We've been talking for months about the need for funds to rebuild at least one traction motor for CA&E 308 so it can go back into revenue service. Thanks to many generous donations from friends far and wide, that project is now in progress. The first step was to extract the best of the spare GE 66 motors from storage and bring it over to the car shop for cleaning and transport.
Gerry Dettloff provided advice and expertise in driving the big fork lift, the only efficient way to move something this heavy around. I provided the unskilled labor in moving chains and blocking and so on. It was every bit as much fun as I had anticipated.
I was too busy to get more than one picture of the process. First, three other spare 66's had to be removed from the container, one by one, and set aside. Then the last one was taken over to Barn 4, as seen here.
Then the others got put back in the container. From here, the spare motor will eventually be shipped to our chosen motor shop for rebuilding.
Thanks again to everyone who has contributed to the 308!!!
The rest of the day was mostly spent cleaning up straps and clamps for the canvas on the 460, and then some more tacking. Only the east end remains to be done.
Also, Gerry, Norm Krentel, and I spent some time looking at the wiring of the 306, and we came up with a tentative wiring diagram for the roof cables. Much more interesting and less exhausting than moving traction motors.
What will you do with the damaged motor currently on the 308? Is it good enough to save as a spare for future repair?
ReplyDeleteYes, certainly. As my favorite French philosopher did often say, "Parts is parts!"
ReplyDeleteBy the way, in the spirit of "Where's Waldo?", in the first picture of this post Gerry is driving the forklift, but see if you can identify the second person in the picture!
ReplyDeleteI am wondering now if a 25-tooth pinion is standard. I don't think the gear ratio is 4/1 as on many locomotives. The axle gear cannot be larger than perhaps a 50-tooth gear.
ReplyDeleteRandy Stahl
For 37" wheels the gearing for GE-66 motors was 25:40, and for 33" wheels it was 20:32, both a ratio of 5:8. These things are geared for high speed, not pulling power!
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, Randy, doing the math we can see that the motors would never be turning at more than about 1000 rpm in service, which probably seems remarkably low for modern machines.
ReplyDeleteIt's Carl
ReplyDeleteCorrect! (He was answering the question about the second person in the picture. And of course that's Carl Illwitzer.)
ReplyDelete