March 14, 2005

• Guess who just got home from his first boiler wash?

  I went in to work this morning expecting to be doing a few small
  tinkerworkings on the track or on the NdeM passenger steamer we’re
  restoring. When what to my wondering ears should accost, but a boiler
  wash and all cleanliness lost! I spent most of the morning lugging a
  1.5-inch fire hose up the side of the engine, squeezing down into the
  boiler through the steam dome (which is a feat in itself for a guy my
  size when trying to get around the throttle valve), and then using
  high-pressure water to clean all the crud out of the interior. And what
  a lot o’ crud there was…This is why Delaware River water would not be
  my first choice for providing steam power. It was lit’rally CAKED on
  the heating tubes, which I just happened to be lying on while trying to
  clean them off, not to mention the sides of the boiler and the firebox
  area. Bit of a tight squeeze, that. On average, it took me five or six
  minutes to get my posterior turned around so I could attack an
  uncleaned area.

  As you can well imagine, I got pretty well soaked cleaning all that crap off the top and the middle.

  After lunch, though? That’s where the fun really began.

  After donning my rain gear, I found myself shoving that same fire hose
  into the washout plugs on the bottom of the engine and removing all the
  crud and gunk and goo that I’d washed down earlier. Anybody who has a
  rain suit, let me clue you in: it does not, I repeat, not do any good
  when you’re washing out the inside of a steam locomotive.
  Uncounted gallons of crummy water came pouring back out of those
  washout plugs – and a fair share of it went straight into my sleeve and
  pooled there, threatening to pour out the wrong end and gush down my
  side like a New Jersey waterfall. (Some of it did…) Not to mention
  the water that accumulated in my boots, threaded its way through my
  hair, and couldn’t seem to quit getting in my eyes from there.

  In case you’re wondering, I’m not getting paid nearly enough for this
  business – but I’ll be a-lookin’ forward to it when the summer sun is
  beating us to death. After all, I’ll be cleaning up my own mess
  from firing almost daily…

  Yeah, that’s the wet side of railroading for you. Thankfully, I’m
  returning to the dry (albeit windy) side later this week, hoping
  against hope that the freight cars we’re supposed to be pulling out
  won’t be hooked up to their ground dispensers this time.
  Wednesday promises to be a blast – up at an ungodly hour, out the door by an ungodlier hour,
  and at work by God knows when to run a lovely big stone train down to the CSX
  interchange. Good ol’ Crash Smash Xplode…can’t wait to see how many
  hopper cars we have to repair when they’re through with ‘em…
  

  • 9:37 pm
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