Decompressorization

Frank writes…

When I arrived at IRM on Sunday afternoon, the guys had already completed my planned task for the day, switching the 319 and 308 over to Barn 6. This was done so that they can be strung with lights for Happy Holiday Railway, while the 431 and 460 - which may see use during the event - are in Barn 8 and available for service. So what else is there to do? Oh, that’s right!

The biggest reliability issue we've had with Shaker Heights 18 is that its air compressor isn't happy when it's cold - like, when it's cooler than maybe 50 degrees. It has had minor flashovers a couple of times, fortunately with little to no damage done. But we decided to remove it from the car for a thorough going-over, which it hasn't had since the car arrived at IRM. Mikey, Brian, Jimmy, and Will all helped throughout this project. Above, after moving the 1374 out of the way, we've brought the 18 over to the Central Avenue crossing.

Mikey did the really unpleasant work of crawling under this (very low-to-the-ground) car to disconnect the air and electric connections as well as the inboard hanger. That's the air compressor to the right and the rear truck to the left.

It took some deft maneuvering by Brian, our expert forklift driver, but here's the air compressor out from under the car! Apologies to the crew (here, Jimmy, Brian, and Mikey) for making you guys look directly into the sun for this shot...

Thanks also go to Richard and Joel, who helped hoist the pump onto a pallet for transportation back to the car shop "lean-three." Above, Brian is running the forklift as Mikey looks on. This is a National BB2, by the way, and it's the only one of the type we have. After we got the pump back, we drained the oil for replacement and checked out the motor on the pump. Richard and Joel helped with draining the oil, while Steven fixed a bent access door latch. I was able to check the bottle valves, which looked okay. The consensus seems to be that with a little bit of work, there's a good chance this pump will be much happier.

So that's the news from Windermere Shop. But the more important forklift job happened on Saturday, and our intrepid field photographer Bill Wulfert was there to capture the action on film!

The 65, which came over to Barn 4 last week, was lifted so that one of its trucks could be removed for some wheel work. Above, the front end of the car has been lifted.

Here's the truck with a motor being extracted while Jimmy looks on.

Further along in the process, the truck has been disassembled, and here's the frame.

And here are the two motors out of the 65 truck. The previous four photos were by Bill Wulfert.

Fast-forward to Sunday, and I snapped this shot of the 65 sitting back on its haunches. The shop truck being used is historic in its own right: its one of a pair of Gilbert trucks IRM owns that originally came from Intramural Railway elevated cars built for the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, the world's first electrified elevated rapid transit line if memory serves.

And finally, no news here - I just randomly snapped this shot after the sun had gone down, showing the "cowcatcher lineup" at the front of Barn 6.