Diesel Department

On the evening of November 18th, Jeron G, Riley L and myself installed a used primary fuel filter housing in GB&W 2407. We decided to standardize on a common element on several locomotives to reduce costs for stocking several styles of fuel filter elements and eliminating the really expensive ones. We removed the two housings and the fuel lines going to them, cut and welded some brackets to hold the new housing in a good angle to be able to change elements without hitting other parts in the engine room. All that remains is replacing the fuel lines to the filter housing. Afterwards, Jeron and Riley moved on to an oil leak on the oil strainer housing, making and replacing a couple of gaskets.

Be sure to visit this album for photos of other recent shop work. Also, donations to the RSD15 are still needed to replace cab glass and repair the turbocharger.

The annual Diesel Days Parade of Power won't be quite as large as previous years, but will still be a show that you should not miss. We'll kick off the day at 10:00am with normal operations, the heavyweight coach train pulled by BN1, 2, 3; the Nebraska Zephyr pulled by CBQ 9911A; and a four car caboose train pulled by BN 5383. Later in the day we'll have a few freight train run-bys with different power each time.

The Parade of Power will begin close to 1:00pm and will include the equipment listed below, but not necessarily in this order.  A few special items in the parade will include the BN 5383 under load from CNW 6847 heading East, and the CNW 6847 under load from BN 5383 heading West. The same drill for the CBQ 504 under load from SP 1518 heading East, and SP 1518 under load from CBQ 504 heading West. They will not stop in front of the depot as the other trains normally do.

- Burlington Northern 1 (EMD F9A), 2 (EMD F9B), 3 (EMD E9A)
- Burlington Northern 5383 (GE U30C)
- Chicago & North Western 6847 (EMD SD40-2)
- Milwaukee Road 760 (FM H10-44)
- Southern Pacific 1518 (EMD SD7)
- Chicago Burlington & Quincy 504 (EMD SD24)
- Chicago & North Western 411 (EMD F7A) Bilevels
- Chicago Burlington & Quincy 9911A (EMC E5A) Nebraska Zephyr
- Chicago Burlington & Quincy 9255 (EMD SW7)
- Commonwealth Edison 15 (EMD SW1)
- Nekoosa Paper 14 (ALCO S1)
- United States Army 8537 (GE 45Ton)
- Wisconsin Central 7525 (EMD SD45MQ-3), Santa Fe 92 (EMD FP45)
- Green Bay & Western 2407 (ALCO RSD15)
- Illinois Terminal 1605 (EMD GP7)
- Chicago & North Western 4160 (EMD GP7R)

The line up will be similar on Sunday, except the ATSF 92 will lead the WC 7525 and this consist may pull the coach train in place of BN1, 2 and 3.

We'll keep the usual disclaimer of All equipment and schedules subject to change without notice.

A night photo session is not scheduled this year.

About three weeks ago we brought the Nebraska Zephyr into the Diesel Shop to begin a very long process of cleaning, buffing and polishing her stainless steel siding.  Many, many years of road grime, a lot of cast iron brake shoe dust, and dust from sitting idle in Barn 9 have really collected and just won't come off with a simple washing with a pressure washer. The first few days were spent finding the right materials, wheels, rouge and the best methods for cutting and polishing the current sandpaper feel of the stainless.

We did find a pretty good method that will hopefully fit our timeframe, which is basically 5 weeks for 5 cars and a locomotive, a total of about 415 feet of train. On the fluted areas, we start with a scotch bright pad, gray or red as others were too harsh, and go a couple passes to break into the dirt pretty good, but not get into the stainless. Then on to the stainless wool, to take off pretty much all of the remaining dirt and debris. The first two steps here are all by hand. Then on to the power tools, a few Milwaukee variable speed buffers with a couple 8 inch, 60 ply cotton muslin sewn wheels and some rouge specifically for stainless from a company called Zephyr Products, that was quite ironic. This stuff does a great job of cutting and polishing. The final step is using a similar type of wheel, but smaller diameter, with no rouge and just going over the same area quicker to clean up any residue and it gives a nice smooth, almost mirror like finish to the fluted sides.

The flat panels are a bit different. There is no way we'll have time to get the finish we would like with the machines, so we start with stainless wool, clean the surface with side to side movements only, and then finish off with P21S polishing soap. Again, all of it is by hand.

The curves from the letter board up the roof were a little more difficult at first as the corrugation is pretty narrow. On top of that, there is a lot more dirt caked in them from there being a lot more horizontal surface area. The quickest way through the dirt was folded up scotch bright pads and more stainless wool. The same method is being used on the area curving down to the belly pans.

So far the Venus, Vesta, and most of Minerva are completed, Juno has been started. Sometime in the next day or two the train will be wyed since it doesn't fit in the shop, let alone the building, and the last two cars will hopefully be completed by the middle to end of next week. Riley, Chris, Pete, Colton, Charlie, Eric, Kevin, the other Kevin, and Jeron have all been pretty busy moving this along quickly. Thank you all for the hard work.

We'll post another update in a week or so, along with progress  updates of other projects in the shop.