The Dakota Southern opens the petcocks when the unit is shut down as normal practice. There are exceptions, such as the lcomotive will be used again later in the day. The 4427 is the only active SD right at this time, so caution is used when starting it up. The big SD has been in service hauling stored grain empties across South Dakota.
There is no reason to use a pipe wrench to tighten them up, hand tight will work fine. I haven't ever heard of crews tightening them with anything other than the old bar that EMD built to fit the end. It was just about 8 inches long with to small prongs on the end. 4427 has hand holds tacked onto the end of the petcock shaft. Most EMD come this way or are converted at one point.
It just simply sheered away when the drain cock was opened, no particular reason, it just broke.
It has a modified solution that gets the job done for now. They welded the end to the side of the engine to give the shaft something to hold on to for now. The EZ outs didn't quite hold up, it was tight.
Thanks
SD Shortline
I'll get some pictures up of her one of these days...