Illinois Railway Museum Blog

While the 504 and 1848 were still in the heated shop to keep them from freezing, Jeron and I decided to work on a few little things that have needed attention. On the 19th, Jeron removed, cleaned, and reassembled the automatic air drains on the main reservoirs, and along the way found out that one of them to have a small crack in the housing near the manual part of the valve. It will be replaced later this winter. He also tracked some some other small air leaks, repairing some and noting some others for future repairs. There was a copper pipe on the drain side of an auto drain that had a split to it, that was soldered shut and put it back in place.

Jeron rebuilding one of the automatic air drains on 504

Meanwhile, I started working on the air brakes. An issue started to occur where the independent brake would not stay bailed off. The fix here was to replace the 26-F quick release valve and the control valve which had a slight leak to it. At the same time a couple of filters on the air system were replaced. There is one more issue where we are waiting for a valve to ship from PABCO.

Last night we spent a couple hours at the shop doing a little more TLC work on 504 and 1848. On 504, the platform crosswalk lights never had the lenses put in from when the restoration was completed years ago. They were just blanked over for the painting. I used one of the old fogged lexan windows from the bilevels and cut out a couple squares with the sawzall for the front and rear. Screwed and sealed it with some clear silicone so water won't get into it, let it dry and screwed the plates, with lenses, back in right before leaving for the night. The radio had quit working earlier this year, but we never had the time to troubleshoot why. A little bit of looking this time found no voltage at the radio rack and nothing at the radio breaker. Traced the wires back further into the cabinet only to find a broken one near the knife switch. Placed a butt splice on that and the radio works again. Jeron replaced a bulb on the transmit indicator as well.

On the 1848, Jeron rebuilt one of the rear sander magnet valves that was sticking and leaking a bit. There is still more to do on these after some rebuild kits are ordered. We also straitened out one of the rear break away stanchions for the crosswalk safety chains that was not exactly straight.

Over the next couple weeks, some other items will be done on both units before they get moved out of the shop and other equipment comes in for work.