The long first half of 2026

It’s an interesting experience to be reminded you need to update the blog while visiting a friend at a live steam club.

At the tail end of the last blog we were focused on getting the fleet through winterfest, and looking forward to getting 16 into the nice warm VC for the winter. Nothing has since gone to plan. While much has happened in the past few months, one long, winding saga has been dominating work.

2600, a car seemingly cursed, decided to fail on us one winterfest night. A large group had come in, and we intended to run 2600 as a second section behind 4, a bit of Montreal action in the cold. The car powered up, built air, but as soon as the brakes were released, problems began.  

For those unfamiliar with Safety Cars, they use multiple brake lines, and critically for us there is an “emergency” pipe that needs to be “charged” to above a certain pressure to allow the brakes to release. If this pressure is dropped, say by the motorman releasing the deadman handle, the brakes will automatically apply to full emergency. Part of the system is something called the “Pilot Cut Off Valve”, which we will shorten to PCV. This valve acts as a relay, taking in input from both the position of the brake handle (pressure in brake cylinder), and the deadmans, and either opening or closing a vent to atmosphere on the Emergency pipe, which we’re also going to shorten to EM pipe. This valve is not operating via pistons and slide valves, rather it’s using rubber diaphragms, including to seal the EM pipe. 

A rather photo copier burned print of 2600’s brake system.

The symptomology presented as such. The car would build into an application, behaving normally, but as soon as you attempted to charge up (apply pressure to EM pipe, and release brakes) issues began. The EM pipe would climb to full pressure, but instantly a hissing would be heard from the #2 end of the car, with the EM pipe pressure dropping rapidly, and at best holding at 10 PSI, nowhere near enough to allow the brakes to release. Moving the brake handle back to apply would slow it down, but releasing the deadman’s would entirely silence the hissing. So, clearly the EM pipe isn’t sealing. The sound also gave an indication of where, just behind the motorman's seat. Sure enough, there is a valve hiding back there.

#1 end valve, hidden just behind the seat.

 At the time, the purpose of the valve was a bit of a mystery, but thanks to help from both Gord Mquot at Halton county, and Jeff Hackner at Branford, we were able to figure it out. This valve is a hybrid of a PCV, and a door interlock. 2600 has pneumatic doors, including treadle doors that open when someone stands on the treadle. These valves (there’s another one on the #1 end as well) make it so the car cannot release brakes when someone is standing on the treadle. 2600 is of course not a standard safety car, it’s somewhat more complex, and in fact has 3 whole separate PCV’s in it. Two are hooked to the treadle doors, and one seems to be operating as a standard PCV and is located under one of the bench seats. While it may have simply been possible to cut out these door valves as the treadles aren’t in operation, we weren’t really comfortable doing that, just in case we were wrong with what the valves were really doing.

Cracked Diapragm, complete with a date code from the 

Early 1950’s

The sealing diaphragm meant to seal the EM pipe. The surface

Leaves much to be desired.

One of the valves stripped down on the bench.

A drawing of the construction of one of the valves.Some of 

The labelling would later turn out to be inaccurate.

As stated before, these valves are diaphragm based. Upon opening them, the diaphragms were showing major signs of age. Some had become rather hard, some were cracked and distorted, and the actual sealing face of the lowest diaphragm was pitted and scored. Amazingly, Wabtec (successor of Westinghouse air brake) still makes those diaphragms, but in limited quantity. Because of this, there is an immense lead time on getting them made, and shipped (we’re still waiting). Because of this we decided to try something. Advancements in 3d printing has given us the ability to print flexible rubbers, something we’ve already experimented with for some gaskets. The diaphrams in these valves are mostly just round, with some raised features for sealing, and as such were easy to model and print. I’m happy to report that as of writing the printed diaphragms are holding up perfectly.

While working on the PCV’s, we decided to go through some of the other valves, cleaning everything out, renewing seals, and lapping in some of the sealing surfaces. After months of work, 2600 was able to finally go back out into service, at least for a couple weeks. 

