My dad did a few years maintaining steam stuff, 1960's before he went to Vietnam. Came back and diesel stuff was taking over, steam was "novelty" only at that point, shops changed over to all diesel stuff and that's where he continued his career, mostly machinest stuff. My grandfather was an ALL steam locomotive man until February of 1975. He died in July of '75, not long after the big tornado wiped out the entire neighborhood where dad lived. Lung cancer got grandpa but he was a HEAVY smoker for most of his life as I understand. I wasn't born but a little bit after he died.
Sometimes dad and I will go fishing together or drag racing or whatever and he sure can tell some stories about those early diesel locomotives. Alco's, Jimmy's, etc. Tells a few stories about steam too; that stuff is super interesting to me. One that sticks out in my mind was in the very early 80's, he was finishing up an overhauled EMD. The engineers always liked more power out of them, and they asked him to turn up the governor a little, I reckon to climb the hills better with more cars behind them. Dunno the reason. So they have it running and run it up to governed speed (900 RPM) and the engineer motions to him with the thumb "more rpm". Dad and another guy kept cranking on it and watching for the thumb to go down or whatever. It never happened. The locomotive started vibrating, heavy smoke ensued, and they couldn't get it shut down. Dad looked forward from the engine room and the engineer was nowhere to be found, so they bailed as well, found the engineer on the opposite side of the shop. By then the engine finally self-destructed with plenty of escaping parts, smoke, oil, fuel, and coolant, entire shop had to be ventilated (in the cold of an Omaha winter). The engineer said he motioned them to stop at 1200 RPM but they kept going, said when he saw 1500 on the tachometer, he bailed off and ran for his life. If you've seen the size of the internals of an EMD 16-645, you know that they're big, heavy, and they WILL escape the engine "block" if asked to, which is exactly what happened. As I recall, the 645's were 645 cubic inches--PER cylinder, and that particular one was 16 cylinder. Seen a guy hauling one down the freeway the other day, 16-567, 645, or 710--I can't tell the difference between them, but it was on the flat bed of a F450 which had a 14' bed on it, and it was hanging off the back of the flat bed about 2 foot or so; and the truck was riding on the overload springs. The last few years dad did railroad stuff, he was a machinest in a shop that specialized in the turbocharger rebuilds. Somewhere...I've got a compressor wheel out of one of them, was a reject (brand new but rejected). The WHEEL (impeller) is roughly 304mm diameter (12"), weighs about 20 lbs. Let that sink in a while. We talk about how "big" a 105mm turbo is.....
I had considered railroading the same as my dad and grandfather, but things have certainly changed. Used to, if you wanted to get into machining, you applied for a machinest job and normally got it. Now, you just apply and you go where they want you to. You might be on the track gang or you might be a painter, they'll make you whatever they want you to be. They know what you specialize in and they try to get you in that field, but no guarantees these days. My neighbor works on the track gang and is home most of the time, but there are times when he's gotta get up in the middle of the night & go wherever they need him, usually within 200 mile radius of the shop (which is about 50 miles from the house), 90% of the time it's closeby. I still might apply and see what they have to say. I'm kinda tired of screwing around with Kubota's after almost 30 years and the retirement pales in comparison to railroad retirement; not to mention the rest of the bennies.
About twice a year a steam loco will come through town. Every time, I take off from work and go watch. Lots of thoughts running through my head, especially about grandpa--since I never got to meet him. The sound they make, unmistakable. The challenger (3985)..the "whistle" on that thing...reminds me of the sound a tornado makes. I actually spent a little time in and behind the 3985 a year or so after dad retired; they were showing it and giving rides at the shop where he used to work and of course I wasn't passing up an opportunity. Steam loco's have character that's completely different than modern diesels do; and that's not a bad thing.
