News and views of progress at the Illinois Railway Museum
Monday, August 3, 2020
Smoke in the air
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).
When I arrived, Greg (shown above) had gotten most of the 451's outboard air tank wire-wheeled so that our friends in the Steam Shop can hydro and UT it. But he got pulled away to help with the 4391 so I spent a while finishing up the work on the tank. It's now ready to send over to the steam guys to get looked at, and if its condition is okay then we have one new air tank to order (if not, we have two). As for the 4391, there was some brief excitement when the magic smoke got let out of one of its baseboard heat ducts while it was in service. The motorman handed the situation quickly and ably, getting the passengers off and shutting down the car. After towing the car over to the pit and looking it over, it appears that somehow the auxiliary heat circuit was powered up which set some paper debris in the heat duct to smoldering. No damage was done.
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!
Public operations were a bit more interesting than last weekend. There was once again a CA&E train and a diesel coach train, but the diesel train had to be towed (including the diesel) by ComEd 4 for one trip. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of that though you can see it on the webcam time-lapse page as the 1:45 departure. Then later in the afternoon, the Shay came out! It was undergoing its annual test for the FRA inspector and ended up making a trip out to Kishwaukee Grove, its first voyage that far east this century, or so I'm told. I was back by Barn 4 when it departed but grabbed the above video.
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.
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 !
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.
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.
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.
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 !
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the diesel dept. has info on drilling.
Randy Stahl
Randy, did the air tank pass their test?
ReplyDeleteTed 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.
ReplyDeleteSo why did the diesel coach train need to have the faithful old electric come to its rescue? Inquiring minds want to know?
ReplyDeleteC 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.
ReplyDeleteR. W. Schauer
Out of curiosity, do the fuel tanks on those guys ever get drained and cleaned or does stuff accumulate there forever?
ReplyDeleteC 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.
ReplyDeleteR. W. Schauer