A few weeks later, the curse strikes again. Some issues with the North Road Switch not playing nice with 2600’s taller flanges resulted on the car derailing and dropping the west end truck on the ground. The good news, the car climbed itself back onto the rails fairly easily, the bad news, the car tried to take a new shape. 

Oops

The bend in the Side Sill.

Anyone who has worked on any vehicle in the broadly north half of the continent is well familiar with the unimaginable power of rust. Between rust jacking bending and tearing steel like paper, nuts and bolts becoming effectively welded together, or corrosion simply making masses of steel simply vanish. Most lightweight cars are prone to rust, almost always in the same spots, right above the bolsters. The steel framing there often becomes more enclosed, trapping dirt, water, and sometimes even road salt. There is also quite a lot of wood in  the frames of these cars, making up most of the floor, which also holds moisture against the steel framing. 2600 is very much a victim of “lightweight disease”. Hidden behind the skin of the car, the steel framing had mostly rusted away, and no longer was connected to the side sill.

The side cut open, and rotted structural steel removed. Sitting below the car is the skin, with some of the rotted structural steel still attatched.

When the car came to a stop, it rocked hard to the side. The rocking pushed up on the bolster, bending it and the side sill upwards. With no framing above it, it was free to bend. While this didn’t stop the car from running, it isn’t safe to leave. Also, not exactly a good look. 

So the car was taken to the shop, and work began. First, cut away the outer skin of the car and assess the rust, see what we need. Layers of horse hair insulation had to be removed, as did mountains of rust and scale. Bending back the side sill was going to be a challenge. The amount of wood in the car meant using heat should be avoided as much as possible. Going at it with sledge hammers wasn’t having any effect, and trying to put a jack between the sill and the still intact upper framing only served to try and twist the framing out further. The solution as it turns out is a hilariously Rube-Goldberg mess. A chain through the sill, a 6x6 wooden block, an upside down rail, and a 40 ton hydraulic jack. 

Side sill being bent back into shape.

A good example of the corrosion, this piece should be at least 2 inches longer.

With the sill pulled straight, new steel had to be welded in to restore the structure. Much of the original skin of the car was able to be welded back in. Because everything had to be welded, and getting the skin off required grinding the rivets away, false rivets had to be made. The fake rivets were made with a form tool on the late, and then plug welded into the original rivet holes. A thin strip of new steel did have to be welded in to patch where the skin had bucked and rusted through. 

New steel.

Car’s skin starting to go back on.

False rivets to be welded on.

Bondo and Primer

Awaiting application of the stripe

The welds were ground down, buried under bondo, sanded, bondoed again, primed, bondoed again, re primed, ok still needs more bondo, try priming one last time, eh that’ll be fine, and the given a new coat of Montreal Tramways cream. The red stripe was re applied, and the repair was invisible. 

Sadly, this bend in the sill was not the only damage to the car. The westmost gearcase was torn open when it hit a track bolt. This, fortunately, is not actually that hard to repair. The car was nosed over the pit, the cover removed, cleaned, and patched. Whereas the sill repair took 2 weeks, the gearcase took 2 days. 

Torn open gear case.

Patched gearcase.

Back together.

2600 finally went out to be test run post repair, for a bearing to overheat. This bearing was found to have a lot of water intrusion, so it was cleaned out and the waste replaced. The car was placed back in service, and overheated another bearing. This also had water intrusion and had to be repacked. As of writing, the car is back in service, but the summer is young, and I’m sure there will be plenty more of the ongoing curse of 2600 in the next update. 

Winding back the clock, to just after the close of winterfest, we had planned to bring 16 into the VC, and give it some needed attention in a heated building. Scheduling moves took longer than anticipated, on top of also having other work take priority (more on this in a future post). By the time we were ready to move, the snow came. Instead of moving 16, we found ourselves buried under 2 feet of snow. We currently don’t have a functioning plow, and even if we did that wouldn’t get everything cleared out enough to get 16 into the VC. 

