Air Tank Installation

Today it was time to install the newly-tested and repainted air tanks on the 36.  Dan Mulvihill had offered to help, but I decided I could probably do it myself, and let him work on other projects.  I did get some help from Victor and then from Dan in getting the air tanks onto the cart, to avoid damaging Richard's beautiful black paint job any more than necessary.

I had all the parts on hand to construct a simple scaffold so the tanks could be rolled into position and then chocked while the support bands were attached.  First, they have to go under the headlight resistor cabinet (the rusty box with the holes in it) and then up under the support frame.

By the end of the day both tanks were in position and all piping was in place.   Rod helped by making new gaskets for a couple of unions that didn't survive disassembly. 

On this end of the two tanks, the supply line from the compressor goes into the "wet" tank, closer to the camera.  At the other end, a pipe goes from the wet tank to the dry tank.  Back at this end, three pipes lead from the dry tank to 1) the feed valve 2) the two motorman's positions, for the brake valves and whistles, and 3) the sleet scrapers.  Unfortunately, we can't find one of the drain cocks for the tanks, so I wasn't able to try pumping up and checking for leaks.  On Saturday, if we still can't find the right part, I may try plugging the drain hole temporarily.

I also wanted to start on the roof of the 460, but ran out of time.  At least I got nice and dirty.

Photo by Buzz, who was working on seats for the Ely.  Evidently by making a more intelligent choice of what to work on, you can avoid all the dirt and grime.  I'll have to think about it....