Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Today was a short day in the shop due to a museum planning meeting taking place in the morning. The plan was to repair the hot water cab heaters in the Illinois Terminal 1605. We're not sure how longs it's been since they've been used since we primarily operate in warm weather. Last year while moving one of the unit coal trains, it would have been nice to have in mid April. Anyway, Mark R and I started on replacing the bad hose couplings between the bottom of the heater cores and the supply and return pipes that run through the floor. The conductors side had one replaced while the engineers side had both replaced.

Photo: The conductor side, with band clamps removed, shows signs of leaking on the left hose coupling.

Photo: The fan with disconnected motor, control switch and resister.

Photo: The engineer side with new hoses.

After replacing the hoses, we checked the motors and found the conductors side not even wired in place and loose bolts holding the motor in place. Dan C joined for a bit to figure out why we didn't have power to the heater breaker, but as it turns out, this GP7 has that wired to the aux gen, so it'll only get power to the cab heat fan motors if the locomotive is running. Jumpering from the battery knife switch temporarily, the motors and switches worked normally.

Next up was to replace a 10 inch section of 1 inch pipe on the cab heat supply pipe that had been removed and plugged. Mark worked on removing the plug and union while I cut and threaded the pipe nipple. The rest went together very easily. While showing Mark where the drains were located, we noticed a 1-1/4 inch union that was disconnected near the rear of the locomotive where the cab heat return line goes back into the engine room. The threads on the union were damaged, so it was removed. We did not have a replacement in stock, so that will be finished in a few days.

Photo: Mark working in the tight quarters under the walkway.

Sunday a few of us plan on reconnecting a number of items to the CNW 411 HEP radiator hatch. If anyone wants to lend a hand, we'll be at the shop by 10:30am.

Jamie