That lack of plow, though, it got us to thinking. Last year Capital Transit sweeper 010 went into the VC to be put on display, and while it hasn’t in many years, it is ostensibly capable of running. So, why not take the season to look over the car, see what it’ll need. 

010 sitting on display before the 2025 season.

This is the sagged west end.

So, first question, can the car sweep? No. The brush motor is no longer in the car, in fact it’s under open car 355 as a traction motor. Assuming we’ll be able to find it a motor in the future, what else is left of the brushes? The car was stacked full of parts, the brooms, carriers, drive chain and sprockets, but something else is missing. The actual axles for the brushes to ride on. Asking where it was, or what had happened to it, gifted us the greatest two word horror story;

“It shattered”

It’s a 10 foot long 2 3/8th inch thick solid steel shaft.

More things came to light as the car was cleaned out, we only have enough parts for one of the ends to have its brushes put together, as it turns out that’s how the car came to us, with one end missing its brushes. Obviously at this point, getting the car back into service quickly is not in the cards, but that’s ok, we can still do cosmetic work, assemble the one set of brushes, clean it out, get it lit and looking good for the public,

Interior of the Car before cleaning.

 

Brooms laid out on the floor.

Something else quickly became apparent with the car, it’s got some wood issues. The west half of the car has some problems. The most obvious is that it sags severely, and shows many signs of rot and termite damage. Compounding this damage is the issue that most of the steel braces have been mostly, if not entirely, disconnected and have simply been hanging. The brush holders have been hanging from the wooden frame, but with no bracing. Some of the bracing couldn’t be reattached, with their mounting hardware being cut off or damaged. There are solutions, but nothing we could affect in the VC. What could be reattached however was, and instantly that end of the car felt much more solid. 

Another problem was also discovered. The floor on the west end of the car had begun to feel less like floor and more like trampoline. Turns out, the large castings that hold the brushes are quite heavy, and they had all been stacked on top of a crossmember that was already full of knots and damage from the brush drive chain wearing into it, cracking it in half. The next crossmember was also cracked, partially from the weight, but also from the rod for the brush height adjustment going through it, and removing most of its mass in the middle. 

Once all the parts were out, the repair seemed quite easy. Get under there with a jack, some timbering, jack it straight, and through bolt some steel plates over it to gusset it solid. 

This went… pretty smoothly. Shocking I know, but we gusseted the first of the two crossmembers, patted ourselves on the back, and went home with plans to do the next one, the more complex one with the height adjust going through it the next morning. 

So the next morning, we climb under the car, and discover the formerly straight and level cross member was once again at an angle. The gusset hadn’t failed, instead the piece cracked elsewhere, further along where the brush drive chain had been damaging it. Our repair hadn’t fixed the problem, it simply moved it. 

The first attempt at repairing the crossmemeber.

One trip to the hardware store later we once again jacked up the broken cross member, undid the gusset we did the day before, and bolted onto it a brand new 2x6. Steel brackets also were added to help give more support, as the original tenon joints holding in the crossmember were also starting to show signs of cracking (yay). The next crossmember down was also now sistered to a brand new piece of timber, that was also bracketed to the side sills.  

Sistered in new lumber. Not going to crack now.

Finally, that particular issue was solved. The rest of the winter inside was spent continuing to clean the car, as well as wire in a second string of lights next to the cars original, so it can be illuminated off of domestic 120vac power. The east end of the car, the end in better shape, had its brushes reinstalled, though only for display purposes. How did we solve the issue of the missing axle? Well as it turns out steel fence post is often manufactured in 2 3/8ths diameter, and in 6 foot segments. Take two pieces, cut a foot off each end, and they’ll slide right in meeting in the middle of the center bearing. Now, this won’t be able to spin, as it’s not a single piece, and not exactly the strongest, but for display purposes, it’s just fine. 

