Weekend Report

Many thanks again to our intrepid freelance photographer Steven, who has sent a raft of photos detailing restoration work performed on several projects over the weekend.

Let's start with the progress on Illinois Terminal 1565, our Class B electric locomotive, which was removed from service due to contactor problems. These were traced to badly worn pins in the Type M contactors that were preventing them from opening and closing properly. This weekend, the final replacement pins were machined, the final contactor was rebuilt, and the first 17 of the rebuilt contactors were installed by Steven, Mikey, and Brian.

Contactor #8 on the bench in a state of disassembly.

Turning new pins on the lathe. Each was custom turned to fit its contactor.

Mikey and Brian proudly display the final contactor to be rebuilt. Those smiles say "thank God this is the last one!"

Reinstalling 40 contactors into the cramped quarters inside the Class B isn't for the faint of heart.

Here you can see a disassembled contactor, with the motor circuit wires hanging down and the magnetic coil to lift the contactor visible behind the arc chute.

At the end of the night, the red golf cart had largely turned white thanks to the snow.

Steven also helped bring the Eclipse fenders for the 18 into the shop from out in Barn 4 and got some photos of the action.

Above, you can see the better of our two donor fenders with the "fence" folded outward. Below is the worse of the two donors with its fence folded over the basket.

Below, Frank Kehoe, yours truly in the green hat, Good Nick to the right, and Steven J all helped get these into the shop.

That pipe sticking out at the bottom has completely rusted through, but it's supposed to go into the T-shaped casting just to the right of Frank's hand. The T casting also has a tab where the "fence" attaches to the rest of the fender.

And finally, in more IT news, Steven, Mikey, and Brian worked on meggering the motors and air compressor on the 1702. The results were surprisingly good.

Above, the inside of the line car. Note the coal stove to the left!

The view looking west from up on the roof, with the 1754, 1808, and 306 evident.

Above and below, Mikey and Brian contorting themselves to get good megger readings on the 1702's four GE 73 traction motors. The worst of the four read at about 8 megohms, which is very good, especially for motors this old that haven't been touched in 50+ years.

Below can be seen eight of the line car's 13 type DB-41 contactors.

Thanks again to Steven for sending these great photos!