The Crockett plant reminded me of something a friend told me last month. This is going from memory.

He said he heard the C&H plant used Shay locomotives (I'm assuming it was just the boilers, and perhaps some mechanical gearing) to operate all or part of the plant. He mentioned that one employee who worked with this equipment later became a volunteer with PLA and was able to help them because of his previous steam experience.

Any truth to this?