One step forward, two steps back

Frank writes...

Sunday was our second day this year open to the public, Saturday having been the official "opening day" (though the previous weekend we were open to members only). The last time we started train operations for the year in July was 1966! But I digress.

I spent part of my afternoon helping out with operations, notably running a trip with the CA&E steel train shown above to give regular motorman Paul Cronin a break. In the foreground is one of the hand sanitizer stations that have been set up around the property.

Besides the CA&E train, the 4391 and a three-car diesel coach train were also operating plus Zach was running training trips on the 415. All trains were running at 25% capacity to maintain social distancing. Boarding was tightly organized; between the train crews and volunteer platform staff, there were plenty of IRM people around to keep things orderly and keep the public informed. By and large it seemed like the visitors were happy and there were enough of them that a couple of trips ran right about at capacity.

While I was up at the depot I also got to look at the progress being made in preparation for repainting the building. The dispatcher's office has had the siding around the bay window replaced and there are numerous other spots where repairs have been made.

I also got a chance to gawk at the recent changes to the displays in Barn 3. The old lineup at the west end was Susan Marie-99-Ely-Lake City but the new lineup is Inglehome-Lake City-Ely-X38, that last one being the CGW Russell plow shown here. Track 34 will now host a train of restored freight cars, which will be an improvement as heretofore most of our restored freight cars have been squirreled away off exhibit. The display is still a work in progress and the plow will indeed end up at the west end of the track, not back 20'-30' as it is now.

Behind the plow are the B&O wagon-top boxcar, the IC side-door caboose, the Santa Fe stock car, and the recently-acquired FGEX wooden reefer.

The plan, as I understand it, is for most or all of these cars to eventually be opened up for visitors to walk through. They'll also have historic displays explaining various aspects of railroad freight service and freight train operation. The IC caboose isn't open, but the lights were on and attractive new signage was visible through the windows. This whole exhibit will really be a big step forward in our educational mission when it's done.

At the east end of the string is the FGEX reefer, which Gregg and others are currently working on repainting. Apparently we were able to obtain lettering diagrams from the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, which has an identical car (check it out here). It sounds like one more freight car, and possibly also a locomotive, will be added to the string of cars currently on track 34 to complete the display.

But now it's back to the real work, and the reason for this post's title. Following installation of the 451's air compressor, the "second shift" shop guys were able to hook up the air piping and try the compressor out. Unfortunately it didn't make any air, so Dan F took apart the valves. These were pretty gummed up but he was able to get them pretty well freed up. So they tried the pump again, and success! - it made air. But it only went up to about 60 pounds because the inner of the two main reservoir air tanks under the car has a hole in it. So that's going to need to be replaced. And the pump has a bad knock, so it will need to be taken back off the car to have the pins and bushings worked on. But the most irritating new discovery involved the car's trucks and motors. The east truck (as the car sits now) seems okay, and its motors meggered alright. But the megger readings on the motors in the west truck were rather low, which is not great. The brush holders in that truck are also somewhat corroded; one had a stuck brush while another had a broken brush spring. The second wheel set from the west end of the car also has a noticeable dish in the wheel tread - nothing that can't be fixed with our portable wheel lathe, but just another item to add to the checklist.

The full extent of the work required isn't entirely clear yet. The plan is to pull the brush holders from the west truck and give them a thorough going-over, and we can also put light bulbs in the motors to try and drive out any moisture and see if we can get the megger readings up. In the meantime the pump will be removed for work. And the job on Sunday was to take the air tanks off of the car so we can source replacements. The outer air tank will be hydro-tested to see whether it can be reused, and we were able to get that tank off after pulling the car out the door. Many thanks to Joel, Nick, Greg, and Richard for helping with this! We ran out of time as a squall line approached so we didn't get the inner tank off the car, but we know that one is bad anyway so it doesn't need to be hydroed.

So, stay tuned. Hopefully over the next few weeks we will have good news regarding air tank replacement, compressor repair, and motor work.

There's switching the easy way, and then there's switching the hard way, demonstrated here by Jeron and Zach. Look to the Future With Timken Tapered Roller Bearings! For further information write The Timken Roller Bearing Company, Canton 6, Ohio.

Of course we can't end without a few update photos of other Car Department projects. Work has resumed on Michigan Electric 28 and the front end is going back together nicely. It has recently reacquired front dash sheets.

And the current occupant of the "roof booth" on track 42 is CSL 3142, which has a shiny new coat of brown paint on its roof and a nice fresh coat of carmine red on its letterboard.