Letters and Numbers

When we last saw the 319 and 409, yesterday at about 4 PM, Ron Coy had just started laying out the lettering on one side of the 409. By 9 AM this morning he was finishing up the outlines on the second side, and all of the numbers were done. He can really work fast.

Disclaimer: Hicks Car Works does not endorse smoking cigarettes. Don't try this at home, kids.

And here's a view of the finished car, as it moves over to track 2 for touch-up work on the other side. Meanwhile, prep work on the 319 continued. I worked on windows some more, and provided information on lettering that was needed for the 319.

Jamie did the necessary switching in Barn 2, and we then moved the 319 over to track 22, and put it west of the 460. Jim and his team were planning to repaint the gray later today.

This left Ron temporarily with little to do, so we then pulled the blue cars out of Barn 8, and I ran them over to 50th. Here Ron did the outlining on one letterboard of the 308, where the outlining had never been applied. It now looks better, and consistent with the 309. The blue cars are back in Barn 8, and the 319 is spending the night in Barn 2.

I also went over to check on the 321. The tarp has come part way off again, exposing the north side this time. I put some extra windows in place; luckily it's supposed to be clear for a few days. Perhaps we can somehow get the tarp back in place soon.

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Brake Cylinder Fixed

Today I managed to replace the return spring in the 308's brake cylinder. To do this, I had to put the car over the pit, so first we moved the locomotive out of the way. Then I disconnected the brake rigging and removed the end casting, as seen here. That was the last opportunity to take a picture.

Henry Vincent helped me put the cylinder back together with the new spring -- thanks!!! Sam Polonetzky and John Nelligan helped with switching. Gerry Detloff and George Clark provided useful guidance. The brakes now appear to be working OK after some brief tests, so the two cars should be in service again this weekend if it doesn't rain. By the way, we still need a trainman for Saturday!



After that, I didn't have the time or energy to start another project. So here, by way of scenery, is the Museum's corn on the south 40. This hasn't been a good year for corn, of course, so it's at least two or three weeks late.

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Minor Difficulties

On Sunday, the crew noticed a few minor difficulties with the 308. First of all, the brakes don't always release after a light reduction. I checked the operation to make sure it wasn't a feed valve problem; no, it's the triple valve. This happens sometimes because after a light reduction the brake pipe comes back up slowly and the valve doesn't move. We'll try lubricating it some more.

Then it was noticed we had a broken spring on one of the trolley bases. I'd never had to replace one before, and got a much better appreciation of little things like this. It was quite a project, and took me about 3 1/2 hours to complete. I had to run the cars outside so I could have the pole pointing straight up. Here we see the 309 with the big blue flag, and the 308 with its pole reaching for the sky. After what seemed like hours of pounding, I managed to remove the pins holding the springs, and replace the broken one.

Just getting the replacement spring out of the spare base was a difficult project. Each pin holds the ends of two springs, and they're held by cotter pins which are hard to remove, etc.

The replacement spring is rusty; the others are still coated with tar from when the CA&E was tarring the roofs back in the fifties.

I'd had enough of working on the roof, so nothing got done on the 277. Instead, I started repainting the ceiling in the main compartment. I recently got the paint mixed, and it seems to be a good match. Here we see it after painting, both before and after removing all the masking tape and drop cloth.

I was sent a video starring Joel Ahrendt picking up flimsies on the fly last Saturday; it was made from Tom Hunter's pictures by Jason Nates. I'm unable to include it here, but if you want to see it, send me an email and I'll attach it. Warning: 3 MB.

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Our Spring Has Sprung

Today we finished inspection and lubrication on the 308, so it's ready for revenue service. Stan Wdowikowski helped a lot, so thanks! In the morning Stan and Charlie ran the 160 off the pit and onto the car line so I could put the 308 over the pit. Stan did the motors and and some of the truck work while I inspected the electrical systems and various other things. This included testing the air system and adjusting the slack adjusters on each truck. We then switched places, putting the 160 back on the pit and the 308 outside, so Gerry and Stan could finish inspection on the 160 while I did the remaining lubrication.

