Entries by James Kolanowski

Here is a quick update on our Alco FA L&N 314 (currently LIRR 604). Our volunteer electrician, Dan Currens, has been busy reinstalling various electrical components back in the electrical cabinet and is slowly beginning to wire everything back up. However, additional funding is needed to keep the project moving along at a steady pace. Your donations to the Diesel Locomotive Restoration Fund are what keep projects like this and other projects like the Rock Island 4506 restoration going. Your help is invaluable to these efforts! Thank you in advance for your support!

Would you believe the Santa Fe 92 has been in IRM's collection for 20 years now? This EMD FP45 was built in December of 1967 with frame number 5731-3. It was donated to the museum in May 1997 by the BNSF railway, along with BN1, BN2, and BN3.



In the first several years at the museum, 92 was on display in a prominent spot in Yard 5 at the corner of Depot St and Central Ave. Visitors could take a tour of the cab and the engine room on most days. 92 did not operate when it was donated. At the time, diesel department volunteers did not look into the locomotive in much detail. We were told the engine in 92 had been swapped with a freeze damaged engine from a SD45. It was put on static display with the thought that maybe it could operate sometime in the future.

By 2010, enough money had been donated and secured to pay for indoor track space for 92. Equipment at IRM must pay for the space on the track it occupies outside, and must also pay the cost of the building space that it occupies inside. Indoor storage is the first step in the long term preservation of any rail equipment. The 92 was moved out of yard 5 and into Barn 2 early that year.



The elements outside were very harsh and did a number to the red paint on the 92. Luckily a little bit of cleaning with lacquer thinner did a wonderful job to brighten it up. Later that year in 2010 the numbers on the side of the cab were freshened up as they were faded badly. The 92 had been renumbered from 101 when the ATSF GP60's were introduced in the 100 series.

Also in 2010, we decided to try to use the 92 as a control cab, basically use it as a lead loco with a unit MU'ed to provide the propulsion power. The air brake system and electrical control system was gone through in detail, along with the running gear below deck, and all made to work for that purpose. There is a great video on YouTube of the 92 leading a runby on the museum's demonstration railroad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqR1GLjyGAg

Moving all the way to December of 2016, Dan Currens and I had planned a trip to National Railway Equipment in Silvis to look at a number of parts that they had available for some other projects being worked on in the department. While walking through the shop, shop workers were removing the major components from an ex SP SD45. On our way out, we inquired about the price of the 20 cylinder 645 that they were removing…they were firm at $25,000. We thought about it for about 4 seconds and just too much for us right now.

Just after the new year in 2017, NRE had come back to us about another RTO 20-645E3 that they had in stock, offered at $12,000. Now that got us to thinking about the project overall and prompted many discussions about what all the ATSF 92 would really need to make it operable again. Do we go for an entire engine change? Do we try to repair the freeze damaged engine that we have now, using some power assemblies we had acquired many years ago? And the big question, what else does it need?



Over the next few months we began going through everything in 92 in detail. It was clear the engine did have major freeze damage. The exhaust port elbows that run from the cylinder heads through the block to the exhaust manifold, that are surrounded by water, were so swollen I couldn't even fit my knuckles through them. Normally you could make a fist and fit it into the elbow. There's no telling how much effort it would be to get the liners out, which also have water passages all through them. And then all the advice from those in the industry... they said to replace the engine. We already know we were going to need a new air compressor.





Dan megged all of the traction motors, they all had pretty good readings. I went through and inspected each motor as well, aside from a little dust from sitting in the shop for a few years, they looked very good and had very little wear on the brushes. The AR10 main alternator was another unknown. Dan started looking into it and found so much odd stuff done to it, a lot of wires cut to suppression circuits, a bundle of wires going into it from the cabinet were just taped together to make it look connected. The diode banks had been removed and changed at some point. In the end it was determined that we should get another opinion, and after seeing some of the issue that were pointed out to us, the AR10 in it was deemed scrap.





