Illinois Railway Museum Blog

The S-105 had one couple installed today.  A good amount of work was required to make the new pocket castings fit onto the existing hole spacing on the pilot. The pictures below describe a bit of the work that was done along the way. A number of recent photos can be seen in the S-105 restoration gallery.

1 of 4 holes filled

The new pockets are slightly larger than the original. It was decided to weld the holes in and redrill with the hole spacing that matches the spacing on the pilot.  Here we see the first hole welded up with a large block to fill a larger section of the oval hole, much less welding overall. The blocks were placed diagonally in the oval to make it easier to have a complete weld through the entire thickness of the hole.  The existing oval holes are about 3-1/2" x 1-5/8", the backplate of the casting is almost 1-1/2" thick.

pilot cleanedand painted

The old pocket was cut off of one end, and the other end just had the bolts remaining.  All the bolts were removed and the entire area needlechipped, primed and painted.  New 1-1/2" bolts were bought, along with enough washers for both ends on each bolt, and enough nuts to double nut outside the pockets. Gerry also did a lot of work on the cut levers, getting them all straightened out, getting the supports repaired, and making it all function nicely.

all holes welded and ground

After several hours of work, a lot of welding, all four holes were filled in.  Two on one side were completely finished first, and then ground down, and finished off with a high speed sander with 6 grit paper.  Then the last two holes on the other side were welded in, and also ground and sanded.

new holes measured and marked

The next step was to figure out and mark the new hole spacing on the casting.  FRA requirements are 34-1/2" max from top of railhead to center of coupler, and 31-1/2" min to the same points.  Our goal was 33-1/2" on the (current) west end of the loco.  The east half needs some shims on the center bearings as it sits about 2 inches lower than the west half.  After that correction is made, and with the added weight when some accessories and motors are put back in, we should settle down to about 33" to 33-1/4".

the casting with new hols

A 5/16" pilot hole was drilled first, since thats the newest bit we had and most likely the sharpest. We used the electric car departments mag-drill.  Its like a drill press, with an electromagnet the holds the press to the work piece, and it has a variable speed motor with a 3/4" chuck.  Next was to drill the 1-1/2" holes.

pocket bolted to the pilot

After cleaning up the casting from all the drill shavings and oil, Warren, Kyle and I made the heavy lift by hand. Once we lifted it high enough for the 4 holes to line up, it slid right into place.

one down, one to go

Here we see the finished product, well, almost.  We wanted to see how it would all fit, but it'll all have to be taken back off so the casting can be primed and painted.