Close up of BoxPox drivers and valve gear components

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Close up of BoxPox drivers and valve gear components

Steam Locomotive

This photograph of the running gear of the 3148 gives a clue to the immediate reason for her removal from service (she would have succumbed to dieselitis shortly afterward anyway). Notice that the piston key is not tightly fitted into the crosshead - it is merely resting in the slot. Several days earlier, the key had worked out while a hostler was jockeying the big girl around in enginehouse territory, and before he got her stopped, enough damage had been inflicted on the piston and crosshead to render them irreparable. Since this unfortunate accident occurred less than a year before the end of steam activities, replacements for such vital parts and the labor necessary to install them were not forthcoming, and the only 'replacements' that ever arrived for the 3148 were her last ones - diesels.

Jeremy Taylor

Jeremy Taylor

2-1/4x3-1/4 neg

4/1956

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4-8-2

425

L-4b

#3148

Lima

Shelby St., Indianapolis, IN