Disassembly Day

Frank writes...

The big news on Sunday was major progress on the project to replace the leaf springs in the 36's trailer truck.

When I arrived, Dan, Brian, and Greg were already hard at work on the truck. Above, Greg is on the forklift and Dan is to the right. They've lifted the truck bolster, taking the weight of the spring plank off the swing links, which allowed them to remove the pins holding those in place. However, the swing links themselves have what are effectively thick bosses where the pins are attached, so those prevented the spring plank from dropping.

To move the swing links aside and free up the bolster, it was also necessary to remove the top pins that the swing links hang from. Here, the spring plank has been blocked up and then the bolster weighted down with the fork extenders. That got the weight off the swing link bosses and allowed Brian (left) and Dan to drive out the pins.

With that, the swing links could be moved aside, and voila - the truck bolster was lifted free of the truck!

Here's what was underneath the truck bolster: a pair of three-wide elliptical, or leaf, springs. The car sits on the truck bolster, the truck bolster sits on these, these sit on the spring plank, and the spring plank is hung from the main truck frame from the swing links.

We removed the leaf springs, which was pretty easy because the assemblies aren't bolted together, they are just held together by gravity and the restricted movement of the bolster. You may notice something amiss with this particular spring: a couple of the "leaves" are broken. This is why the 36 was taken out of service. The plan is to replace all leaf springs on this truck with new ones manufactured to the original specifications.

While we have the truck apart, we intend to clean it up and repaint it. Greg and Steven helped rig up the spring plank and lift it out of the truck for easier cleanup.

Of course, that wasn't the only thing being worked on. For my part, I spent much of the rest of my time working on spare parts-related things. One of the projects was moving some spare seat frames from the 309, shown here, to a new storage location. Thanks to Steven, Ashtin, Will, and Richard for their help with this work!

The shop was abuzz with activity. Jimmy, Richard, Brian, Steven, Ashtin, Nick, and Will were working on various things, plus Zach and Joel were operating during the day. Seen above, the streetcar contingent was present, too. Steve is up on the ladder, removing parts from the roof of the 755, while Mike looks on. This past week Mike repainted the running boards on the 19, visible on the left. They look great!