Time for 715 to have its annual maintenance and inspection. Tom Albright has been a very active member of our operating crew and was interested in learning maintenance and repair! We welcomed him with open arms!

Jeff Bennett and Tom Albright snap a selfie before getting to work.

Tom quickly realized just how, let’s just say “involved” it is to inspect and maintain these magnificent machines! He must like it, he’s all smiles!

With Tom is doing some wheel truck work, James Tarbet is steadily working his was through the group switch contacts.

The group switch is the box the makes and breaks electrical connections, based on what the motorman is doing at the controls. All of those contact points, and the mechanisms that operate them, need regular servicing. It’s quite time consuming….

And look at the coupler, the work group has a blue flag installed. This indicates that the car is being serviced and that no one but the person that put the flag there may do anything in, on, or under the car without that persons express permission. Blue Flagging is an industry wide safety system, and we vigilantly follow it!

Oh look, Jeff found another hard to reach area for Tom to service. Tom wanted the “full experience” so we were happy to oblige. It was really great to have another happy set of hands, not to mention it’s great for our operating crew to understand how these beasts work, and what it takes to keep them in tip-top condition. 

While we didn’t finish everything that is needed for 715’s annual on Sunday, we did get through a lot of things on the list. We were able to put the car back into service if needed, and will continue on the annual next weekend. It’s not uncommon for a proper annual inspection and servicing to take multiple work sessions.