Frank writes...
Sunday was a productive day. The weather was a bit odd - warm and humid, with the occasional cloudburst moving through to spice things up a bit. But there seemed to be a decent crowd of visitors and some interesting train operations (more on that later).
Since I was already dirty from wire-wheeling, why not up the ante and do some needle-chipping? A job well suited to my minimal talents is chipping the paint (and overspray) off of underbody equipment. The 451 looks gorgeous from the floor up but as seen above its under-floor equipment still needs a bit of cosmetic attention.
I didn't get as far as I had hoped because I was pulled away but I did make some progress. In coming weeks I will try and continue along with this so that we can start to get step wells and other equipment under the end of the car chipped, primed, and painted. What I was pulled away to do was take a megger look at the motors of the 453 but stuck brush issues got in the way of that. Thanks to Jack and Lucas for all of their help with the project though!
And when it returned it was on Station Track 2 with its short caboose train. The first day of revenue steam operation is currently scheduled for the 15th, so make sure to tell your friends and family to buy their tickets now. I'm told we were pretty close to our capacity limits this past weekend so tickets for steam days may actually sell out.
And while I was over by the steam shop on an errand I snapped a photo of SP 975, which is looking quite smart these days. I believe they are working on creating lettering stencils for it. While I'm thinking of it, many thanks to the car shop crew for pulling the line car out and fixing the wire insulator on track 84, which had been causing some issues.
7 comments:
There is a benefit to doing an ultrasound thickness test on the tank and drill the tanks. It looks like they are nice welded tanks and not that old. I think there are diesels in service as old as the CA&E cars !
I'm sure the diesel dept. has info on drilling.
Randy Stahl
Randy, did the air tank pass their test?
Ted Miles, IRM Member
It may not have been clear, but the work done on Sunday was done so that the air tank could be made ready for its test. There is some additional work that will be done by the Steam Shop in preparation for the actual hydro and UT test but that will wait until the tank is taken over to their shop and until they have the time to do it.
So why did the diesel coach train need to have the faithful old electric come to its rescue? Inquiring minds want to know?
C Kronenwetter
Charlie- IT 1605 was having trouble making sufficient power because it was starving for fuel. Investigation revealed that some kind of detritus from the tank had fouled the fuel filters. After they were changed, the trouble was cleared for the time being; fortunately the tank isn't particularly full at the moment.
R. W. Schauer
Out of curiosity, do the fuel tanks on those guys ever get drained and cleaned or does stuff accumulate there forever?
C Kronenwetter
Owing to the scale and nature of the fuel tank, it's largely on an as-needed basis, which is seldom. Just like an auto, diluting any contaminants and letting the fuel filter handle it is usually effective enough.
R. W. Schauer
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