While I don't think it was a stubborn engine, but rather, a moron in mechanical dept trying to start it, I had a Geep once that wouldn''t keep running. It was our last drill move of the day, and we were using road power to drill out hte cars, trapping the Geep on a stub ended track. We weren't gonna use it at all so it was no biggie.
But something came up and we had to go and make the move after we got back from a trip on the road. Mechanical is like "okay, we will go and start it and get it ready". So we pull into the yard, and I just see puffs of smoke coming out of it every 30 seconds or so. WTF?
So i walk over, and he goes, "I can't keep it running, it keeps stalling".
So im standing on the ground and he is on the side walkway. Cranks it, starts right up and then he is revving the snot out of it with the layshaft. It runs, and then stalls when he lets go of the layshaft. Go figure.
He goes, "see, I think you are gonna have to figure something else out, use the other power or something"
"Can I have a shot at it?" I say
"Sure, knock your socks off, im going inside" - he says
I crank it, start it up, DON'T rev the snot out of it, play with the shaft a litlte bit to keep it running, loosen my grip on the layshaft to feel what it wants to do, and then about 20 seconds later, it settles down into a nice idle. He comes running out....
"How did you do that? We've been having problems all week wiht that piece of junk!"
"Gee, I can't imagine why" I said "don't rev the snot out of it when its cold and just started and it will run" I said
"you think?", he answers back -
I just looked at him blankly..........then made our move with the "junk" engine....
On the RR, "believe nothing you hear and only half of what you see"
John, aka "JTGSHU" passed away on August 26, 2013. We honor his memory and his devotion to railroading at railroad.net.