Gabe and others. While I, of course, never saw an old mechanical speed
recorder "recalibrated" I did hear many stories of how it was done. To
"adjust" the speed recorder one needed access to the needle that had a little
piece of lead on it that moved in concert with the speed of the wheels. That
is a critical point as sometimes the overspeed would be tripped due to wheel
slip. Now to get at the needle in the back of the recorder the lock needed to
be left unlocked.Suprizingly this was usually the case. If unlocked the
unauthorized individuals(engineers/firemen) had an assortment of
"recalibration" tools. Some used a small piece of wood,pencils,and other
sundry devices that I've forgotten about. All you needed to do was place your
device in such a way so as to prohibit the needle from moving beyond the
point desired as it marked the paper tape. One did need to remember to remove
his device upon arrival at the crew change point.
There are also many stories of tapes disappearing after certain unfortunate
incidents and various rivers and creeks became repositories for speed tapes.
Also if you go far back in this lists archives there is a discussion of the
fireman's duties on #21 @C.U.S. I believe that the first duty was to get the
morning papers for the "paper route" and the second job was to go done in the
nose of the unit and adjust the overspeed.
Leo
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