N&W first-person story from Railroad Magazine 1945

[NW Mailing List]

Herr Mikhail von Rektor, et al :

I receive the N&W List in "Digest Mode," which means that sometimes I see postings a day after they were posted. So the issue may have been resolved to your satisfaction by this time. But I offer the following in response to your questions.

1. To "take down" one side of an engine is to disconnect the valve gear or rodding so that the motion of the piston is not communicated to the driving wheels... on ONE SIDE of the engine. The engine thence moves only by the energy communicated from the cylinder on the opposite side of the engine. The danger, of course, is that the engine might then stop "on center," and an engine "stopped on center" is thence unable to move until bumped or nudged "off center."  To prevent "stopping on dead center" is one reason why engines were cranked "on quarters" (i.e. the the main rod crank pin one side was one-quarter of a revolution ahead of the main rod crank pin on the opposite side.)

An engine thus "taken down on one side" was said to be "lame.'

In the old days, when components were light, engines were "taken down" by disconnecting the wrist pin at the cross-head, or by disconnecting the main rod (ugh !) Just think about how much human muscle energy that must have taken, even when engines were small and light. Sometime M-of-W section crews were conscripted to assist with this heavy work. The large tool boxes we see pictured on tenders and sometimes on engine pilot beams held the big wrenches necessary for such repair work work.

2. I am unable to comment on your question about "collars" other than to speculate that they were somehow involved in the retaining of the main and/or side rods on the driving wheel crank pins. I had never seen the term before reading it in this article.

Be Well.

       -- abram burnett
I Store My Turnips On the Cloud !