More Motor Work
Most of the work I was involved with on Sunday concentrated on the motors for the 36. When I arrived Rod Turner had spotted the 36's truck over the pit and Norm Krentel was gathering tools for checking on the motor armature bearings. The motors in this truck were rebuilt in the 1990's, while the car was at Trolleyville, so they're in good condition. However we discovered one oddity with the armature bearings. The GE 66 motor has two separate cavities to access the armature bearing, one of which is packed with waste and the other of which serves as a sump - this side, connected to the waste cavity at the bottom, allows for oil to be pumped into the armature bearing and also allows use of a dip-stick to determine the oil level in the sump. However on these motors both cavities had been packed full of waste, making it impossible to properly oil the motor armature bearings. Norm and I extracted the waste and then I worked for a while with Frank Sirinek to make some new waste bundles; some of them are pictured below soaking in compressor oil. Norm used a pump to suck the old oil, and quite a bit of water, out of the motor armature bearing sumps.
In the meantime, Jeff Brady and Ray Schmid took a break from working on Michigan Electric 28 to come over and work with Norm on one of the axle caps. We had discovered some rust on the axle at one of the motor bearing surfaces, so the axle cap was removed to allow for inspection of the axle. Ray and I used pinch bars to slowly move the truck while Norm and Jeff sanded down some pitted areas, cleaned off the surface and re-oiled them. When the car is made operational we'll want to monitor axle cap bearing temperatures, but we should be fine. Below (L-R) are Ray, Norm and Jeff inspecting the axle cap bearing, which is to the left of Norm's head.
After this was done we reinstalled the axle cap and called it a day; next week we'll pack the motor armature bearings and that should complete substantial work on this truck prior to installation under the car. I did take a few breaks from this job to check on other things. I laid out the hole for the headlight at the east end of the 205; Rod is going to look into whether it's possible to obtain a 6-1/2" diameter hole saw to cut the hole for the headlight. And the 308 and 309 were operating. The latter car's governor is leaking and will have to be repaired or replaced but the cars ran well and, with the good weather, ran at capacity most trips due to the large crowd we had out at the museum. Below, passengers disembark under the watchful eyes of Joel Ahrendt and Jim West while a crowd waits on the platform to board for the next trip. If the CA&E had had this many passengers, they'd still be in business!
I also can't resist adding: the paint on the 308 is holding up pretty well, check out how shiny it still is!
In the meantime, Jeff Brady and Ray Schmid took a break from working on Michigan Electric 28 to come over and work with Norm on one of the axle caps. We had discovered some rust on the axle at one of the motor bearing surfaces, so the axle cap was removed to allow for inspection of the axle. Ray and I used pinch bars to slowly move the truck while Norm and Jeff sanded down some pitted areas, cleaned off the surface and re-oiled them. When the car is made operational we'll want to monitor axle cap bearing temperatures, but we should be fine. Below (L-R) are Ray, Norm and Jeff inspecting the axle cap bearing, which is to the left of Norm's head.
After this was done we reinstalled the axle cap and called it a day; next week we'll pack the motor armature bearings and that should complete substantial work on this truck prior to installation under the car. I did take a few breaks from this job to check on other things. I laid out the hole for the headlight at the east end of the 205; Rod is going to look into whether it's possible to obtain a 6-1/2" diameter hole saw to cut the hole for the headlight. And the 308 and 309 were operating. The latter car's governor is leaking and will have to be repaired or replaced but the cars ran well and, with the good weather, ran at capacity most trips due to the large crowd we had out at the museum. Below, passengers disembark under the watchful eyes of Joel Ahrendt and Jim West while a crowd waits on the platform to board for the next trip. If the CA&E had had this many passengers, they'd still be in business!
I also can't resist adding: the paint on the 308 is holding up pretty well, check out how shiny it still is!
I keep thinking (when I see these wonderful photographs) how sad it is that a E&B car isn't extant. Are any similar cars around? I had a question that is nagging me that I was reluctant to ask, because my memory at my age isn't exactly ironclad..Were there two of the distinctive Fort Dodge interurbans on the property at one time? Thanks in advance for any response.
ReplyDeleteBruce:
ReplyDeleteYes, it's too bad nothing from the E&B was preserved, but like most interurbans it was abandoned before the preservation movement started. The CA&E wood cars are as similar to the E&B as we are ever likely to get. As for the FDDM&S, I'm pretty sure the answer is no.
In terms of car architecture, size, interior accommodations and (probably) performance, the 36 is actually fairly close to an "average" E&B car. And, for a few years at least, both E&B and AE&C cars bore similar paint schemes.
ReplyDeleteThere was a former Fort Dodge car that sat at a gravel pit into the late 60s/early 70s; I think it got torched at some point. We were after its Baldwin 295 trucks for the short-lived effort to restore C&ME #202.
Several E&B carbodies survived the scrapping of the line, but unfortunately most of them were long gone by the time we came to the area. I know of two that were in Union itself; 208 was built into a house just west of Main Street, while 209 became a lunch counter. The 208 was eventually reduced to almost nothing by additions and remodeling over the years, while the 209 was lost to a grease fire around 1960.
Thanks guys..for clearing this up.
ReplyDeleteWhile not "the real thing", there is a very nice large scale model of a typical E&B car on display inside the Union depot.
ReplyDeleteThere is also a nice 1/4" scale model of an E&B box motor and the original E&B Union depot/substation on display inside the IRM depot as well.
John C
In the last month IRM acquired a donation of fairly complete interurban windows which had been stored in a barn. While this cannot be authenticated, the story that came with them says that they were from the E&B 208. If true, we have some firm dimensions which could be used to scale photos accurately and with a quarter million dollars or so we could BEGIN to construct a replica car.
ReplyDeleteOf course that is a dream, there really are no plans to consider that, and no resources to even put a pencil to paper to develop plans or a firm cost estimate.
Bob Kutella
Well I'll be dog-goned....I saw those windows in the shop extension and saw the 208 chalked on them, but never even considered the connection, even though they made me think of E&B car architecture. I thought maybe they were to be used as a pattern for the proposed backdating of the 36.
ReplyDeleteAmazing what turns up long after...just like those TM 1100 windows and trolley poles that were donated out of a barn in Wisconsin about fifteen years ago.