Here's the trailer truck on the 308; I was too busy to take many pictures.

One problem we already knew about was that the return spring inside the 308's brake cylinder was broken. After lubrication was done, I looked at our collection of spare brake cylinders, and opened one up that looked like it might have been from the 318. Fortunately, it turned out to be exactly the right size. It's 5" in diameter and about 24" long, as seen here. It pushes the piston back into the cylinder when the brakes are released. I cleaned off all the rust and dirt, but we certainly didn't have time to install it today. I ran the 308 back into Barn 8 about ten minutes before the first of several thunderstorms passed through. I believe we should be able to replace the spring in the barn; we won't need the pit. It's really nice when we have spare parts like this. You'd never find a spring this size at your local home center! By the way, the trucks have return springs also so there should be no problem with operating the car this way.

Here's the work product from the inspection. This is page 3 of 4. Every item has to be either initialled or crossed out if it's irrelevant. For instance, our cars don't have any door motors or MG (motor-generator) fans. Oops, we missed one, but our calibrated gauge is broken.

After the rain started, and what seemed like half an hour to clean all the grease and dirt from my hands and arms, I painted a couple of parts from the 277 and sorted parts. We're hoping to do the 309 next week.

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Ah, Spring!

Hibernation is over, and it's time for the beasts to start waking up.

Before

I started by replacing the triple valve on the 308. The valve that came with the car had some problems, so it was expertly rebuilt by a friend of our who wishes to remain anonymous. This is the replacement valve we had been using.

After

The rebuilt original valve now works much better. I checked the compressor, pumped up the air, and ran the car out and back a few hundred feet to check the operation of the brakes.

Then the car cleaning crew showed up and did a thorough job on both the 308 and 309. Here we see Rich Witt (L) and Phil Becker (R) doing windows in the 309.

I also checked out the walkover seat frames and lubricated all the working ones. Unhappily, several in the 309 still don't work properly.

Greg Ceurvorst (L) helps Jim Nauer with vacuuming, and Paul Sprenger (R) is mopping the floor. There were several others helping out besides.

Thanks to all those who were cleaning cars today! If you missed out on the fun, you can join the team next Saturday.

I also did some more inspection items on the 308. By the way, here's a technical note for you mechanism fans: The normal M-15 brake valve has three "apply" positions: slow, medium, and fast. However, the valve at the #2 end of the 308 has only two positions, which seem to be fast and faster. I have no idea how this happened, but it makes it harder to control the train. So I always try to make up the train so the #1 end of the 308 is on the outside.

I then started working on the roof of the 277. I finished the laps and trimmed the running boards to length. Then I attached them at each end and started drilling holes so they will line up correctly after the canvas is installed. Here we see the roof starting to look more complete.

I had to stop when a large switching crew came along to shuffle the El cars. (Lots of featherbedding on this railroad!) So I did some sorting of parts in the 321 and watched the trains go by.

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Starting Inspection

I started doing the inspection for car 308 today; much of it can be done without having the car over the pit, in particular the roof equipment and the interior. Here's a controller with its cover off. The jar of petroleum jelly is washed out by the flash, but that's what we use for lubricating the controller fingers.

There's a four page inspection sheet for each car. I completed about a page and half.

One thing that isn't included on the inspection sheet for some reason is lubricating the rollers for the pocket doors, as seen to the right. The top of the door frame is hinged so it can be opened to access the mechanism.

The spring latch came out of one of the window frames last year, so I got around to fixing it. This involved removing the shade tracks and taking the window itself to the shop. Then I drilled out the holes and glued in dowels. After the epoxy set, I drilled new holes and reattached the spring latch, as seen here. Then it's reinstalled.

Speaking of Amtrak, for some reason this nice flatcar lettered for Amtrak appeared outside Barn 8. It's just another part of the "Heritage Fleet," I guess.

I also spent some time working on the roof of the 277. All saddles were put back in place, and the new running boards were moved into their approximate location. I'm working on making the laps for the running boards, as seen here. I'm using treated 2x6 lumber as recommended by Bob Kutella.

