The South Carolina Railroad Museum will have to move former Rockton & Rion #712 soon. The locomotive, a 1903 Baldwin 2-8-0, hasn’t budged in over 20 years. It’s sitting about three to four cars in on the South Track in Rion Quarry Yard, which hasn’t had any maintenance in about 40 years. The track is buried in dirt, decomposed kudzu leaves, kudzu vines and roots, and quarry fines at least up to the railhead and, in some places, over the rails a good inch. The track has a slight curve in it.

We need to move the 712 about 40-50 feet so the asbestos abatement company that removed the asbestos from the engine itself can clean the ground under it. We have a grant to rebuild the south track, so the engine will have to be moved again soon after that so the track contractor can do the work.

Back in the spring, we tried to move the engine with a heavy-duty tow truck. The tow truck driver didn’t know what he was doing, admittedly. However, when he hooked his truck to the locomotive, all he did was lift the front of the truck off the ground. Hitching a Town fire truck to the tow truck and using both of them to pull had no effect.

The current plan is to use several idler cars to try to move the engine with one of our SW8s. One of our volunteers, who has extensive shortline experience, has predicted that this plan will end in disaster because of the poor condition of the track. I tend to agree -- I’m afraid of stringlining the idler cars if we pull or accordioning them if we push. Despite the dirt, I think turning a rail under that kind of stress is a very real possibility.

There’s been a lot of "discussion" among the volunteers about the best way to move the thing. One alternative suggestion is to place a track jack in the crosshead and jack it out.

Personally, I think the hard part will be breaking her free. Once we get the engine moving I think it will roll OK. I'm afraid of either breaking something or putting something on the ground when we try to knock her loose, though.

What do y’all think?

If you don't want to destroy the bearings, you must drop all lubricating cellars and polish the rust off the journals (polish in the direction of rotation, with fairly fine emery paper). This is a tough job, and your location sounds especially hard. One half revolution of the wheels will destroy the bearings if you do not do this. Pony and tender truck brasses can be removed for the polishing. See Dave Conrad's advice here:


http://members.aol.com/belpaire/steamcm.htm

You can also remove the main rods and eccentrics to ease rolling. None of this is easy, but not doing it is plain vandalism as far as I'm concerned.

Personally, having been involved in both volunteer and professional organizations trying to recover equipment that hasn't moved, bad track, junk in the way ect, from what you have discribed seems like more efforts into the "planning" parts of this, the finial "moving" of the piece of equipment is made easier, no derailments, ect... which are also time & labor consuming.

If I were in your shoes, I'd spot check some ties to see the condition of them, replace as many as needed, or at least add some gauge rods to keep the track from spreading. See if the stucture will hold up whether your pushing some idler cars over it or just making a single move over the tracks. Also clearing the track way (rail head and maybe flangeways depending on the compaction of the soil) plus oiling / greasing all the moving parts of the engine (pins, journels, sliding parts...), plus curves or add some grease /oil to the flanges of the engine might help out should it start to bind in any turns.

If this is all done, and you can get your switch engine and idler cars up to the engine your trying to recover, you'd be able to pull and push to break the engine free (with all due care of course).

Good luck

Karl Johnson

Having had my hands on this locomotive some years ago it was pretty well a fixture then, sure it is even more solid now. Definitely drop the main rods - you don't need to be trying to move the pistons in their bores. I would also drop the eccentric rods so you aren't activating the valve gear either.

Use a penetrating lubricant like PB Blaster to douse the siderods until it runs out and the rods can be moved a bit on the crankpins. Bigger hammers and lining bars and maybe a little heat will loosen things up.

Ditto the comments on dropping the cellars and polishing the journals. The problem is you can only work on the part that is on the bottom. I'd take some flapwheels in a drill motor and polish the visible part, while doing the PB stuff through the crown brass oil holes, then roll her a little and flapwheel the next section, etc until it is all sort of cleaned.

We had to slide Old Maude on greased rail until we broke her loose - now she rolls but isn't real happy about it.

dave

Be sure to check the brake shoes where they contact the wheels. If they cannot be moved freely they are probably rusted together. The last time we moved Georgia Northern 107, enough rust had formed that the engine would not budge until the rust was broken free. And it had only been about a year since the previous move.

Do clean off the top of the rail and the flangeways as best you can. No need to be pulling/pushing against dirt (read MORE friction to work against).

If for some reason you cannot drop the mains and eccentrics, start putting oil into both sides of the cylinders and everywhere there is metal to metal contact. After doing this for about 3 months, it still took a locomotive to break 107 free the first time she was moved after sitting still for a little over 20 years. Since then we have been able to move her with a backhoe or big forklift. Good luck!