Brushes installed for display. One of the cut off fence post ends can be seen under the brush.

Completing the deal, display stands were made up, one to hold a spare broom, complete with bristles, and another to hold up one of the conduit plows, showing off how the car could run on both pole and underground conduit. 

010 and shaker heights 1201 both lit up inside the VC.

010 nearing wrapup of this years work.

While working in the VC, and right next to it, Volunteer Jayden decided to take on relettering the Poneman Mills Locomotive. 

Lettering going on.

Completed lettering.

Now that the weather has warmed up, we have returned to the shop. Some light steel work has been done on 3001, as well as other things (again, future post), but most recently we’ve been back to working on CA&E 303. Work resuming was delayed by 2600, so work has only begun in the past few weeks. The poles have been taken off and the bases rehabbed. One of them was very worn, and has been receiving some new machine work to be brought back to something resembling good condition. Pulling up the running boards has been a challenge, as the oak used to build the standoffs has seized and rusted the screws that were holding them down. We ended up having to cut the running boards, and slip a metal cutting blade on an oscillating saw underneath the standoffs, cutting the screws and freeing them from the roof. As of writing, the running boards and very last of the canvas has been removed and we are finally down to just bare wood.

Before and After of the inner sleeve of the central bearing of the pole base.

The cut off (via torch nothing else would get in there deep enough) and the 

New sleeve next to it.

One of the spring retaining pins and it’s replacement. 

(don’t worry about the brace it’s fine)

Slowly removing the running boards

New and Original ribbon fuse box

A fully stripped down 303 roof.

This very long post has honestly been just a sampling of what’s been going on. There is still much for the rest of this year. We have grants we need to complete to get 303 and 836 painted, and need to get 3001 cosmetically complete and in the VC before opening season of 2027. As I’ve mentioned a few times there will be a separate update on 3001 in the near future, as a lot of things have happened with that project in the past few months.

End of 2025 Update

 

Paradisio, Purgatorio, and Inferno Compressatorio. Get yourselves a cup of your favorite drink and settle in everyone, this is gonna be a long one.

At our last update, 3001 was being wired, 303 was receiving some interior touch ups, and in general life was moving pretty smoothly. Very shortly after that update was published, however, things got a bit more complicated. These have probably been some of the most hectic months in the shop in quite some time, at least in terms of how many cars have been worked on. 

2600 has for a long time had something of a weak compressor. Combine this with the fact that safety cars tend to use a lot of air, and it hasn't been uncommon for the compressor to effectively run almost nonstop for 20 minutes, pause for a few moments, and then kick back on again. It's been something kept on the radar, but never pressing enough to warrant pulling the car from service. Unfortunately, that changed.

While in service towards the end of august it was noted that the air gauge was stubbornly refusing to climb above 50 psi. Any usage of the air that there was wouldn't be made up for unless sitting for an extended period of time. Bringing the car to the shop became something of a harrowing experience as the air dropped so low the doors opened themselves while motoring up the hill. 

2600's compressor rests on mountings that suspend below the car, and support the compressor from below. Generally, a very solid arrangement. However, this does make removing the compressor a bit difficult, as you have to first get the bolts that fasten it out, then lift up on the compressor, move it backwards, lower, twist, and then extract from under the car. There's not a lot of clearance. This also means we need use of the pit, well that's occupied by 3001, which isn't quite to moving itself, and without a roof can't exactly sit outside for any length of time. No matter though, 3001 can be pushed all the way into the shop, loosing us almost all of our working space but oh well, and 2600 can be nosed in enough to get the compressor out, then dragged back out and left outside until the compressor is repaired. That means a lot of equipment has to be moved under not its own power, but oh well, light work for the diesel. 

Enter compressor death number 2. If 2600s compressor refusing to get above 50 psi was bad, the Diesel proved to be much, MUCH worse. It could build to 30, at half throttle, and any reduction and the needles dropped like a stone to barely a tick above 10. Well, there goes the plan to make moves with the diesel. The hero of the day, as it more than often is, came to be line car 1.

