On Saturday, May 4, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Kendall Crouch, Chris Pollard, Bruce Davis, Henry Falko, Abel Erber, Dannis Hudson and Paul Brown were dealt a great weather hand, and good luck being able to get The Patriot, Engine 102, out of the shop and given her annual washing. The crew worked to fire up Engine 104 so it could be used to pull Engine 102 out of the shop for later switching. While waiting for Engine 104 to warm up, Kendall, Chris, Bruce and Colin did some more work to remove the inner lug nuts off our Hi-Rail truck rear wheel. They were successful in loosening all but two of the lugs which are being very stubborn! They also did some shop cleaning, and cleaned up an oil leak where the Patriot spent the winter.

Once Engine 102 was outside, the cleaning began, lasting until about 3:00pm. Locomotives have a lot of surface area on all the sheet metal body, so it takes some time and effort to get one cleaned. Our younger members learned a thing or two about hard work, and that it takes more than a few squirts of water from the hose to do this job! I think our more mature volunteers showed a thing or two about working hard!!

After The Patriot was all cleaned up, it was time to start her and make sure systems were ready for the Summer operating season. She started right up, and we were able to run her around a bit at the end of the day. A great day with good volunteers accomplishing a bunch of work that needed to get done!

I have included some photos of today’s work. Also included are some photos from volunteer Bruce Davis, who continues to do valuable cleanup work around the museum grounds!

– Paul

Photos by Paul Brown and Bruce Davis