![\"OLYMPUS](\"http:\/\/www.dailylife.barrowroad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Day1526901.jpg\")
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This is a neat view of the wheels and brass…<\/p>\n …but if you look closely at the bottom of the wheel, you will see the parking brake on these engines: \u00c2\u00a0a loop of chain! \u00c2\u00a0The Ranger said that actually the engines could get over that chain if they weren’t ladened down with cars to pull, but only if they really tried hard.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n When the ties had chopped ends like this, it meant they came from the Union Pacific RR, coming in from the Great Plains, where they used any wood they could find for ties. \u00c2\u00a0Square ends meant they came from the Central Pacific RR, where they were logged and cut in mills in the\u00c2\u00a0Sierra Nevada Mountains!<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n The brass pipe on theft side of the wheels is for dried sand. \u00c2\u00a0It is dusted on the tracks when the wheels need a lot of traction. \u00c2\u00a0In India on the “Jewel Box” train they have men standing on the sides of the engine and they spread the sand by hand!<\/p>\n If you have noticed some “bent” images, they were taken with the Olympus 9mm Body Cap Fisheye lens I got the Dailylife Wife before our last Alaskan Cruise. \u00c2\u00a0Pretty handy with big machinery!<\/p>\n The wooden paddle on the right side of the left wheel is the brake.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n