As an update to yesterday's post, I started by investigating a minor problem with the reverser: intermittent operation. I polished up the contact surfaces on the reverser some more, and it seems to operate reliably now. 
Here's a picture of the assembled controller. I have not yet installed the fingers for the motor circuits, but they don't affect the operation of the controller. It needs some more cleaning on the coils and other surfaces, I know.
Here's a picture of the assembled controller. I have not yet installed the fingers for the motor circuits, but they don't affect the operation of the controller. It needs some more cleaning on the coils and other surfaces, I know.The next electrical problem is that we aren't getting 600V power to the controller at the #2 end. I haven't yet traced this out, but it should not be difficult to fix. I'm also plotting the acquisition of various other parts we'll need before installing the contactors. For instance, Rod will be ordering the rubber grommets we need for the support bolts. Since the entire frame of a DB-15 contactor is live, it's necessary to insulate it from the bolts.
Much of the rest of the day was involved in stripping paint from the #1 end of the car, since there's room to work. Here we see the work in progress.And it was a nice day for a walk, so I checked on the 321 again.
Jim Followell stopped by. He's getting ready to finish painting the 451, and he asked me about the controller cover for the 319. It's still over in Barn 2, and he'll shoot it at the same time as the car. I went over there with him to make sure we had the right part.
The vestibule is stunning. The fresh paint in this flash picture is nearly blinding.
By the way, back on the 36, there's an earlier version of green paint under the retriever bracket. I don't know how long this paint was there; I would have said all pictures of the car at Olmsted Falls had the darker green.
I always thought the CA&E was a bit more suble in designating the #1 and #2 end of the car....
ReplyDeleteI like how everything is red in the vestibule...even the knob on the controller handle.
ReplyDeleteWe tend to be more picky about restorations at the museum, but this is more like how the cars were really painted in service. When we removed covers from switches in the cabs of NSL 749, there was green paint covering the off/on indicator in the position the switches had been in when last painted on the NSL.
ReplyDeleteCA&E was notorious for their "dip job" paint jobs. Bob Bruneau's old joke was that the Wheaton shop crews poured a gallon of red in a Hoover vacuum cleaner, threw it in reverse, blasted the whole platform red, then took a newspaper and wiped off the glass windows and air gauges.
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