Illinois Railway Museum Blog

The weekend started on Friday early evening with Evelina Zielinski and myself heading out to the shop to work on the CB&Q 504. We started by rolling it out of the shop just outside on track 21 in the warm breezy weather while there was still sunlight. We worked through inspecting all of the electrical gear, including the main generator, auxiliary generator, alternator slip rings, fuel pump and soak back pump, and eventually much of the switch gear in both the front and rear electrical cabinets. The cooling system was filled and a small leak in the supply pipe to the engine protector was fixed. After an inspection of some of the mechanicals and a prelube, it was started and fired right up.

504 making power.

After some warm up time, we went to run some sequence tests and other tests on the electrical system, to find that none of it would work. No pick up of some contactors, and in the end no power. While we started to troubleshoot a little deeper, Evelina noticed the tail of a raccoon sticking out of the right door at the very top of the electrical cabinet. It REALLY surprised us both...digging around in there and not seeing it initially. I looked up in there with a light and the coon was barely hanging on to a very small ledge at the top of the cabinet. I tried a few things to get it out, but between me poking at it and the noise of the engine and that turbo, it crawled up into the furthest crevice it could at the top of the cabinet and wasn't moving. We called it a night, put the engine away back in the barn, set a live trap with some bait in the engine room and went to a late dinner.

Saturday was spent with Mark Sanborn inspecting four cars for a caboose train. Jim West joined us midway to help do some switching to get air to the cars and run through the air tests. The day was mostly wet and the temperature really dropped throughout the day. Three of the cars are now in service with the forth caboose needing some minor work with some shims on the side bearings on the A end. We called it an early day to get cleaned up and watch the Chicago Blackhawks win the Western Conference Championship. Yes, I had to get that plug in there!

On Sunday, Joe LeMay and I switched the 760 out of yard 5 and brought it over to the shop. We started with the usual electrical gear inspections, let the engine prelube while we were doing everything else. We had to clean up the usual dirty and fuzzy interlocks from sitting over the winter. After watering and a few other things, Joe hit the start switch while I goosed the governor, it barely started itself up with the batteries being on the charger for only about an hour. We let it idle for a while to warm up and inspected a few more items afterwards. We still have some work to do on the bottom end, including securing some loose motor cables. That will happen when we get it over on track 22 inside where there is no stone up to the railhead like on track 21.

Since there was still a lot of daylight left, we pulled the 504 back outside with the 760. I went through everything to see if our friend from Friday was still in there, and luckily no signs of the raccoon. The trap was still empty so it must have bailed to another loco or somewhere. We grabbed the air hose from the shop and started blowing out all the raccoon hair, dust and other debris from all the front electrical cabinet. I started it up to dry out more and started running through the sequence tests again, seeing the same result as Friday. After some troubleshooting, the raccoon somehow pulled a wire pulled off an interlock on one of the series contactors while climbing around in the cabinet. After reattaching that, everything functioned normally. We then put the 504 away and shut it off, and then the same with 760.

While we were closing up the shop, Mark Reimers came over for a favor. We went over to start the 6847, to find that one of the interlocks on the starter solenoids were sticking and one wouldn't engage. A little tapping fixed that. After starting, it ran for a several seconds before it died, like it was starving for air. After checking several other items, we hear no turbo or gear noise at all while cranking and firing for a few seconds. My guess is our turbo clutch issue from a year and a half ago has resurfaced. Something else to look into later. We called it a day on this one, used the CE 15 for the last move and then finished up the day.

We're planning on more loco inspections over the weekends in June as we prep for this years Diesel Days.

Jamie