Engineer’s Journal – April 10, 2005

Sunday, April 10 – David and I both didn’t sleep well and woke up pretty congested from the smoking rooms. We went over to the train early this morning to move the train from the roundhouse lead onto the main line so the museum/theater cars could be opened up. The KCS RR had us spot the train on the mainline just south of their depot and then ran trains around us on the #1 yard lead! This is the first time I’ve ever seen this happen. After doing some maintenance, Bill Morris, David and I went to get some lunch since none of us had any breakfast. We had a good meal at the Wagonmaster Steak House and then we took Bill Morris back to the train and David and I headed to the Landmark Hotel and checked in. We both got some badly needed naps.

Afterward, we headed back to the train and worked some Teflon compound into the bushing on the rod that got hot and ran the engine back and forth in the yard to run the lubrication in. We kept pumping grease into it and forced out nothing but carbon – no metal flakes, so we’re hoping we’ll be in good shape for the long run tomorrow.

The KCS Railroad had us park the train on the main and ran trains around us in the #1 yard lead. This is the first time I’ve ever tied up a train on the main, but it made for a safer setup for the train because visitors to the exhibition/theater cars didn’t have to cross over any tracks.

The real crisis is that I’m now out of clean underwear and socks. I decided to wash out some in the sink and then brilliantly decided that I could dry them out quickly with the microwave oven in the room. I’ve now made the discovery that one can set underwear on fire in a microwave. It kind of makes the term “hot pants” take on a whole new meaning!