Locomotive No. 154, a 2-8-0 Schenectady-built Consolidation will be making its first runs for the public this Saturday on the Three Rivers Rambler. 3RR has just finished a 2 year restoration of the locomotive, which had been on static display in Chilhowee Park for the last 55 years.

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/j...t-run-57-years/

Sadly, No. 154 was sidelined by a bad wheel bearing today, but they hope to have it replaced and back in service in time to earn some revenue on tomorrow's 90 min excursion trips. It was a pretty sight though, sitting beside the tracks steaming away just east of Volunteer Landing at their engine house.

The last week I have been helping out with the 154 and to be honest I think today went really well given the circumstances. Due to various reasons the original idea of 2 weeks of testing was not able to happen. The jacketing was finished last weekend and there have been many things going on this week. Since last weekend it has been a 7am to at least midnight every day. Put a fire in it Thursday for the first time with it all together ( but still a ton of small stuff to do) it went ok, but there was a major leak with the throttle valve, very tight lead truck, very tight driver bearings and a handful of other stuff. So we had to drag it with the southern SW1 to the river on Friday afternoon and work it on there. Basically we had to get it to river by Friday to make sure it would be ready for today, otherwise it would have been much easier to work on it at the Knoxville loco works shop. Once at the river we moved many of the tools there as well and began the work. Just pulling it down there loosened it all up, but uncovered another the problem, which the binder that holds the bearing block in place on a driver was loose and this would have to be dealt with once at the river.


After we got it there people stayed all night working on it and pretty much got it all straightened out. The throttle was good, binder, bearings- all good. BUT....it had not been test run really under its own power so were being really easy with it. Then on the right side a bolt the holds the crosshead guide broke due to the tram on the drivers being a little out of adjustment. This is what sidelined it, will require some investigation into what caused it, a trip back to the shop and some work to get it fixed. One injector and the air pumps also were a bit of a issue. The good news is that it did run good- well timed, plenty of steam, plenty of power, very tight etc. So will be running good once it can be tested and some of these little things dealt with. 203 will be pulling the train tomorrow.

Here are a few pics from the last few days.

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a few more. Unfortunately didn't get any today or of the trip to the river from the shop.... it was a bit busy.

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Nickco201, I quite understand the issues of finding all the kinks and discovering more as you get her closer and closer to operational. Y'all have done a wonderful job with her. She looked great as she simmered quietly by the river as we came past on the 2pm free trip. I am sure that everything will get ironed out, and she will be chomping at the bit this fall. :-)

During a night test run with yours truly watching the fire.

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Here are a few 154 pics from the last week or so. It was in the Knoxville locomotive works for the last few weeks. During this time it has gotten a new ash pan, sander line work, blow downs that exhaust in ash pan to blow it out, plumbing in cab finished, air pump work, spring rigging work, shoe and wedge work ( which isn't fun). It was neat to see it sitting beside modern NS SD 40-2s and GP 38-2 getting radio control units fitted.

Then we pulled it out last Friday and the last two pictures were made early Saturday morning in front of the old shop building at KLW.

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Thanks for keeping us informed on this great project.

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Bruce (McToots) McElhoe
KAMRI President
and Web Site Moderator