Images Of 3751 On The Road To Canyon Rails 2002Welcome to the image gallery! This gallery consists of images taken while 3751 has been on the road. This is part four of the image gallery's Canyon Rails 2002 trip to the Grand Canyon. This is an image intensive page and will take some time to load, please be patient.
Monday, the last day of this odyssey for fans, chasers, riders and car attendants. The engine crew had a call of 7:30am, Mike Thornton Phil Kaulke and George Clous ran her out of Parker right on schedule at 8:30am, nothing special to report except smooth sailing to Cadiz. Service crews did a full service but no water was taken, the ’51 was also buzzed by two F-14’s at Cadiz – more fans I guess. Just west of Cadiz and east of Ludlow there was track work being done and one of the BNSF mains, it was closed down and that created a small bottleneck. So after a while the 3751 got clearance and away she went with more uneventful running at track speed all the way to Barstow.
The service crew did a full service and topped the water here. One of the pumpers that filled the tenders was a restored antique fire pumper from 1902 supplied by the California Firemens Association. There was an hour scheduled for this service but as soon as it was completed the train left for Los Angeles trying to make up some lost time. The engine crew changed one last time, Bill Stetler and Bob Kittel brought her home to LA. Leaving Barstow they got a red light and sat for what seemed like forever (45 minutes), when they finally got a green it seemed as if the whole railroad was parked to let 3751 fly by. There was a quick stop in San Berdo, followed by a great evening run into Los Angeles, city of the angel’s. Only one hot box detector stopped the train in Santa Fe Springs briefly, before the train arrived at Union Station at 9:26pm.
That evening service crews did a full service and drained the tender, and drove home to their own beds at 2:00am Tuesday morning.
At 9:00am Tuesday morning another crew arrived at the SBRHS compound and began offloading the borrowed tool car, and inventoried the organizations merchandise. Mechanically later in the afternoon both tenders were drained and the locomotives jewelry (bell, light, builder’s plate and anything else easily removed as a souvenir) was removed and placed into storage.
Wednesday morning the boiler was drained and the running gear was lightly washed as well as some other miscellaneous tasks were done.
Thursday, it’s boiler wash time. A power washer is used to wash the boiler thoroughly of any scale, silt and particulates that have accumulated in it during the trip. Amtrak came to take away the ‘Pony Express’ at 11:55, Stan Garner who owns the car is using it the following weekend and needs time to prepare it.
Saturday the road dirt and grime is thoroughly washed from the engine, volunteers made some minor repairs and prepared the ‘Lets Roll’ auxiliary to be returned to Portland, Oregon. Amtrak exchanged the auxiliary to the BNSF on Monday September 9th, and a pool quickly formed on the internet about when it would arrive at the Brooklyn Roundhouse since it took the scenic route to get to Los Angeles. The auxiliary was scheduled to be on the S-LACSEA 1-19 to leave Hobart Yard on September 19th at 10:00am. It’s looking like it arrived on September 25 or 26. Sources say the car still has yet to be washed, thus she wore her Santa Fe logos on the break in trip behind the SP&S 700 - probably did it for good luck!
|
Date
|
Miles |
|
8-19
|
314
|
|
8-20
|
214
|
|
8-21
|
2 |
|
8-22
|
2
|
|
8-23
|
160 |
|
8-24
|
160 |
|
8-25
|
254
|
|
8-26
|
342
|
|
Totals Miles
|
1,448
|
Water used during the trip - 196,000 gallons
Fuel Oil used during the trip - 19,300 gallons
It’s over now, reconciliation statement and check have hit the bank. Gene Wood has proclaimed the trip a pretty good success. Emails have come in to the SBRHS congratulating us on our trip, people have sent us pictures, it’s has been wonderfully positive, and everyone can’t wait for the next trip.
I ran across this from the big dog describing how Will Stetler ran the engine - “Our guest engineer, Will Stetler, really knew how to get the most out of her. Only once was she on her knees though. That was when we unexpectedly came up to the new flyover at Redondo Junction. Will really got with it and I was on the fire and water matching what he was giving her. She lost her footing near the top slipping badly and dropping down to 5MPH. Will caught her, applied the sand and marched her over without diesel assist, it was impressive."
Three years ago I started a dialog with Bill Bondie of Ironhorse water treatment. I have always been concerned about water treatment and the hazards of a sick boiler. This year some months before the Grand Canyon trip Bill Bondie and I came to an understanding that he would take care of the boiler water and treatment at each stop. Also I knew full well what to expect with the Terlyn treatment. Bill’s predictions would come to pass as I will explain.
The first day out we started experiencing foaming and dirty boiler water. Our first water stop was Barstow and Bill and I had a conference about what we were seeing. The water was loaded with the old phosphates from previous trips and there was some scale bits present. Bill’s smile let me know that we were on schedule and with no surprises. Being out without any other chemicals, Yes I left all the old stuff behind, we decided to go with a vigorous blow down schedule. This would help to control all the phosphates that were now, once again, in solution. Leaving Needles Bill settler blew her down a couple of good times nearly draining the glass each time. This did help the foaming but still the old phosphates were haunting us. We did this routine until we reached Williams where Robert Franzen gave us some anti foam. This, along with numerous blow downs really helped.
On the return trip the water started clearing up significantly as well as the foaming. The trip home boiler wise was uneventful except for the fact that she sure steamed well.
On the third day home I drained the boiler and proceeded to wash her out. First I was surprised with the amount of silt that came out. This was from the Williams raw water we had to take, and then there were some nice reddish hues in the water and then we were empty. Using a power washer we gave her a good scrubbing around the firebox. On past washouts we would get a few handfuls of scale from the firebox corner plugs. I think this is a testament to Santa Fe’s well kept boilers and the adhesive ability of scale. This washout surprised me as we got a five gallon bucket of scale easily from the firebox area. The following day we used our washout tools attached to a 1 ½” fire hose and continued washing. The scale as well as chemicals continued washing from the washout plugs.
I also pulled the dome so I could crawl into the boiler, do a visual and use the power washer where it would do the most good. In past boiler crawling we would always come out full of this powdered phosphate. It was everywhere. This time I came out spotless, not a speck of powdered anything was on my clothes. The boiler was visually very clean and when I did exit the dome everyone commented on how clean I was. We are excited about the preliminary results and look forward to continuing the program.
To see more pictures from the 'Canyon Rails 2002' trip check out the SBRHS photography contest results here.