I also went up on the roof of the 309 to try to free up one of the shunt cables, so far without success.

Phil Stepek gave me a fluorescent light fixture; he has several which are now surplus. I installed it over the workbench in the 321, a big improvement. Later I went back and took another one. Thanks, Phil!

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From Pole to Pole

You do the math: if two interurban cars have two trolley poles apiece, how many poles are there altogether? And if two have been rebuilt, how many does that leave to rebuild? (Pause) If you answered two, congratulations! Well, that's enough advanced math for this week. For next week, I want you to read the chapter on eigenvalue equations.

Today, I started replacing the trolley hardware on the third trolley pole, helped by Wes Lloyd and Dan Mulvihill. The weather was good, so some of this was done outside because several other projects were going on inside the shop. The old trolley casting (L) was removed, and after some sanding, filing, and grinding, the new trolley casting was heated up to red-hot and forced onto the end of the pole. However, we didn't have the right size of rivet, so the project has stopped at this point. Rivets are on order, so the rest of the process will be quickly completed next time.

So then, I drove a Museum truck to Woodstock and purchased four 10' 2x6 timbers for the new running boards on the 277. I lifted them up onto the roof of the car, and next time I'm out there I can start fitting them to the saddles. The 101 was moved out of the barn for inspection, so here's a view of the 277 and the Class B.

And here's a picture of the 415 and 101 switching places on the tail track, two different types of IT suburban cars with the same paint scheme. Only at IRM!

I also took some better pictures of the Salem diner, which I have updated on the Roadside Diners page.

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Getting close on the roof

Work on the 205's roof is getting close to finished, with the exception of a bit of touch-up painting - and of course blowing off all that sawdust! Today the big project was to install the trolley base stands. These steel stands were used by many suburban cars (IT 415 and SS 68 among them) to raise the trolley base a foot or so above the roof boards, to accommodate higher trolley wire hung with taller interurban cars in mind. The stands had been needle-chipped and repainted a few years ago so they were all ready to put on the car. I made a pattern out of a spare piece of plywood (that had, by the way, formerly been masquerading as one of IT 101's doors) to represent the trolley bases and used that to keep the stands square and aligned as they were installed. The family brace and bit set was once again trotted out to drill the holes. Below left, the template sits attached to the first set of stands prior to drilling holes and bolting to the roof boards; below right, both sets of stands are seen in place.




Once this was completed, I turned my attention to the trolley bases themselves. The bases were sitting out in the storage area along Bruneau Drive for years and had gotten pretty rusty, making it impossible to budge the adjustment nuts. This was a problem because I don't want much tension on the trolley poles - basically, just enough tension to hold the poles up against the hooks is fine! Heavy tension would, over the years, tend to warp the roof boards. Dan Mulvhill and Bob Sundelin came to the rescue with Dan running the acetylene torch (left) to heat up the nuts so that they could be broken loose. With some able torch work, Bob and I were able to get the adjustment nuts off. On my next trip out I will reinstall the adjustment nuts to set the tension as light as possible, and hopefully will be able to put the trolley bases - and if we're lucky, trolley poles too! - back on the 205. It will finally be a real trolley car once again!

Finally, before I was done for the day I brought the second trolley pole from the 308 over to Barn 4 and knocked the rivet out of the trolley harp. This will be the next beneficiary of the harp/shoe upgrade program currently in progress (see entry below).

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Trying On New Shoes

I was able to spend a day out at the Museum, since things are going well at home, so the first priority was to work on the blue cars so they'll be ready for revenue service this year.

As mentioned before, we want to replace all of the trolley shoe hardware with new parts that will be more reliable and easier to maintain, such as we use on the North Shore cars.

We started by removing the old trolley casting from one of the 308's poles - I should have taken a picture of the original casting to show how worn out it was. Here I was helped by Warren Lloyd and Jerry. Here's the top end of the pole. You may be able to see how the end of the pole is tapered to be narrower so the casting will fit over it.

