Easier Than Expected

It's not often that fixing a problem turns out to be easier than expected, but once in a great while it happens, especially if like us you're devoted to clean living. ("We don't smoke and we don't chew, and we don't go with girls who do....")

Last Wednesday I said that the 308 probably wouldn't be running this year. I was wrong! Fixing the compressor turned out to be much simpler than we had thought, since the problem was traced to a short in the lower brush holder, not the field coils. Each brush holder is held to the frame by two bolts, which are insulated by a short rubber tube around the bolt, and some layers of mica and cardboard on each side, as perhaps you can see here. One of the tubes had a piece missing, which was enough to cause a short. This is a picture of a spare compressor in the field. We removed the lower brush holder to retrieve the insulators, and this enabled us to figure out how to replace the one in the 308.

Frank did most of the work. Here he is putting all the parts back together. It's a hard job, but it was easier and faster than dropping the compressor and taking it apart! After the brush holder was replaced, we meggered it again, and then tested it. It pumps up nicely. After cycling it a couple of times, we decided it was fixed and called it a day. After this miraculous cure, however, the patient still has to pay a visit to the doctor's office for a yearly checkup. So I'll have to schedule an inspection sometime soon. In the meantime, we'll continue to run the 309 and 319. So that was a very satisfying accomplishment!

Meanwhile, of course, lots of other projects are being advanced. Here Ray Schmid is painting the roof of the 28. By the way, Jeff loaned us a box wrench which helped a lot in fixing the 308.

And the playground is much more complete.

Nick, Mark, Dan Fenlaciki, and others were working on the trucks for the dome car, now that the wheelsets have arrived. They were having trouble removing this brake cylinder; the pins were frozen in place. If I had more time I could explain how all this works. Among other things, the chain connects to the hand brake

And Ed Oslowski is still hard at work on IT 277. He showed me the various aspects of the project he's currently working on. I know only too well how tedious this sort of thing can be, but Ed is doing a very thorough and careful job. So that's gratifying to see.

Frank adds...

Most of my time was spent working on the 308's compressor, as outlined above.  Afterward I headed up to the depot and went for a ride on the two-car CA&E steel train, which was in good hands with conductor Henry Vincent and motorman Dan Mulvihill (right).  Following this I wandered over to 50th Avenue, where a crew of people was working on the CTA 2000s.  Earlier I had seen a couple of the "L" car guys in the car shop drilling holes for new roof saddles.  By late afternoon there was a gaggle of workers mainly trying to figure out issues with the car's modern GE SCM control, a cam-operated controller which I can only guess is a distant descendent of PC control.  Below (L-R) are Greg Kepka, Richard Schauer (with laptop) and Jerry Saunders, with Dave Fullarton and Eric Zabelny also helping out.  Yikes, look at all those wires and interlocks!  I guess we're lucky; with Type M control, problems may not be any easier to fix but it seems like they must at least be easier to diagnose!