More Bearing Work

Frank writes...

Work continues on getting the new axle cap bearings on the 309 to cooperate. A huge THANK YOU goes out to everyone who worked on the car on Saturday. The #2L bearing, which was installed with difficulty a few weeks ago, continued to run hot on a Saturday test trip. After the trip it took more than two hours to remove the bearing, as it was practically clamped to the axle, but the guys managed to get that done Saturday evening and replaced it with one of the old, worn bearings. The new #2L bearing halves will be soldered back together and machined again, first to open up the inside diameter and also to shave down the thickness of the collar.

So, late on Sunday afternoon, it was time for another test trip, this time to check out the two new axle cap bearings on the #1 axle. Thanks to Joel and Richard for all their help with this! Above, the car is spotted out at signal 251. What a beauty!

Unfortunately, the news - while not terrible - was not great. The #1L bearing was running warm (though not hot, like the #2L bearing had been running). The first attempt to address the issue was for me to crawl under the car and try putting more oil in the waste. Sure enough, the waste wasn't quite as wet as we'd like. It turns out there's a small pinhole or crack in this axle cap casting that prevents much oil from accumulating in the well. Whoops. We put the car back on the pit so we can remove that axle cap, inspect it, and plug the hole. We also want to check out the wear pattern to make sure the bearing is wearing properly. The photo above was taken by Zach and shows Richard, with yours truly somewhere there under the end of the car.

In other news, progress continues on rebuilding the grid box for the 319. Above, Will (left) and Brian spent a lot of time between them using the surface grinder to even out the contact surfaces on all our #4 grid elements. Roland did a bunch more grid elements on Saturday, with the result that as of Sunday evening, this job is complete. Many thanks to Brian, Roland, Will, and Joel for all their work on this! Joel is ordering new mica tubes this week, so with luck, it won't be long until the new grid box can be assembled and put back under the 319, returning it to regular operation.

In other news, family members and friends of the late Bob Heinlein gathered for a memorial trip on IT 415.

Thanks to Ray, Julie, and Joel for their work organizing this.

And finally, here's a photo of the rapid progress on the South Storage Building:

Before you know it, the storage building will be complete and full of south. Right?