The bottom end of the pole was rusted and broken. As suggested by Bob Heinlein, I checked the length of the other poles on the 308 and 309. This pole from the 308 turned out to be 7 1/2" too short - evidently it had already been amputated at least once. So we needed to patch in a new piece. I cut off the bottom 6 1/2" of the pole.

I then cut off a 14" length of spare pole material. In order to weld it onto the old pole, we needed a length of pipe as a stiffener. 1" ID pipe was slightly too big, so Rod turned it down on the lathe.

Then he polished and beveled the ends, as seen here.

Then we took the parts out to the mig welder, and Rod welded them together. The batteries for his automatic adjusting welding helmet had died, so I had to run to the hardware store in Marengo to get some new ones. The welding then went quickly.

After grinding it down, the patch looks like this. The weld is just perfect.

While this was going on, Max and Bob helped me with fixing the other two castings so we can finish this project. Two more poles to go!

After the pole cooled down, the new casting was heated up and the end of the pole inserted. Rod drilled a hole, and the casting was riveted onto the pole.

After assembling all the parts, the finished device looks like this:

It's now ready to install!

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Trolley poles, etc

I was out at the museum yesterday afternoon for the first time in a few weeks and started off by hauling one of the 308's poles off of the roof of that car with the help of Joe Stupar and taking it over to Barn 4. This is the next pole in line to have its trolley harp and shoe replaced, so I ground down and knocked out a rivet holding the harp onto the pole but stopped there. I picked up with 205 work, making some shims for the purpose of leveling the trolley boards and working on that car's trolley poles as well. One of the trolley poles retrieved for us by Bob Bruneau had a bend in it, quickly taken care of by Stan Wdowikowski with the help of the department's official pole straightening machine: a hole in one of the big support posts in Barn 4. Following this I cleaned off and primed both poles, plus put a coat of black on both of the trolley bases.

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Brake Cylinder Work

On Sunday, the big project was disassembling and inspecting the 308's brake cylinder, which had started leaking towards the end of the year. A bad packing cup was the suspect, and it did turn out that this was a problem; the torn packing cup was replaced with one from stock. A couple of other minor issues were discovered, including a return spring that will have to be replaced and a worn guide ring, which we will address over the winter and/or upon inspection in May. I wasn't able to help out due to illness but an all-star cast consisting of Richard Schauer and visitors Jeff Hakner from Branford and Nick Tomkavage from Seashore completed the work on the brake cylinder. Several others from IRM helped with switching chores as well. Thanks to everyone for their time and effort!

Randy adds: My thanks also to those who helped, particularly our visiting experts! When I arrived on Monday morning, the 308 was still over the pit, so I was able to take these pictures of the brake cylinder to show how the brake rigging works. You can't see that much of the cylinder itself when it's assembled.

(L) The piston end of the cylinder, with the live lever in red, the tie rod in yellow, and the top rods (which go to the trucks) in blue. When air is applied to the cylinder, the piston is pushed out, and the live lever is torqued against the tie rod to pull the top rod in, away from the truck, setting the brakes. (R) A view from the other end. The dead lever (in black) is attached to the "dead" end of the cylinder; when the piston is pushed out, the tie rod pulls on the dead lever to pull on the top rod (in blue) at this end, and each truck receives the same amount of braking force. Simple, isn't it?

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Don't Fall Into This Trap

One of the trap doors on the 308 had come loose during operation a week and a half ago, so it needed to be fixed before we could run the cars in regular service again. This is not the world's greatest trap door design, but it's what we've got, so I spent most of the day fixing it - permanently, I hope. (R) First, I removed the side door. Otherwise you're working in a very tight corner.

Then (L) I drilled out all the holes where the wood screws had pulled out and filled them with short sections of 1/2" hardwood dowel. One of the hinge straps was bent, so I had to straighten it.

After the glue dried, I repositioned the hinges and checked that the trap would raise and lower correctly. (R) Then I drilled new holes and installed the trap itself.

(L) Here I am checking the hinge alignment. It's almost impossible to adjust once it's in place.



But now it closes nice and smoothly every time. (R) And then I put the side door back on. I need to do some touch-up with blue paint next time, and we'll be ready for action.

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