One for Four, Two and a Half of Four

Frank writes...

Some days you get the bearing, and some days the bearing gets you. First, a big THANK YOU goes out to the crew that worked on the 309 axle cap bearings on Saturday. This involved taking the car out for a test trip, during which the #1L bearing ran hot; bringing the car back; doing a bit of reprofiling of the spots on the bearing where there was evident wear; blueing the bearing surface; and taking the car out for another test trip, during which the axle ran hot again. It seems that although the bearing has been machined true, the axle itself has high spots, leading to point loading and spots where the clearance is too tight.

The axle cap above shows some of the uneven wear, though also keep in mind that the entire surface of the bearing was not blued, only the middle parts. Anyway, this will require more trial and error in terms of getting the bearing surface to match with the axle, but more cars need to use the inspection pit, so that work needs to be put off. I worked with Will and Ted to remove the axle cap, pull out the new bearings shown above, and put in the old bearings.

After service ended, Joel had the 309 hauled out to live overhead and we took it down the main line at low speed to test out the last of the three new bearings. Unfortunately, this one started running warm, too, though not as hot as the other bearings. Rats. We brought the car back to the inspection pit and, later in the afternoon, Will and Ted removed that axle cap as well, as shown above. We then put the old bearing back in this axle cap, too. So, for the moment, we are one-for-four on the new axle cap bearings -  the one we installed last year is still working just fine but these latest three will need some sort of additional work to be serviceable. This is a project we plan to work on over the course of this summer.

In other news, in between all the 309 activity, I also made good progress on the 319's grid box. Joel ordered new mica tubes during the week, and Ted helped me assemble the grid box on the bench and get it all bolted together. We then took it over to Barn 8, removed the grid box with the failed element, and installed the rebuilt grid box, as shown above. After dinner, Greg, Good Nick, and I successfully tested the car with the new grid box and then coupled it up to the 308, completing this grid box rebuild project. The CA&E wood cars are on the operating schedule for this Sunday, so our current plan is to run the 319 towing the 308 as a control trailer. The 309 should be ready for service - we haven't tested it since reinstalling the old bearing in that last axle cap, but we don't anticipate any issues - so we're back to having "two and a half out of four" cars available for service. The 36 still needs leaf springs replaced and the 308, of course, is in service but is sans motors.

I didn't have too much time to take photos, but let's see what else is happening on this fine Sunday!

The indefatigable B&G Department will have someone pouring concrete inside the west end of Barn 6 during the week, so track 61 had to get pulled. When I arrived, the IC MU cars were spotted in Yard 5, as shown. Jimmy has been working on fixing some minor issues with these cars, so later in the afternoon, they were towed over to the main line across from the depot and operated back and forth to test them out. As I understand it, no problems were found, which bodes well for these cars making more appearances in service.

And the South Storage Building continues to make rapid progress. Other than doors, the exterior looks to be just about complete.

This coming weekend is Memorial Day, so there will be some unusual equipment out. The 24 is scheduled to run Saturday, CA&E wood and steel trains on Sunday, and the IT "orange cars" on Monday. Tell your friends!