Many thanks to our intrepid feature reporter, Brian LaKemper, who spent all of last week and both of the last two weekends working in the Electric Car Shop. He sent in this illustrated report of his activities. This provides just a small glimpse into the immense amount of mechanical and electrical work that goes on, largely unseen even by our blog writers, to keep our electric fleet running.
On Friday night 10/17 we put the Class B on the pit for its annual inspection. Here it is at Springfield Avenue, taking the long way to get to Barn 4.
Saturday we see Jimmy on the roof inspecting the roof hardware.
The failed air tank is seen with the failure circled with paint pen. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of the operation to lower the tank, many thanks to everyone who helped with the unplanned removal of the defective tank. By the end of the day the tank had been removed and the feed capped so the engine can be charged with air. This tank's role is to feed the air horn, so for the time being the locomotives horn is out of service.
Jimmy was also working on getting a broken air pipe out of the angle cock on the CCW 300, at some point the radial coupler swung around and the brake pipe impacted a solid object, causing the pipe to crack.
In what should be a relatively familiar sight on the blog, here is a grid box beginning disassembly. This is 1565's #16 grid box which was removed due to some glowing that was noticed between a few of the grids during operation.
Midway though dismantling
The after photo shows just how many Mica shards were generated. Fortunately it appears that most of the grids can be reused, but we will need new Mica tubes and several new copper and Mica washers. Donations to the 1565's restricted fund to help pay for this and other work on the B would be greatly appreciated.
Another project being done on the B during this week was sandblasting and repainting the grid covers. Here, Brian D from the steam department has kindly agreed to help spray fresh primer on them.
Black has now been applied to the backs.
Another project during the week was fixing straight air valves for VC 19 and CSL 144. Both were blowing by air causing a buildup of water and gunk which was further causing the brake handles to be stiff.
The condition of VC 19's brake valve when it was removed from the car - believe it or not, this valve was cleaned and oiled less than 3 months ago. Hopefully this work will reduce the amount of water buildup.
Two of the valves as finished side by side. In addition to 19 and 144s valves, a 3rd was rebuilt to be a ready spare.
Lapping work in progress on one of the valves, using one of our lapping plates to ensure a good smooth surface.
At the same time as the grid covers, we also sandblasted and primed the painted parts of the 1565's grid box.
More grid covers freshly sandblasted awaiting primer and paint.
Fortunately, we had a spare tank of the correct dimensions to replace the failed air tank on the 1565. The Steam Department was kind enough to help us get it hydro tested. Thanks to Chris and Blake for doing the test and to Andrew for helping drag the tank stands out of storage to set it up.
Behind Barn 7 during the switching to get the NJT 4 out of the barn. There's a lot of cars that had to be moved!
Grid covers freshly painted, loaded in the bed of the car shop's Mule to be delivered back to the car shop.
A strange view in Barn 6 at the end of the day Sunday 10/26. [Ed. note: That's the D13, 319, 300, 460, and 714, of which the three on the left are recent additions to Barn 6.]
A close up of one of the grid covers freshly sandblasted.
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