Live from-the-scene reports from a fellow RyPN denizen reports that SR 630, after three stops for episodes of hot journals/bearings earlier today, is being removed from its NS excursion train at Coile, just south of Athens, on its Knoxville-Chattanooga run today.

<:-/

Very good of you to be so quick on reporting negative news.

Keep your chins up and smiles on your face, Mark... we SR fans are damn proud of ya!!

#630 on the SR mainline on a Monday, sharing the past weekend with SR #153 and NS F units??

Goddang, 2 years ago this was unthinkable...

Keep the Green Light Shining!!!

(and get the Green, Gold, and Immortal lady herself out soon!)

Matt Bumgarner

Yes, I meant #154... too excited over the weekend's highlights!

Matt

Hint taken.

Guess I'll go over to the Strasburg and start reporting on all the trains that left and came back on time without incident. Then do the same at the WK&S. Then I'll stop by Philly or BWI International Airport and report on all the flights that came in on time and without incident. Then I'll chime in with a count on Amtrak's on-time performance on the Northeast Corridor, then SEPTA, then MARC, then VRE, then a count of all the cars that drove to and from work without incident or accident...............

I remember the late Andy Rooney doing a "newscast" of this nature one time, in response to complaints about the "negativity" of TV network news.......

I've been following the situation for several hours on "Trains Magazine"s Facebook page. Stuff happens. They'll get her fixed. I've experienced plenty of "mechanical issues" over the years working on excursions. Bravo to TVRM and NS for making this weekend happen. It's certainly not something that would have taken place 10 years ago .

Been there, done that with the hot bearing issue. Guess it never happened when steam was in regular service.
Not a fatal incident.

Does the 630 have oil or grease cellers? Good block grease is getting on par with hen's teeth in the grand scheme of availability...at least grease that works over 25-30mph.

I may be wrong, but I think block grease has been a problem since Texaco quit making it. There's plenty of grease out there that will do the job on a museum line at low/moderate speeds over short mileage runs.
Running hard on the mainline is a whole other game.

I look forward to the end of this saga. It will be
A. Break-in problems that will go away,
B. Bad grease, resolved, or
C. We realize that small wheeled freight loco's aren't designed for high speed mainline pounding and focus on 4501 and beyond.

I'm still really puzzled that NS would start this program with a little low speed freight grease bearing loco, and that Babbitted, oil lubricated crown bearings wheren't factored into the rebuild. (I'm sure initial talks about a NS steam program go back far enough it could have been done, or even if it wasn't) 4501 should be upgraded now as well.

No hating here, i have all the love in the world for TVRM and NS for their efforts, just afraid that problems like these may kill this program before it gets off the ground.

Let's not criticize TVRM for anything here, or even hint at it. They have accomplished and will continue to accomplish things that other preservation groups only dream about. A restoration has several unknowns all along the line, and even things that were checked and rechecked a week ago, can act up. When the LEVIATHAN came to IRM this summer, there were many problems to be resolved and that is a BRAND NEW engine. Among them was a hot journal on one of the tender trucks, resolved fairly easily. Yet it did not make HEADLINE NEWS.

Nothing but good impressions about TVRM, and wishing them the best.

Bob Kutella

Likely A, it's essentially a brand new locomotive, still chasing the bugs out of it.
A great solution was found for B.
C, irrelevant. 630 and the other K's were light mainline power on the Southern, why nobody realizes this, I have no clue. It's doing what it was made for now, 30-40 mph with a decent load. But nobody seems to think that if it's not a 4-8-4, it's not a mainline locomotive.

As far as oil lubricated crowns, they were the original way they were going to do it, but 2 issues came up. 1. Compatibility issues with materials already used by time of consideration. 2. Once something goes bad with oil (i.e. too much heat), the lubrication will go away quicker than with the grease. Also there's a third, which doesn't matter as much but.... Southern never used oil cellars either, worked great for 100 years, why change now?

Not directed towards tvrm, but rather to answer a question posed in the previous post. The reason to switch to oil is simply that "journal compound" has not been available for 2ish decades, we are left to deal with "pin compound". The pin compound is softer, simply does not provide the required lubrication properties unless everything is beyond perfect.
All this having been stated in reference to real operation versus that of something low speed over 3.5 miles or whatever.


Cheers, Jason

I don't think anyone was dancing for joy that this happened and if you think you are going to keep anything a secret or limit the news to those that were sitting on the train you are sorely mistaken. I was watching the internet on my phone and there were posts on certain websites within a few minutes after we made the first stop.

And while I absolutely want this new program to succeed, the cost to NS for the train delays, extra crews, and most importantly lack of service to other customers in the area because engines and crews were tied up was not good. TVRM has very talented people running the shop and Bill Shaffer is a perfect choice to be their Director of Development. Those folks are very intelligent and know that NS's first duty is to their customers and shareholders and the chips will just have to fall where they may. While I don't see yesterday's events coming anywhere near killing the 21st Century Steam Program, those events certainly cannot happen very often. If we killed every train or scrapped every engine that ever crapped out in the middle of a single track mainline, there would be no railroad left. There must be a balance however and I am very confident that Wick Moorman is the type of person to find that balance.

.