Weighing in at, well I don't think anyone really knows, built in 1894, with a body mostly made out of random spare lumber, our Iowan corn fed, all American champion has proven many times to be more than up to the task of dragging around just about anything. The use of LC1 as it turns out is rather fortuitous, but more on that later. 

The Iowan obviously did a fantastic job, and without much fuss at all we had 3001 buried and 2600 nosed into the shop. Removing the compressor took almost all of an afternoon and some of the night, as we were both figuring out how to drop the compressor, but also dealing with a lifting table that was just slightly too tall.

So, what was wrong with 2600's Compressor anyways? Well, a few things, luckily almost all in the head. All of the check valves were rather dirty and covered in gunk. A major smoking gun was found when one of the check valves was found to have snapped in half, blocking the valve from moving at all. This wasn't all though; the head gasket had failed or was failing in multiple places. The gasket itself had been made incorrectly, as holes for the head bolts to pass through had been mis stamped and severely compromised the gasket. It was also mysteriously torn, having lost about half of its width on the lower corner of one of the cylinders. Piston Rings were checked as well, and though still acceptable noted as something that will need replaced in the future. 

Compresor as extracted from under 2600.

Failed Gasket. The missing chunk and bolt holed mis-stamped clearly visible.

Head of the Compressor

A complete, though dirty, example of a Check valve from 2600's compressor.

Snapped in half and failed check, This was one of the major issues that kept the compresor from building air. 

Gratuitous crankcase shot.

A new Gasket was cut, a freshly cleaned up head was put together, with all replacement valves inserted, and the compressor was put back together. Remounting it to the car was far easier, this time knowing the process, but also having now found a lower profile jack to get it under the car in the first place. 2600 was returned to service less than 2 weeks after having to be pulled. 

So, what of the Diesel's compressor? Similarly, a valve issue. upon opening the compressor, a fine copper dust was found to be coating pretty much everything, and one of the intake checks was missing its copper ring seal. Amazingly, a good healthy clean and the valve was able to seal up enough to be put back into service, with plans to order a full head rebuild kit this spring. 

Now, onto Line Car 1. This car has had for a long time a mystery issue that has meant the #2 end controller (west) hasn't been functional. With need for the car to put in some heavy work lugging S193 around for Winterfest setup, it was decided to finally get into the weeds on that controller. The mystery issue that evaded multiple shop departments for years? A single contact finger on the reverse drum was slightly twisted and was not making contact, meaning current couldn't flow through the circuit. 5 minutes with a screw driver, and some light bending against a bench was enough to restore the controller to operation. Well, mostly, the controller itself was still in rough shape, with many elements being heavily worn, some even so far as to have burned into the screws that were holding them to the drum. K10 parts are something that we are fairly thin on, so the controllers are still not perfect, but have been brought to a point where they are safe to run. While undergoing that work, the brake rigging and suspension was all given a greasing. 

Line Car 1 is sadly a car that at the moment lives its life outside, so when the paint on the car was coming off in our hands while working on it, the decision was made to give it a new paint job. The old household paint that had been applied by prior owners came off in big sheets, with no primer under to hold them down. The wood was sanded, new paint and primer was bought, and quickly the car became somehow even more orange than before. Once again, we got the majority of this week done in only a few weeks. LC1 has since put in a good season’s work doing the line car shuffle the length of the line and back, with no issues to report. 

LC1 being Re-Lettered.

Lettering Complete.

Re-Painted for a nice Roster Shot. Since the car came out just at the start of Pumpking Patch Trains,

and is already orange, a plywood Jack-O-Lantern smile was hung from the front.

The Line Car Shuffle begins it's work repairing Chrsitmas light strings.

So, all of that is the saga of the Un-planned work. Now onto some of what we were actually intending to do. 