Dan continued on the low voltage side and testing all the power contactors and reversers, interlocks, and a whole lot more. A number of reversers and power contactors in the rear electrical cabinet had to be removed and cleaned. The ventilation louvers on the top of the cabinet allowed 20 years of debris from the engine room to get in and prevent them from closing fully, or in one case, moving at all. There is a short YouTube video here with some of that testing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybsNBjmsxE

In the end, the list of major mechanical items needed to make the 92 operable again are the 20-645E3 engine, the AR10, and the WBO air compressor. A few significant donations to the ATSF 92 restricted fund, along with some department discretionary funds, made this portion of the project possible.

A few other items on the list that are two wheelsets that are good, but not quite enough tread left to allow for another cut. The other four have enough tread for a cut and then some. The last major item is the truck frames, the current flexicoil trucks are also from a SD45 and have the low underslung brake cylinders. To make the 92 correct, it would need the four high mounted brake cylinders on the flexicoil trucks.

We hope to raise enough funds to allow the purchase and installation of the correct truck frames, which is about $20,000. To support this effort, your donation would be greatly appreciated, and can be made at this link: https://www3.irm.org/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_4&products_id=2133

Over the first few months of 2017, we had many meetings with National Railway Equipment to discuss the many different options and prices for the project. NRE will be providing the engine and the AR10, and the labor to complete the job at Silvis, Illinois. We feel the experience and excellent quality and workmanship NRE typically provides will be well suited for this project, which is estimated to cost about $60,000 to $80,000. It will likely take a few months to complete. The next article, we’ll tell the story of the preparation and the transportation of 92 to NRE’s facility in Silvis.

The Illinois Railway Museum will be hosting a night photo session the evening of Chicago and North Western Day on Saturday, May 20th. Tickets are required and they will be limited. Flash lighting will be provided by Kevin A. Sadowski. Proceeds from this night photo session will go towards the repainting of CNW 6847. You can reserve your spot here at the following link:

https://www3.irm.org/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=10&products_id=2134

Some of the featured equipment will be:

• CNW 1689 (Alco RSD5)
• CNW 1518 (EMD GP7)
• CNW 4160 (EMD GP7R)
• CNW 6847 (EMD SD40-2)
• CNW 8646 (GE C44-9W)
• CNW 8701 (GE C44-9W)
• CNW 411 (EMD F7A)
• CNW 151 (Cab car)
• Other equipment that may be available.

Some of the photo lineups will be announced at a later date.

All schedules and equipment subject to change without notice.

When the weather is perfect and between the mid 60's to low 70's, a lot gets done! And that was the case this weekend! On Saturday, the day started out with Nick D, Eric Z and myself moving a few locos around the shop to get setup for the weekends projects. Jeron G joined us half way through. We rearranged about eight locos between tracks 21, 22 and 23, and grabbed two from other yards.

Mark R was running the backhoe with the track department, he was able to break free from that for 10 minutes to help us dig out the old plow to 1605 from the material yard. We'll be putting it onto 6847 removing the UP plow that is on it now. Charlie S and Kevin S spend much of the day needle scaling the plow to prep it for primer and paint. There's still more work to do, a little more needle chipping, and we'll have to straighten the leading edge of the blade.



Jeron and I worked on watering, prelubing and inspecting some of the rotating equipment in WC 7525, and started that up. It is so nice to have new good batteries in the loco. When we last ran it with the old batteries, it would not start itself, and a couple years before that, you only had one chance on a warm day to get it started. We let it idle for the day to dry everything out.

Meanwhile, Colton V changed the oil and fuel filters in CNW 6847. After Jeron and I were done on 7525, we went over to 6847 and inspected the rotating equipment, then decided it was lunch time. When we got back, prelubed, watered, and attempted to start, but the turbo clutch was doing its thing again and wouldn't engage. We pulled the intake filters off, spun the turbo impeller a few times in one direction and forced it in the other direction until it stopped. Did that a couple of times and tried another attempt at starting, much better this time. Replaced the intake filters and didn't have any other problems the rest of the weekend. Again, having new batteries in this unit too was great!

