Bill,
I didn't help with the 3007 move but I did help J. David with moving the
Milwuakee #265 from Milwaukee to the IRM. I remember crawling between the
drivers on my back and draining the wheel cellars and filling with new grease.
A rather dirty job. Some old guy had been coming around to the site and
greasing the other wheel bearings as I was told. We removed the main drive rods
and hung up the valve gear to make it non operational so as not to move the
valves or pistons until they can be disassembled. I made oak blocking for the
main crank pin to take up the space where the drive rod had been. The main
problem with this engine was that the Milwaukee had removed the brasses from
the tender trucks. We were lucky to locate some identical replacement trucks at
a Chicago area scrap dealers. I think it was Pilot Bros. The City of
Milwaukee's Port Authority donated the services of their railway crane to lift
the ends of the tender so we could roll out the old and roll in the new trucks.
The one difficult par
t of the task was separating the tender from the engine. After many attempts to
loosen the drawbar pin, including ramming with a Milwaukee SW switcher, we were
loaned a 100 ton porta-power hydralic jack that did the trick.
At least this engine now resides indoors.
Hope I haven't made this look like the MRHS.
Ken Thompson
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