After you have removed the main and eccentric rods do the polishing and lubrication as others have advised. Now uncover the top of the rails and measure the track gage. If it is close and the curve is slight enough that not much pressure is going to be put on the high rail clean out the flangeways and you should be ready for the move. If the gage is open you will need to apply gage rods to hold the gage for the move. Now find a local contractor with a D8 or D9 dozer equiped with a winch. Hook the cable around the drawhead on the end of the engine in the direction you decide to move it in. When the engine starts to move keep an eye on the gage on the low rail and clean the journals as needed and described by others. Moving the locomotive with the winch or even just the dozer will allow you to go slow enough with enough control that if the gage starts to open you can stop and install gage rods before continuing the move. The hard part is doing the prep work and lubrication.

Good luck.

John Bohon

One of our members has been dumping oil in the cylinders for years. As for the bearings, I don't think the brasses are there anymore and I'm pretty sure the cellars are off the engine. She's in pretty rough shape. Dropping the rods isn't really an option, and she's only got to move about 50 feet -- just enough to clear the ground where the asbestos dropped. I've found out since my original post that the track rebuild won't include the track she's sitting on; we're going to go around the dead line with the new South Track. So one move to clear the asbestos is all that's required.

Your brasses are still there, atleast on the locvomotive. To remove them would require the removal of the journal boxes from the frame and then pressing them out. I doubt anybody would have gone through that much trouble to get the brass and then reassemble the locomotive. Even if the cellers are missing you can still slobber grease grease all over the journals...infact that would make them easier to get to.
Why is dropping the the rods not an option? Even if the are most disagreeable there are countless ways of removing them without damaging the rods, crossheads, crankpins, etc. I would stroongly urge you to remove these. There is extreme damage to be done to the cylinders, and I have seen valve gear self destruct when an engine moved with valves rusted solid. in place.
Though this loco will must likely never be a candidate for restoration it is still an artifact and it is my opinion that every step should be taken towards it's preservation.


Just my two cents:-)

Second Jason's advice Matt - whether you want to move her 50 feet or 50 miles, without doing the job right you can do a lot of damage in the first foot of motion - since all the parts that need to move probably won't.

I would encourage some introspection here before doing anything irreversable - knowing whether there are still cellars and brasses is a simple thing requiring just a glance by a qualified person. Moving a locomotive that has sat in place for decades is a much more technical and difficult proposition. Are you certain you have adequate knowledge and skills on hand to do the move?

dave

If tender brasses are missing (I doubt if anyone crawled underneath to remove pony truck brasses - it is a very tough job, and they certainly did not remove driving box brasses), the missing bearings can usually be replaced. You can make temporary replacements out of hardwood if necessary for your short move. There is no need to score journals or ruin bearings on this locomotive. It has sat for many years already, so take a little more time and do the job properly...

The reason I said that dropping the rods isn't an option is because it's not ours. We only lease the engine. An argument could be made that that's even more reason to do it right, of course.

Well you can always put them back on again. Might require getting the pistons and valves movable, but then that's another story. Depends on where you stop. Incidentally, I use nothing heavier than a backhoe or forklift to move dead engines once they are loosened and lubricated (assuming no switch engine and dead track).

dave

Rockton & Rion #712 (1903 Baldwin 2-8-0, originally ACL class L #712) got moved today for the first time in a good 10-15 years. I was absolutely amazed at how easily the thing rolled. It was as if she'd only been parked there a day or so.

The move was necessary to clear the small piles of asbestos on the ground under her. The asbestos company wasn't able to clean under the engine because they couldn't get under her. Moving her back about 40 feet -- which was as far as we had room to move -- allows us to get the asbestos removers back to finish the abatement.

The move was made with two flatcars and a pulpwood car as idler cars (we didn't trust the track the engine is on enough to run a locomotive in there). Power was our pair of ex-Air Force RS4TC-1A 60-tonners #1276 and 1249. We just got the 1249 repaired -- it suffered a main generator failure while the engine was still at Shaw AFB near Sumter, SC. This was the first time we'd MUed the two units together. The 1249 still needs a few tweaks to get her "just right" but overall the two locomotives performed admirably.

When we first coupled to the steamer, it was like coupling to a brick wall. I was concerned. But the engineer reported he only used one notch to move the 712. I was truly amazed. Nothing broke, nothing went on the ground (despite some anxious moments with a couple bad joints and one with a bent-up skate), and nobody got hurt. It was a good day.