# WP&YR #73 Piston Rod Failure on Video



## Tom Burns (May 11, 2008)

John Frank, Geno Arrue and I made a trip up to Alaska last week to ride all the railroads in the state. The highlight of the week long adventure was the Friday steam excursion from Skagway to Fraser Meadows on the White Pass & Yukon Route. As you can guess from the title, we never made it to Fraser Meadows. Approaching the summit of White Pass, I was on the 1st car platform filming Engine #73 when the excitement started.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R659gx2IZNQ

Although you cannot hear it on the video, the initial indication I heard from the crew was that we had run over something. Immediately following the initial assessment, you can see the engine crew check for derailment. What was not immediately apparent (to me) was that the engine had experienced a right piston rod failure. The piston rod and what was left of the piston was protruded completely through the front cylinder head. In the video you can see the crew locate the cylinder head cover 2 cars back which fortunately we did not run over. Although nothing was felt in the first car, I believe the locomotive may have ran over one of the cylinder head pieces as there were a lot of fragments collected.
The 12pm steam excursion was the 1st of 4 trains on the line heading up the pass. These trains were packed with people from 4 cruise ships, all of whom had to get back to their respective ships prior to the evening departure. It was obvious the crew understood the time criticality. After initial inspection, the crew uncoupled engine #73 and tried to move it on its own power.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLJmWcHeLe8

At this point, it was obvious to me that they had a major cylinder failure as steam simply flowed out of the right side. So what is the first thing that comes to mind when you experience a major steam locomotive failure with 4 trains involved? Charter a helicopter! I was extremely surprised how quickly after the failure a helicopter arrived with the Superintendent (?) and tools and that it landed on a small spot of land next to the track. The crew then removed the remaining bits of the failed cylinder head and pulled the piston forward a little to allow adequate clearance to safely move the engine.
The Jig Saw Puzzle
The square dance that followed was another unexpected highlight. The failure occurred a few hundred yards short of the summit. At the summit, there was a long full double switch siding along with a short single switch stub siding. On this day there was also a work crew with 2 speeders at the summit. Somehow, the failed locomotive with train, speeders, and 3 following trains all had to get around each other at the summit in the shortest amount of time possible. This complex maneuver had the conductors scratching heads and quietly talking about how to do it with the minimum amount of movements. I don’t know who orchestrated this unplanned operation, but he did an outstanding job. The 2nd train was a through train. The 3rd and 4th trains were summit trains returning directly to Skagway from the summit.
To our surprise, the 2rd train with 8 cars pulled by the smaller GE diesels came up behind as and was successful in pushing our train up to the summit (14 cars plus dead steam locomotive). The antique GE’s had to really work but they did manage to get this consist moving up grade. 
Prior to our arrival, the speeders were positioned on the full siding behind the stub siding switch. Fortunately the short stub siding was in the correct direction allowing the 2nd train to push our train onto the siding and then onto the short stub siding. Engine #73 was then uncoupled and left at the end of the stub siding. The 2nd train then backed up with our cars clear of the stub siding switch. The speeders were they moved forward of the switch and placed on the stub siding. The 2nd train then pushed us forward on the full siding enough to clear the 1st full siding switch. The 2nd train then uncoupled and backed onto the mainline. It then proceeded forward on the mainline and continued its through service. The 3rd train then pulled up on the main line next to the siding. The engines were uncoupled, moved forward, and backed onto the siding coupling onto our cars. Our cars were then pulled forward to clear the main line switched then pushed back connecting us to the cars of the 3rd train. The diesels then uncoupled, ran around the train on the siding allowing them to be at the lead of this now 14 car train. The 4th train then pulled up on the siding giving the 3rd train clear track back to Skagway. We were initially on the 1st car on the steam excursion. We now were the last car on the return 14 car train with great views out the back. We departed the summit towards Skagway leaving the 4th train to do its run around switching and return behind up.
The following shows close up views of the failure along with the broken pieces of piston and cylinder head piled up on the pilot (pilot head pieces have bolt holes). Note that all the cylinder head studs are bent outward. Although we were not allowed off the train for a closer look, the train crew that inspected the damage thought the cylinder casting was undamaged. Let us hope that is the case.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YczQSGEy_s8

Given the events, I cannot say enough about how well the WP&YR staff handled the situation. All trains returned to Skagway perhaps a little late, but well in time for the all-important dinner bell on the cruise ships. As a few passengers expressed displeasure about not completing out trip to Fraser Meadows, the railroad even offered compensation to those interested. Our experience on the other hand greatly exceeded expectations and we saw more REAL railroading than we would experience in dozens of trips.
As we departed our coach, we could not help from laughing when one unhappy passenger turned to his wife and said “I told you we should have gone fishing”!


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## artgibson (Jan 2, 2008)

Looks like an eventful trip. Cannot wait to hear John's take on the adventure at Steve's tomorrow


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## Nutz-n-Bolts (Aug 12, 2010)

Wow Tom, Thanks for sharing your great footage of such a rare occurrence! I totally agree that I wouldn't have complained one bit about all of the events and their outcome. Not that I would have wished them on the railroad but what a thing to see first hand. Also good for folks to see and remind them of the costs involved with running a railroad. Thanks for posting!


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## jfrank (Jan 2, 2008)

Tom gave a pretty detailed account of the incident. It was exciting to say the least. I never expected the helicopter. This railroad really has it's act together and is very professional. We took a number of video's of the trip and also a bunch of stills. You can find other comments about this at the Yahoo site. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/whitepassfanlist Skagway is a hard place to get too and it's expensive. We got there via Anchorage and Juneau and the Alaska Marine ferry. We left by Air Canada out of Whitehorse. You can do the trip either way. Probably the cheapest way is to go in and out via Whitehorse. The railroad runs a train/bus route both ways to Whitehorse. The train goes as far as Carcross, 67 miles with the remaining 43 miles by bus. I thought we might be able to follow the WP&Y route between Carcross and Whitehorse from the bus, but you can't really see much.


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## SailorDon (Jan 6, 2008)

I love the part at 1:35 in the first video where they find the cover for the cylinder head alongside the track. 

It reminds me of when I over-stress my Harley Davidson motorcycle and have to go back along the road to find the pieces that fell off. 

I guess that's what happens when they have drag races up the mountain.


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