Two Milwaukee Streetcars

It really is amazing to witness the work on this project.  It is significant on so many fronts - engineering, machining, metallurgy, and the massive amount of less than ordinary GRUNT WORK.

Assembly

Jeff Brady is dry fitting and assembling some of the completed levers and rigging in the truck.  That is correct - enough of the new bushings and pins have been fabricated and heat treated to see how it goes back together.  He is inserting the new pin into a lever nicknamed a 'dog bone' due to its resemblance to such doggie snack treats.

The Dog Bones

Here is a closer look at the dog bones and how they fit into the truck.  There are two of these in each quadrant to next receive the brake head castings, which in turn hold the brake shoes.

Boring

Each of the many parts in this truck receives attention.  This once bent brake lever has been heated and straightened, as seen by the gray discoloration on the casting.  The old deteriorated bushings have been removed with a hydraulic press.  Here the lever is on the drill press table and about to get its holes reamed to receive the new bushings.  As I said above it is truly amazing, doing this on a wish and prayer with old tools and a lot of hard work and commitment from the volunteers.

A lot is happening very quickly on this project.  As reported previously the next step is to do repair and rebuilding work on the dismantled truck now in our shop.  The immediate focus is on the pins and bushings which hold together brake rigging, the slack adjusters, etc.

Pedestal Liners

Before we get into the details of that work we were pleased to note that an entire set of new pedestal liners has been fabricated and delivered.  These are wear parts to allow the journal boxes to slide vertically as needed, when the car is in motion.

Engineering

Jeff Brady has been busily engaged for some weeks as the truck is dismantled, taking careful measurements, and tabulating the needed new parts.

Schematic

Jeff created this schematic to help keep track and identify the complex connections and pieces.  Note that there are 78 bushings and 26 pins, needed for EACH truck assembly!

Pressing Task

Greg Kepka was pressing out the old bushings from the various rods and levers.  It was somewhat disconcerting to hear screeching and clanking like breaking glass as the rusted old bushings broke free and became loose.

Links

Here are some of the links, old bushings, and newly loosened bushings that Greg was working on.

As the Rod Turns

Rod Turner was turning new alloy steel rod to size in the small lathe.

Some Like It HOT

Here is the new small furnace/oven for heat treating newly fabricated pins and bushings to case harden them.  Four of the new pins are on the bench in front of the oven, having undergone their particular version of a trial by fire.

Truck Work

Gerry Dettloff works on fabricating new rods for the rebuilding of the truck on TM 972, and my camera tagged this image as number 972!  Work continues on a regular basis for this truck.  Most of the dismantling is done and now the hard part is to fabricate pieces to reassemble it.

Pins

New ground for us is to fabricate and heat treat the hardened pins needed to replace time worn pins in the truck assembly.  Gerry is set up to cut some new rod, and Rod Turner has a new small furnace for doing the required heat treating in stages.  Very impressive for our restoration specialists!