An Echo Of A Prior Life

 

While cleaning out down the basement a few weeks ago, I came across this pen and ink illustration. It was drawn by a gentleman named T.C. Gillespie, and it was one of a package of correspondence cards that he sold back in the late seventies that depicted river scenes.

Shown is something that we did at locks and landings, lifting the valve covers to do a top deck inspection. You are checking that there is nothing adrift in there; valve springs unbroken and where they belong, no collapsed valve lash adjusters, fuel jumpers not leaking, etc. The engine is an EMD 645, likely a twelve cylinder, and this is the outboard side as the explosion doors on the crankcase (look for the handhole covers with the four circles on them in the lower row) are on this side, they were always mounted where we were not walking as a matter of course.

The engineer has the obligatory flashlight and rag, when you opened these valve covers, there was always dripping oil that you had to wipe away before getting your head in there for a close look, otherwise that oil ended up in your hair and on the back of your neck. :-)

I find pen and ink as an art form fascinating for the level of detail and the meticulous attention to detail that it must demand, and I like his use of selective detail here to focus your gaze on the subject.

It's a fine look at something that we did frequently, presented in a novel way.