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A pine tree on a lonely
rocky outcrop... some where in the San Juan Mountains, NO... we are
in the Heart of Alburquerque, New Mexico....
A Beautiful modern city
celebrating this year its 300th birthday..... |
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Welcome to the Rio Grande Zoo... hey,
I love trains... so I spent the day Railfaning the Zoo.
I got some great shots of the train
that runs around the park... I will include those in the next update
and introduce you to the crew. |
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Its a beautiful place, stop in if you
have the time and if you don't make the time.. |
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Well its April 10th and the guys are firing
up 488 to check for leaks and to test the Air System,
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Once the steam comes up, they will set the safety
valves and check the air system, I think this is pretty cool. 488 is
the first locomotive to receive the new Air Reservoirs made in the
Chama Shop. |
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A look at a set of drivers in the Chama Shop. |
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You can see how they have been cleaned up on the
Lathe. |
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Steve is checking the measurements on the drivers. |
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You are looking at a new Air Reservoir... you can see
how the guys put in the pipe connection and how the ends were welded
in place. |
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How about a test of 488's Whistle, not quite
enough steam yet!!! |
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A view of the pair of tanks, they are actually
different sizes, the smaller one goes on the Air Pump side. |
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Now this is pretty cool, the guys put on a new wood
beam on the front of 487. |
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Tommy is working on replacing a pedestal support for
487, you can see where he is working.. you can see the removed
bolts. |
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A portrait of Tommy, I think he is so photogenic..
and if I am correct, Tommy was actually photographed by a
Pro-Photographer and is hanging in a Art Gallery. |
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All of 487's equipment, there are the crown brass
boxes, grease cellars and all the lubrication device's for the
Driver Journals. |
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Here For Short Video |
Ducky starts the fire again.. 488 comes back
to life!!! I apologize some of these clips are on their side, have
to remember not to do that!!! |
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Now what the heck are these, Alien Disks from
Roswell... could it be the C&T is using captured Alien technology in
Steam Rebuilds... could it be???? No, these are just the end piece's
for the new Air Reservoirs. Or are They????? |
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Good Ole' 488 getting steamed up for some tests. |
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A look at the Air Reservoirs. |
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This is the forward connection.. it comes from the
Air Cooling pipes. |
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And a look at the rear connection and the dust
collector. |
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Here For Short Video |
Ducky shovels coal on the fire and 488 comes
to life in the month of April. |
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March 30th and the San Luis
& Rio Grande Passenger cars arrive in Alamosa. A special train had
been run to bring the cars over La Veta Pass. They used 4 open
Hopper cars as buffers to check the clearance's on curve's and in
the cuts for the passenger cars. They ran Great!! |
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After the switching, the Passenger
Cars began to roll into Alamosa for the first time. |
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Engineer/Conductor Marc Widener and
Conductor Randy Porco ride into the Alamosa Yards. |
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A look at the Cars, they are kinda
long... but they appeared to ride very well. |
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A look at the SL&RG cars in La Veta,
you can see the depot in the rear left side of the shot. |
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The Train is being assembled in La
Veta in preparation for the run over the summit to Alamosa. |
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I would like to Thank SL&RG
Conductor Randy Porco for these shots.. |
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Climbing out of the La Veta Valley
heading towards the summit. |
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The train is passing thru Occidental
Siding.. this used to be the location of a connection with a Narrow
Gauge railroad. |
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The MOW crews are riding the cars as
the train passes thru Muleshoe Curve.. |
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Another view of the train at the
summit, thanks to Randy for these shots.. |
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The track winds around the
Zoo... see you next week!!!
Carlos Llamas |
