running gear on November 14, 2011. BOTTOM: Heading into the home stretch for the locomotive rebuild, Valley Railroad master mechanic Bill Wolf spreads lubricant on the inside of one of 3025’s piston bores on September 26, 2011.
pressor, brake rigging and dynamo. This left the firebox, boiler, smokebox and frame to move. All of the locomo- tive’s wheels were removed —both the drivers and leading and trailing trucks —helping to further reduce the height. With the Mikado stripped down as far as it could go, cranes took hold and carefully moved it to a waiting beam trailer where it was chained down for the move to Connecticut. After moving the locomotive and ten-
der from Kane to Essex, it was time to start the process of bringing her back to life. The wheels, however, didn’t imme- diately follow the rest of the locomotive to New England. They were sent out to a wheel shop to be turned and repro- filed. Once delivered, the locomotive, currently without wheels, was placed on a pair of steel H-beam skids just out- side the Valley’s engine house. For a time the 2-8-2, looking more
like a rusting steel tube, sat outside as workers steam-cleaned the entire loco- motive, removing any oil, grease and dirt that had adhered to the steel. With that task complete, the locomotive was carefully dragged into the shop where she’d spend the next three years under- going the actual restoration to service. Over those years, the locomotive was disassembled even further and getting to the laundry list of tasks had begun. Those tasks were executed by both the full-time shop staff of six, as well as a group of volunteers from the Friends of the Valley Railroad organization. The Friends are a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit group that volunteers alongside the railroad not only performing tasks — from shop work to track and brush maintenance —but also preserving the early railroading heritage in the area. The railroad has two scheduled volun- teer nights on Wednesdays and Fridays where members come down and work on a list of tasks set forth by the shop staff. The challenge, though, was hav- ing a list that was flexible enough to match the skill set of the volunteers who made it down to work. Each volun- teer night was coordinated by either Valley Railroad master electrician Paul Horgan, or CMO Conrad, divvying up the tasks according to the skills present in the shop at the time. Tasks included a large portion of the fabrication of the cab, modification of the tender to ap-
31
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60