Illinois Railway Museum Blog

On Thursday night a lot of switch moves were done to put the 1630 inside for the winter and move the 938 back to the turntable leads. We also made some temporary room on track 92 for UP 428 and the Shay. JD Marzec ran the 8537 as Bob Milhaupt and I worked the ground.  Jeron Glander joined us later in the evening. After sorting some of the steam locos, we grabbed the CNW 6847 and moved it into the steam shop for some upcoming work the weekend of the 20th. Once the barn 9 and steam shop moves were completed, we finished putting the last car in barn 11 for the winter.

CNW 6847 in the Steam Shop for some motor work, using the drop table

The Diesel Department is working with the Steam Department to clear the Steam Shop for a day, this Saturday, so a bad traction motor can be changed out on the CNW 6847 using the drop table. This kind of cooperation will save a lot of money by using the existing facilities rather then hiring large cranes. The order of equipment in the steam shop needed to be changed to facilitate future driver work to UP 428, everything would have been moved anyway, so the timing worked out very well. Thank You to everyone in the Steam Department for working with us to make this happen.

Late last year the #5 traction motor on the CNW 6847 failed with a grounded field. The limited operation this year was with a pair of motors cut out, which required a little bit of control rewiring as these CNW SD40-2's don't have motor cutouts. Earlier this year we obtained a good RTO traction motor and have been planning to change it out at the soonest opportunity. After many discussions and scheduling with Tom and others in the steam department, this weekend was chosen to do the job.

before removal of parts

after removal of parts

The evening of the 19th, Colton Verzi, Scott Nauer and I worked on cutting and welding some 3/4" steel to make some wheel clamps for lifting the motor/wheel combo with the overhead crane.  After a few hours in the diesel shop the lifting clamps were done, and we headed for the steam shop, joined by Jim West. We started preparing the #5 combo, Jim began breaking the motor leads apart while Scott removed the pedestal cross bars. Colton and I removed the brake shoes and shortened the brake rigging via the slack adjusters, and then removed the shock absorbers. Saturday morning we'll drain the oil from the support bearings and prep the TM nose pack while the #5 axle is still over the little pit inside the shop, and then move it over the drop table to continue the job.

There are some additional photos added to the gallery at http://www.irm.org/gallery/diesel-november2010.