Saturday Report by Frank DeVries:
Tom, Adam, and myself made up the crew. I arrived early and resolved an air leak problem in the mower, I found one of the air lines had gotten out of place and rubbed against the drive shaft. I replaced two hoses with a quick trip to Napa, and pulled them up into the cab and had the machine running again. While at NAPA, I also retrieved the hydraulic filter for the same machine. Tom and Adam were out next. Tom took the mower to get fueled, and was back on the main to finish mowing. Adam went to barn 2 to finish draining the fuel out of the 585.
I continued to work on bolts to remove the two failed motors off the Jackson 6000 tamper, but decided north winds and 33 degrees, this was a job better left for another day. Off to the barn. After Adam drained the fuel and re-filled the tank with fresh gas, Adam and I tackled the leaking brake calipers on the 585. We jacked and cribbed the front of the car to allow access to the underside. Since the bolts didn't want to budge, we employed the blue wrench and quickly had the old calipers off the car. In short order we had the new calipers on, and bled, and tested. This car should stop on a dime, and give nine cents change. About this time, Tom was coming back to the property, having finished mowing the main. After a minor derailment, we had the mower put away. That machine will need to be greased again after it's winter workout.
After lunch, Adam got the fork lift out to sort material back by yard 10/11. Tom and I switched out 24 track to get the tamper and tie crane first out. Monday Wes and Warren Lloyd are going to again do the track department a huge favor and go retrieve the engine for the tamper. If they have time, and the snow isn't too high against the door, they will once again put this engine back on the frame of the tamper. Hopefully Fischbach has it right this time. Next weekend we will have to get this baby out and break her in.
After the switch move, it was back to the 585 to get the engine running again. I left our heroes improvising a new rubber fuel line to the fuel pump. I'll run to Napa next time and get some replacement 1/2" ID fuel hose to complete that job.
Frank D.
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Sunday's Report by myself:
Today started out kinda dreary; snow on the ground, drizzle and lots of
clouds.
Today's gang was myself, Tom H, and Frank D. Frank got out
first and replaced a fuel line on the EJ&E 585 taking care of a
small fuel leak. I joined shortly afterward and we headed to the Model
50 burro crane in Yard 10. Our goal was to test the recently repaired
transmission and decided to dig two cars out of Yard 13. We needed the
C&NW flatcar for Four Mile Siding and the gondola for scrap
loading. With Frank as the operator we found out just how much the
crane can haul. We were able to move 1 load and 5 empties at once...
Not bad for a smaller crane. Playing it safe we cleaned out Yard 13
and moved everything to Yard 14 in three car cuts. We got our two cars
and brought them over to Yard 11. We expected to take the entire day
digging out the cars in Yard 13 but in fact we were done a lot sooner
than planned. By the time Tom arrived we were finished and decided to
head back out to Yard 13 to start shuffling track panels around to
build Track 134. We used the Burro crane to dig out all of the
100-25lb panels and set them roughly in place. We got six set in place
and there are four more 100lb panels to set. One at the bottom of a
stack in Yd13, two are on the Rock Island flatcar and one is on the
connector track under the switch timbers. Those four should put us
within a few rails of the end of track. Yard 13 is clear so we can
come in with the rail saw and drill and crop the panels together.
Complete, this will add about 600' of storage space to the yard. Frank
did a great job on the crane today and the machine didn't have any
failures to report.
As soon as Barn 11 is ready for us to work in, we
will. Within the next few weeks we'll try and get the three 112lb
track panels to Four Mile Siding and set in place, just as we did in
Yard 13. By the time we left the sun was out in full force without a
cloud in sight with temps in the mid 40's. The property was almost
entire void of other life, but it was well worth the trip out.
Check out the rest of my photos from the day in my Member's Album: http://www.irm.org/gallery/album144
Adam Robillard
Roadmaster
lzeje657@msn.com
Comments
Wed, 04-11-2018 11:28
You mention in the header that you would like to have the Electroliner operational by its birthday. Was it?
Sun, 04-08-2018 20:03
As a child, IRM was always my favorite place to visit. Well, other than grandma's house next to the Geneva Sub. It's been many years since I now [...]
Wed, 04-04-2018 16:01
Those temporary walls could be constructed in a way that allows their reuse after the phase is done to close off the new phases.
Tue, 03-27-2018 03:08
Why did the smoke box cover on the shay need to be replace Do?
Mon, 03-26-2018 16:29
It never ceases to amaze me of the diligence and passion of the current mix of volunteers associated with IRM in 2018. Back when I was a active [...]
Mon, 03-26-2018 11:10
Awesome paint job Jamie!!! I never would of thought with the Rock Island history this locomotive in this scheme would of been preserved. Thanks for [...]
Sun, 03-25-2018 23:56
The Hick's blog lists it as Fruit Grower's Express FGEX #55407. Arrived in Union June 2016.
Sun, 03-25-2018 20:51
Good job on the diesel update 2018. Sincere, Ethan A.
Sun, 03-25-2018 20:45
Good job on the steam update 2018. Sincere, Ethan A.
Sun, 03-25-2018 00:12
Bill, The 1990 Roster has the PFE #68428; this may be the reefer that we saw moved. It is a rare car and deserves a paint job. Ted Miles, [...]
Fri, 03-16-2018 11:10
It would be rather difficult to operate an 11,000 Volt AC locomotive on our 600 Volt DC wire.
Thu, 03-15-2018 05:57
Good job steam update. Sincerely, Ethan A.