Diesel Department

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.

The progress on 2407 continues as a lot of people volunteer their time. We are likely just a few weeks away from being able to start its 2,400HP engine for the first time in over 15 years. About a week ago, Jeron Glander and I finished cleaning out the bottom of the oil filter box of sludge and debris, and installed new oil filters. This past Saturday, Scott Nauer and I cleared track 22 so the Cleveland PCC could be moved out to make room for the next painting project. Once the PCC was moved, we moved the 2407 out of the way so the NSL 714, the next to get a paint job, could go all the way east. We spotted the 2407 after the 714, that way we can move the Alligator in and out as needed without interfering with the work on 714.

On Sunday we had Roger Broms, Jim West, Warren Lloyd and myself. The main tasks were to free up the last of the injection pumps that were stuck and drain more contaminated fuel and refill the tank partially. We started on the fuel injection pumps, Warren checked all the ones on the engineers side and made sure they were all still free as they were the last time. There were 4 on the firemans side that were still stuck, or were very sticky to move. The method was to simply work the rack in and out on each, using a block of wood to tap it in, and a bar to slide it back out. Eventually they would move by hand and then after more lubricating and exercise they would return to no fuel with its own return spring as it should. After a few hours of this, we broke for lunch.

After lunch we drained another 50 gallons of fuel out of the tank and pumped it into a 55 gallon drum. We spend a little time finding a way to break into the tank to see how much fuel was actually in it. After finding a cover over a 1.5" hole, we found there was about 4 or 5 inches of fuel left in it which we later found out to be about 250 gallons. We began to transfer about 300 gallons of fuel from the 5383 into the 2407. The 5383 and a few other locos had been filled the day before as we decided to stock pile a truck load of fuel for the year while prices were somewhat reasonable. Jim West removed the fuel gauges to see if they were complete and working, both of them had been painted over some time ago. One side had the float rod broken, and the other was complete and working, but it had been sandblasted and painted over, so the glass will need to be changed. Its temporarily back in place without its glass. We spent some time on the fuel pump and relief valve. The way its plumbed is causing some issues with priming the system, we are gonna make a few changes to where the bypass dumps to so this problem can be resolved. We are also looking into changing the fuel filter element to one that is common with other locos that we run.

The last few items that we need to work on next time are to add some oil to the engine, during prelubing it is running a little low. We'll need to change the fuel filter type and replumb the fuel relief bypass valve directly to the tank via the existing return lines. We can then move it outside to try to start and idle in order to do some running checks. There is still a long way to go to make it operational, but just getting it started will be one huge accomplishment for everyone.

Be sure to visit the Photo Gallery of the current work going on. Also, donations to the RSD15 are still needed and appreciated.

Here is a very late update on the progress on GB&W 2407 from February 12th, I had drafted it before I went on vacation for a couple of weeks and forgot to publish it. We had a pretty large group out Saturday afternoon, including Frank DeVries, Marcus Ruef, Warren Lloyd, Kyle Merkel, Kevin Hennessy, Greg Ceurvorst, Dave Fullarton, Jeron Glander, Jim West, Dan Currens, Rich Schauer, and myself. The main tasks were to get the rest of the water system tight. The previous weekend and during the week we had made a number of repairs, but did not have a chance to water it again. The electrical system, governor, and air compressor were also worked on.

Dan Currens started by digging into the electrical system, verifying everything was connected and functioning properly in the cabinet, and with the governor and such. Kyle and Jim worked on refilling the governor and pump with oil. We will have to flush the system again at a later date. There was some minor raccoon damage, but the majority of the electrical system was in pretty good shape.

Meanwhile Dave and Kevin were working on checking all the injection pumps, seeing which ones were free and which were sticking. They found a bunch that were very tight and began working on lubricating and freeing them up. Warren, Kyle and Rich joined in as well.

Frank and Marcus made a gasket to replace the leaking one on a cover on the air compressor, and then changed the oil in the compressor. We started watering again to verify the latest repairs and was very surprised at how well it was holding water. We did mark a few more water elbows that we had not marked the last time, along with some additional pipe couplings. Frank noticed a crack on a low pressure cylinder liner that was leaking water. There were a number of other leaks in this area the last time, so we didn't notice it. We are looking into some ways to fix this without changing the liner as it looks like the only damage is this area on the outside of the water jacket.

Greg joined Marcus and Frank, and they made some more gaskets to replace the leaking ones along with some hoses on a few of the water elbows on the engineers side after draining the water. They made enough for all the ones that were leaking on both sides.  Warren replaced two of them on one side of the loco while Marcus and Frank replaced a few on the engineers side.  While draining, we noticed that the compressor and water cooled intercooler on the compressor did not have a drain as the pipe that should have gone to the main drain valve was removed and plugged. This was done sometime when it was on the railroad, and is probably why there were water problems on the compressor. We'll have to thoroughly check out the intercooler as well.

It was a very productive day and I'd like to thank everyone that helped out to move this project much further along. Be sure to visit the Photo Gallery of the current work going on. Also, donations to the RSD15 are still needed and appreciated.