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.
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.
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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.
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.
