Diesel Department

The main goal for the afternoon was to get the wheelset, traction motor and other accessories from the 6847 loaded onto the truck and tied down so they could be taken to a machine shop near Chicago. Kevin Hennessy and I loaded the wheelset, TM and a pallet with the gear cases and a box with the support bearings. Kyle Merkel and I tied everything down with chains and ratchet binders. Rod Turner moved the CE4 a bit further into barn 6 so we could park the truck inside overnight in case it rained.  Dave Diamond drove the parts towards the city early Monday morning. With some luck, we should be able to pick up a fully assembled combo on Wednesday morning and reinstall on Saturday.

Kyle and I then moved into the shop and started to disassemble the front lower pilot of CB&Q 9255 as it had been bent up a little bit from a derailment a while ago.  We unbolted the bottom plate and then the firemans side supports. Steve Lewkowycz joined Kyle to complete the engineers side. All the parts were moved to the back of the shop ready to be straightened out. While they were there, they drained the loco for the winter as this weeks weather forecast is calling for below freezing temperatures for several nights in a row.

Dan Mulvihill and Bob Sundelin were testing some spot welded wires/pins that will be used to hold down the insulation on the M-35 above the windows. It was a short day, but a productive one.

On Saturday morning, Roger Broms and I arrived about 8:30am and started getting some parts and tools ready to remove the #5 motor and wheel combo. We started the 8537, the US Army 45 tonner, which would be used later to move the 6847 over the drop table. Roger gathered some parts while I moved the new motor over to the steam shop under their new overhead crane. Meanwhile, Nigel and Ralph, and some others were removing the roof from the drop table, and getting the safety fence setup along with other some other items around the table. Jeff Calendine ran the forklift to remove two freight car trucks that were on the lead south of the table and in the way. The 6847 was facing south so we could close the railroad doors behind the shop to keep the heat in the shop.

Roger Broms and Bob Milhaupt drilled the last holes in the wheel clamps we made the night before so we could place a clevis on them to attach a chain from there. Roger Bradshaw began prepping the new motor, taking off the support bearing caps and cleaning everything up. Scott Nauer and I removed the last pedestal cross bar and the bracket that holds the traction motor nose pack pins in place. We then moved the 8537 to the steam shop and began to shove the 6847 over the table, lining up the #5 axle in the middle of the table.  We tied everything down and moved the 8537 back into the shop out of the way.

We blocked up the nose end of the motor. One of the bolts on the rubber pack was broken so we couldn't compress it to remove it easily, so we just let the motor tilt more and more, added blocking as we lowered until the rubber pack was free to be removed. We then lowered the combo the rest of the way, slid over the table and raised it back up to let the Bay City crane lift the combo off the table to where the forklift could reach under it. Jeff moved the combo over to the shop near the new motor.

After draining the oil from the support bearings, removing the bearing wick assemblies, and removing the gear cases, we setup both motors on their ends. This way we could eventually lift the wheel off the bad motor, rotate 180 degrees, and onto the new motor. After setting the combo on its end, we could see there was a very large gap for the lateral motion between the motor and axle, well over a 1/4" gap on the comm end of the combo. We started tearing down the support bearing caps and pulled the top bearing shells out. We could immediately see excessive wear on one end of the axle where the flange end of the support bearing meets the wheel. The gear end looks like the gear had been moved or hammered over by almost a 1/8" as it wasn't lining up how it is supposed to be with the marks on the axle.  The bearing shells were worn in certain spots and galling in other spots. At this point we figured there was no way to complete the job today and do it right.

Roger said if we could get the wheels, new motor and a few of the other required parts to his shop on Monday, they would press the gear into the right spot, machine the axle bearing surfaces and reassemble the combo with new bearings. Hopefully we will have the complete combo back by Wednesday before the holiday so it can be reinstalled Saturday. We started cleaning everything up, moving the motors back to the diesel shop inside on pallets. We removed the roller bearing boxes from the axle and placed those along with everything else on pallets. We dragged the 6847 back into the south end of the steam shop and put the 8537 away.

It'll be an extra week that we hadn't planned on, at least the job will be done right and everything will be back together with the proper limits and good bearings. Tentatively we are planning on installing the combo this coming Saturday if everything works out and there are people available on the holiday weekend. Sorry there are no pictures with this update, there were a number of people taking them, but most of them left before we were done so I couldn't ask to use them here.

On Thursday night a lot of switch moves were done to put the 1630 inside for the winter and move the 938 back to the turntable leads. We also made some temporary room on track 92 for UP 428 and the Shay. JD Marzec ran the 8537 as Bob Milhaupt and I worked the ground.  Jeron Glander joined us later in the evening. After sorting some of the steam locos, we grabbed the CNW 6847 and moved it into the steam shop for some upcoming work the weekend of the 20th. Once the barn 9 and steam shop moves were completed, we finished putting the last car in barn 11 for the winter.

CNW 6847 in the Steam Shop for some motor work, using the drop table

The Diesel Department is working with the Steam Department to clear the Steam Shop for a day, this Saturday, so a bad traction motor can be changed out on the CNW 6847 using the drop table. This kind of cooperation will save a lot of money by using the existing facilities rather then hiring large cranes. The order of equipment in the steam shop needed to be changed to facilitate future driver work to UP 428, everything would have been moved anyway, so the timing worked out very well. Thank You to everyone in the Steam Department for working with us to make this happen.

Late last year the #5 traction motor on the CNW 6847 failed with a grounded field. The limited operation this year was with a pair of motors cut out, which required a little bit of control rewiring as these CNW SD40-2's don't have motor cutouts. Earlier this year we obtained a good RTO traction motor and have been planning to change it out at the soonest opportunity. After many discussions and scheduling with Tom and others in the steam department, this weekend was chosen to do the job.

before removal of parts

after removal of parts

The evening of the 19th, Colton Verzi, Scott Nauer and I worked on cutting and welding some 3/4" steel to make some wheel clamps for lifting the motor/wheel combo with the overhead crane.  After a few hours in the diesel shop the lifting clamps were done, and we headed for the steam shop, joined by Jim West. We started preparing the #5 combo, Jim began breaking the motor leads apart while Scott removed the pedestal cross bars. Colton and I removed the brake shoes and shortened the brake rigging via the slack adjusters, and then removed the shock absorbers. Saturday morning we'll drain the oil from the support bearings and prep the TM nose pack while the #5 axle is still over the little pit inside the shop, and then move it over the drop table to continue the job.

There are some additional photos added to the gallery at http://www.irm.org/gallery/diesel-november2010.