Eric Z and Nick D spent the afternoon working on CNW 4160 inside the shop. The goal there was to change out a head with one of a few that we picked up from MOT a year ago. The number 6 cylinder head had a lot of blow by on one or more exhaust valves. To change out a head, the fuel lines, the rocker oil line, rocker shaft, injector linkage, injector crab, the injector, overspeed lockout, cylinder test cock, main crab nuts, and head to liner bolts all come off to be able to pull the head. Perform some cleanup and put all new seals in and gasket on the liner, same on the head, and put it all back together.









Unfortunately, there was a small water leak on the upper O ring of the head which forced us to remove it again and work on that a bit. Nick D and I stayed until about 1:30am had it all back apart, ready to go back together on Sunday.  On Sunday afternoon, Eric and Nick went through the reassembly process once more and no issues this time with any water leaks.



On Sunday, I moved the 6847 over to pump to engine oil into it as it was about 100 gallons low. Also topped off the water in it and also in 7525.



Eric and I switched the order of locos on track 22, placing the CNW 411 and ATSF 92 deep in the shop for more work, and moved the 4160 outside for prelubing and added some oil to it as well. Since 4160 doesn't have batteries, we jumped that one off the 7525. It sounds much better than it did for the last 9 years. It'll still need the fuel rack set and go through and set all the lash adjusters, but it is getting better and better, closer to a reliable running loco.

It was a very productive weekend getting three locos running and a getting a few other projects going and well on their way to completion. Thanks to all you guys for helping out this weekend!

From this point forward I'm going to start summarizing the updates by week instead of by day like we've done in the past. That might make it easier to post a little more info with my limited time. Also, I'll be making separate blog posts for the progress on 92 starting next week.

Anyway, earlier in the week Dan and I made it out to the shop one evening to work on the 7525 and 92. While Dan focused on testing the electrical system of 92 and making a list of work that it will be needing, I crawled under the 7525's number 3 traction motor to perform some cleanup. A few weeks ago, Dan had meggered all the motors and we also knew that the number 3 had flashed and needed some work. The armature was reading .1 megohms, which is not good at all.



There were obvious signs with freshly melted bronze on the brush holders and zaps from the end of the armature to the motor case. I spent a few hours slotting the entire commutator, using a lining bar to move the loco an inch or two at a time to rotate the motor and wiped everything down that I could reach with some motor cleaner to remove any carbon tracks that might be present. Slotting is where you take a file designed to fit in between the bars of the commutator and essentially file out anything that is in the slots, copper balls from flashing, carbon, dirt, etc., anything that'll conduct from bar to bar. While cleaning and inspecting the bottom of the motor, I noticed two broken springs on the same spring pack on the back holder. Made a note that it'll have to come out to be repaired. After the cleaning and slotting, megging again brought it up to .6 megohms, better.

On Saturday morning, Erik and Nick continued sanding in the cab of 411. They spent much of the day making a huge amount of progress getting most of it ready for primer.



I worked on getting the holder out of the motor on 7525 to replace the bad springs. Little did I know I would find a hole blown in the bottom of it, which is what burned through the springs. I cleaned it up, removed and cleaned all the insulators before putting it back together and reinstalling in the motor. Megged again and not it's showing just over 1 megohms, much better. We'll give it a try this season and see how it performs.





There were a number of people working on the 92, including Dan, Laddie, Nick, Erik, Brian, Colton and myself. There was a lot of paint scraping going on inside, more work on the electrical system, and some work on the air system.

Erik and I also installed a fitting on the 7525 to make prelubing the engine far easier than what we were doing.



Thanks to all these guys for all their hard work!

Today we spend a few hours working on CNW 411 to reconnect the HEP radiator piping, temperature probes and various other clamps. The piping consisted of 4 flat gasketed connections, one to each radiator header, one hose coupling, one dresser coupling and two marmon couplings. The two temperature probes are for the fans, low speed and high speed. All the shrouds and air flow deflectors will be reinstalled after we verify there are no leaks later in the spring. Here are a few photos.