Bearings While You Wait

Another productive Saturday out at the old Museum was marked by a variety of interesting events, as usual.  I didn't arrive until noon, as I had a rehearsal in the morning, so here's only a sampling of what was going on.  When I got there, Frank Sirinek was sitting in the shop talking to Mike and some others, but he got up and left before I had a chance to take my coat off.  Coincidence?  You be the judge!

Anyway, let's see what other people are doing:

Lorne continues work on the Cleveland PCC; here he is drilling holes in another piece of the interior.  He and his wife recently went out to California to visit their daughter, and stayed in Death Valley for a couple of days, which he said was quite interesting.   So we'll have to keep that in mind.

Buzz was making some new windows for the 1003.  This North Shore caboose has been on display in Barn 6 for many years; the side away from the public has been disassembled, and the car itself until recently was used for storing miscellaneous parts, but it's thought it could be opened to the public for displays of various sorts.  So work is being done to make it accessible.

Bob Olsen was working all day on windows for the Mt. Harvard. 

And here we have another new member:  Vaughn Ehrhardt worked on the 1003, and then did some more work on the MD car door.

Not a new member, Bill something or other was doing his usual magic on the cover for the motor cutout switch on the 1797.  He explained to me that even though it's only a two-motor car to begin with, if there was a motor problem you could run the car on one motor.  That could be a life-saver if you were on a one-car train late at night out on the road.  

Be that as it may, I'll stick with GE.

And then of course there were other projects going on that I didn't snap.  Jack Biesterfeld continues to work on windows for the Green Bay car.   Keith was working on parts for the 1754, since Tim (knee) is on the DL.  And so on.

As for me, I put a second coat of red on the 36 door.  It's probably not obvious from this picture, but it's better though not perfect.  Another coat should do it.

And I stained the two arm rests that had been stripped of paint last time, stripped two more, and stained them also.  They look like this.  Next time they'll get some varnish, and sooner or later they will be ready for installation in the 309.  Unfortunately, the other cars have entirely painted interiors, so it's nice to be able to work on a varnished interior again.  For me, the 309 will always be the pride of the fleet.

Finally, we have another typical Car Department project to keep one of our cars in operation.  The 251 had developed a hotbox last year, and this was traced to a defective bearing.  In order to work on it, it had to be switched out, and this leads to a photo that could only be taken at Highwood.  I think.

Photo by Zach Ehlers

There's something suspicious about that pup on the left, but I can't put my finger on it.  Anyway, the 251 was moved over to the pit lead.

The defective bearing had been babbitted, but the babbit was pealing off, and probably scratching the axle surface.  We have other replacement bearings that should be reliable, but the axle needs to be smoothed first.  The solution is to replace the bearing with a piece of wood of the right shape, place sandpaper between it and the axle, and run the car back and forth to remove any scratches.  We've done this before, but the wood blocks could not be found, so it's time to make a new one or two.

Buzz helped Joel make a new block safely and efficiently on the table saw.  Here it is part way through the process.  You had to be there.

And it looks like this when finished, with the sandpaper attached. 

Rich and Zach jack up the journal to remove the bearing.

Greg uses a packing hook to get the bearing out.

When the sanding block is installed, it looks like this.

Then we run the car back and forth on the lead; Rich walks alongside to check the progress.  Zach is the motorman, and Vaughn gets some prelimary motorman training.

Richard then checks the condition of the paper; it's amazing anything's left.  But it looks like the axle should be fine.

Well, I had to leave before the operation was through.  But they will be reporting on the final result, I hope.  So don't touch that dial!