I road the local shortline today... They have a 3 unit roster of a US Navy 80 Tonner, an ex Conrail SW7, and an ex IC GP10.
Long story short, the SW7 died on the road, and when we went to retrieve it with the 80 tonner, it took us ages to get back to the yard at 3mph in notch 8. Then, when we finally get back to the yard and uncouple the hoppers from the SW7, the SW7 dumps the air and wont release, so that has to be done manually. Once that's done the 80 Tonner is now broken, and the wheels won't spin... The SW7 decided to play nice fore 15 minutes and actually run (it had shut down because the heat thinned the oil so much the engine registered low oil) and the crew was able to shove the now dead 80 tonner back into the engine house and tie down for the week.
I guess I'm cursed, having arrived on the Newport Dinner Train on Saturday when they had 3 traction motors, an overheating engine, and broken gauges in the 44 tonner...
Hah, I'm a jinx, but here's some pictures.
In the yard in the cab of #5
The runaround near Toray
Op, sorry, too tired to move.
Towing Back to the yard at 3mph