June 1999

Number 12 at the Tweetsie Railroad Shop

All in a day's work for Tweetsie Shop personnel. They were in the midst of replacing the flues in number 12 this year. She had been completely overhauled except for the flues, and some were found to be leaking, so one of the biggest jobs of overhauling a steam locomotive had to be done.

The hinged door of the smokebox had already been removed, and this worker was heating the nut/bolt combination inside the smokebox in preparation for removing the aforementioned bolts. The worker took a large socket with a long breaker bar (aptly named) and was literally twisting the heads off the bolts that were holding on the front of the smokebox. If you look carefully, you can see the screen inside the smokebox that keeps large cinders from going out the stack. It holds them in and lets them bounce around until they are small enough to go through the mesh and safely out the stack. Very interesting to watch mechanical work being done on a piece of equipment this large.