Pacific Railroad
Preservation Assoc.

Turning the Drivers, Part 3.

700 drivers

Picking up where we left off in Part 2, here's driver #2 on the engineer's side after some metal has been removed. Photo by Terry Thompson.

700 drivers

700 drivers

It's dark in the roundhouse in November (it's dark the whole year for that matter, but it's darker in November), so the shutter speed was only about 1/4 sec, giving a blur that might make you think the driver is being rotated faster than it really was. At the faster speed for carbide, a revolution takes about seven seconds. Photo by Terry Thompson.


Gear change

700 drivers

At the 195:1 reduction gear, Tom is removing the small pulley used with carbide tools. Photo by Terry Thompson.

700 drivers

Replacing with a larger pulley to slow it down for the high-speed tools. That may sound contradictory, but high-speed isn't what it used to be. Now a revolution of the driver will take about 15 seconds. Photo by Terry Thompson.

700 drivers

Adjusting belt tension. Photo by Terry Thompson.

700 drivers

Back at it. Photo by Terry Thompson.

700 drivers

Photo by Terry Thompson.

700 drivers

Done with the engineer's (left) side #2 driver. Preparing to move to the fireman's side. Photo by Terry Thompson.

700 drivers

Working on fireman's side #2 driver. Photo by Terry Thompson.

700 drivers

Checking with profile gauge. Photo by Terry Thompson.

Turning the Drivers - Part 2

Turning the Drivers - Part 4