First of all, an update on 3001. Around the time of the last update, we ran out our stock of wire. Turns out a double end double truck Birney car easily exhaust almost 700 feet of wire, at least for the somewhat more wiring intensive K6 controllers that Conn Co. insisted on using. Ordering the wire took quite some time, but fortunately the wire arrived early November, and the last of the traction cabling has since been run. Motor leads are also all made up, and all the breakouts from the controllers have been tested. Line switch wiring is now complete, as is wiring for the compressor, which has also been plumbed in finally. Though probably the shortest in number of words, as this hasn't been anywhere near the saga of the compressors or LC1, this is actually an incredibly large step forward. This puts us withing arms reach of actually being able to power test the car, and see it take its first steps under its own power in decades. We make no promises on when, as time and resources are all devoted to keeping the fleet running for Winterfest, as well as other general holiday commitments, but it will be soon. 

Moving backwards in time a bit, following the repainting of LC1, and before the arrival of 3001's new wire, a bit of planned work got underway. 303's roof has been bad for some time. If it rains outside, it rains inside. The canvas is heavily deteriorated, possibly never properly treated, and was coated in roofing tar at various points to seal leaks, instead of being fixed correctly. Initially, we'd planned to start on that after 3001's wiring had been completed, which had we not run out of wire would have been in august, leaving us plenty of time to get the roof done for Winterfest. The sudden failure of 2600 and then work on LC1 pushed that work back into October, meaning getting it done in time for Winterfest is no longer an option. Still, with no wire in for 3001, may as well get started anyways. The old Canvas came off fairly easily, the lack of proper treatment and application of tar caused it to become somewhat brittle, so it cracked and came apart with little effort.

Underneath the Canvas, the wood was mostly in good shape, but not perfect. Along both sides holes had been cut to access lighting circuits, and then crudely patched with tin sheeting. Some wood on the vestibule ends was getting quite soft, and along the tail board of the clerestory where the anchor screws had lost most of their purchase. An oddity that was found was in several spots along the car was the addition of several large wooden blocks under the sheathing. These were definitely not original, and some of them were becoming an issue. On both sides of the car, on the west end, the blocking had been placed in such a way that it was raising the sheathing on the main barrel of the roof in such a way that it was no longer in line with the sheathing on the vestibule ends. The gap created had ostensibly been filled with scraps of canvas, but that was most certainly failed and allowing water in. So, a whole section of roof on both sides had to be removed, the blocking removed, and then the sheathing replaced. So what were these blocks for? Well, it's hard to tell. A visit from Randy Hicks confirmed that they were not original to the car’s construction, and were most likely added later on in life. The location of the blocking removed dies potentially offer a clue, as it aligns with the steps and grab irons that one would use to climb the roof. The best guess is that those blocks were there to strengthen the step areas, and were probably installed in the later days of the CA&E at Wheaton Shops. Mis-alignment, rough patching, none of that mattered, this was back then just another long in the tooth car on a road not intending to last very much longer. 

Canvas patching to fill the gap created by missaligned structure.

The added blocking, the added hight above the Carline is very visible. This is the North side of the car, the south side was much worse, with a ap of almost an inch.

The added blocking cleared out. The steel band is part of the cars iriginal structure.

New sheathing in place. 

New canvas has yet to go on the car, and the last bits currently trapped under the poles and running boards has yet to be lifted, a job that will have to wait till next spring. 

Currently, we are focused on getting the fleet through Winterfest. Cold weather often has negative effects on cars, causing tanks to freeze, and ice to creep its way through air systems. Over the doldrums of January and February, 16 is planned to come into the Visitors Center, where it will receive a new coat of paint on its roof, floors, and likely window frames, as well as most likely some more revarnishing. We will also (Hopefully) be finally installing heat back into the car. Working in the VC will give us the chance to work in heat for the first time in years, not only allowing us to do cosmetic works, but also keep up a pace of work that would otherwise be scuppered by the weather.