So you think you're the world's greatest power tool user?  Uh huh, yeah, right...

...take a look at these tools which exert great power to repair steam locomotive wheel sets.

At the center of the picture is a trailing truck from a steam locomotive which includes the horizontal axle and two steel wheels.  A steel tire is pressed onto each wheel to extend the wheel's life.  To give you a point of reference, the wheelset is nearly as tall as the 55 gallon drum just behind and to the right of it that is sitting on a raised platform.

Steel tires tend to run down after a while and have to be replaced by pressing them on and off the wheel.  Part of that process includes mounting and dismounting the wheels from the axle.  Take a look at this picture which shows one of the wheel mounting tools.

If you needed to turn the wheel, you would use the electric overhead crane which can lift tens of tons of material to raise the wheelset from the floor, turn it horizontally and load it into the wheel lathe.  If the steel tire on the wheel is no longer serviceable, you would heat it up and remove it manually (yes, pretty much beat it off the rim!)  *

Interesting?  Take a look at this--what a steam locomotive looks like when it's removed from service after a derailment required a bearing replacement.

The picture above is a good one to see the size difference between the pickup truck and the locomotive.  Notice more huge power equipment in the front right and rear right parts of the picture.

This picture is interesting because it shows what the locomotive looks like when its tender (aka "the coal car") is removed from its semi-permanent coupling.  The cab of this locomotive, where the engineer and fireman ride, is fully enclosed as you might expect from its service in the northern part of the Western Hemisphere.

(If I got something wrong about what each piece of equipment does or is called, I'm sure some railfan will drop me a note to correct me!  I was writing notes on a scrap of paper in between shooting pictures and walking with the rangers.)

*  A special tip of the hat to RL in Marion, Alabama who helped fine-tune some of the text on this page!  (Yes, that's a nice way of saying he pointed out my mistakes in a very diplomatic manner!)  Thanks, RL!