Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Entries from October 2010

Monday, October 11. 2010

Arc Headlamps - CCW 300 Posted by Robert Kutella in Charles City Western 300 at 05:43

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Some of you have been following along at home as we strive to understand and restore the carbon arc headlights on this locomotive. See the submitted BLOG comments for some good information and discussion.

John Nelligan has researched and come up with some very good 'new to us' information. I will repost his findings below. Thank you John and Steve Kraus, for making all of us a little bit smarter. Reading John's findings in light of Steve Kraus's comments makes sense. The brightness of a carbon arc light device requires the positive electrode placement to be just so, to give maximum efficiency. Reversing polarity with the DPDT headlight switch makes the other electrode the positive side, and it is now outside the optimum placement, making the headlamp seem 'dimmer' in that connection scheme. The arc itself is unchanged.

Steve's experience is with lower voltage arc lights. In the locomotive, the circuit receives a nominal 600 volts, but with the dropping resistance, the effective potential across the headlight is MUCH lower, after the arc is struck. In fact, maybe VERY MUCH lower since ionized air in an established arc provides almost ZERO resistance.

"Last Thursday, I got lucky when I googled carbon-arc headlights and found a 1909 GE bulletin describing exactly what is installed in the CCW 300 for headlight operation. The venerable GE engineers discovered the when the terminals of the headlight are hooked up with one polarity, the light emitted is bright (1800' down the track) and when the polarity is reversed, the light is not nearly as bright and suitable for street running in urban locales. Thus the use of a DPDT (double pole double throw) switch that has been marked 1200 (incorrectly as has been observed). The only workable configuration for the headlight resistance is to tap it with the same number of resistors on each side of the tap pair. The current along each of the 2 equal paths will be 3 Amps when 600 Volts is applied to the taps. This arrangement serves both positions of the DPDT switch. There is no possible tap arrangement that would not fry the resistor bank, were 1200 Volts to be applied across the taps."

Sunday, October 10. 2010

Trolley Bus Dept. Update 10/10/10 Posted by Ray Piesciuk in Trolley Bus Department at 12:03

Trolley Bus Dept. Update 10/10/10

The work on the LA Brill 8002 is continuing. The interior has been completely cleaned out and the old rubber flooring has been taken up. There are sections where the glue has a very strong bond with the wood floor. Those sections need to be hand scraped, which has been started.

Richard Schauer and Julie Piesciuk work on removing the old rubber flooring.

Yesterday Richard Schauer and I worked on removing the old roofing material. 20 years ago the original tongue-in-grove roofing was covered with a temporary fix of plywood to keep the inside dry. Both were in poor condition and were removed. Careful measurements and patterns were kept so we can replicate the original roof. All the interior Masonite will need to be removed and most has. We are keeping sections of this also for patterns. In the weeks to come we will be continuing to remove what remains of the roofing, Masonite and de-Garrett-izing the coach (removing all the modifications that were made post-service by Garrett Industries, the 1st post-LA owner).

The view looking through the newly opened roof

Sunday, October 10. 2010

Wood Shop and Other News - October ... Posted by Robert Kutella in Wood Shop at 04:55

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Wood Shop and Other News - October 9, 2010

I suppose I should grab your attention with some progress on CTS PCC 4223

Bumper Rails

Eric Lorenz is cleaning up the various bumper rails that will be installed along the lower sides of this car. There are several pieces involved, some made new, some being restored.

PAINT

NEW PAINT GOING ON THE CAR! As we hinted in earlier entries, the finished color is being applied to CTS 4223. Here we see the right side between the center doors and the front. What a difference this makes, already, even though this is a relatively small first step in the process.

Windows

Randall Hicks continues a new burst of energy to complete windows for CA&E 319. The frames have been primed and inside painted, and here are the interior trim strips getting some finished paint.

CTA 30

Dave Fullarton was in the shop fabricating new roof saddles and other parts for the roof of one of the CTA 'single' L cars.

Roof Parts

Jeff Brady squeezed an extra volunteer day into his schedule and was cutting lap plates to continue installation of the custom roof panels for the Michigan Electric 28.

I managed a few more minutes work on a Sand Springs 68 window, and Dick Lukin was making repairs on the Illinois Central MU cars. Frank Sirinek, Mike Stauber, and John Myhre were working on motor wiring and connections for the Chicago & West Towns 141. Lots going on today.

In the Freight Car Department, Dan Fenlaciki helped us out, installing a new angle cock and hose (a task started last Wednesday) on our ICG 199458 caboose.

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