Diesel Department

Wednesday evening in the shop was Kyle M, Jeron G and myself. We continued on the inspection items on CE 15. Before Kyle and I arrived, Jeron continued working on all the hood latches, removing any one that had bend or stiff linkage, straightening them as needed, and cleaning and lubricating all of them with a dry graphite lubricant. It is amazing how well and easily these doors close and latch now. All three of did the engine inspection, with Kyle on the right side, me on the left side, and Jeron and the bar turning the engine. During this process, we check the pistons, rings, and liners, a whole bunch of things in the air box and crank case. With no issues found, we moved onto other things. Kyle sanded and primed the surfaces where the front radiator screen bolts to the carbody, and finished by bolting the screen back on. Jeron started pulling the flange lubricators off to see if those can be repaired and put back into service. He was finding some very worn parts and it should be interesting to see what we are able to do with them, more to come there in the future. I spent some time removing the water sight glass, cleaning it, and reinstalling it. Much easier to see the coolant level now. I also changed both main reservoir drain valves.

Photo: Here we see the cylinder liner and intake ports through the air box inspection hole.

Photo: Going in close, when the piston is down, you can see the top of the piston, and across the to the other side of the liner to the intake ports and wall of the liner.

Photo: While the engine is be turned by hand, you can see the upper piston rings.

Photo: While the piston is near the top of the liner you can see the condition of the bottom half of the liner.

Photo: Another view of the same cylinder and bottom of the piston carrier.

Photo: This is what is left of the flange lubricator shoe, many many years of wear.

On Saturday, it was Mike B, Jeron G and myself. Sorry, no pictures from this day as I just didn't remember to take any. Mike checked and oiled the friction bearings, went through the fuel pump motor and cab heat motor, cleaned some light safety globes and bulbs, and cleaned the rear headlight lens and reflector. I oiled the radiator fan bearings and then we both put the panels back in place for the duct from the fans to the radiators. Jeron started working on the sand hoses and checking more with the flange lubricators. After I had returned from a meeting and after we all had a late lunch, I went through all of the traction motors and checked the motor support bearings. All of the latch handles on the top of the motors were stuck, at some future date those will have to come off and have the pins replaced to make them work properly again. The cab floor and subfloor were all vacuumed. There's just a handful of items that remain before this inspection, along with some other improvements, are completed. Until next time.

It was Jeron and I on the evening of the 27th in the Diesel Shop. We spent some time on the CE 15, our EMD SW1 that has been our primary switcher for the museum. I started by watering the batteries, adding about 6 gallons of distilled water, and then putting them on the charger. When Jeron arrived, we went over all the things we wanted to work on while it is in the shop for a few weeks. There were two belts on the Aux Gen that had come off the pulleys, the front radiator shutters were very sticky, and several other small items. We also made a list of supplies that needed to be ordered for the upcoming work. After that, Jeron thoroughly cleaned the headlight reflectors and lenses and lubricated some moving parts in the throttle to make it easier to move. I started working on drilling out the broken bolts and tapping the holes on the ground lights for the CB&Q 504 and replaced the sockets that were bad.

Photo:CE 15, an EMD SW1 in the shop.

Photo: Fan belts and pulleys of CE 15.

On Saturday the 30th, Mike and Matt started attacking the belts on the Aux Gen, by loosening the 4 bolts securing the Aux Gen and lowering the 4 adjustment bolts to drop it to make clearance to move the belts over the pulleys, and raise it back into position with a little more tension, then put the belt guards back on. I changed the fuel filters and Mike changed the oil filters. Jeron started taking the front screen off the radiator shutters to work on freeing those up. A lot of cleaning, dry lubrication, and some bending of some steel solved that issue. They work very nicely now. Colton went through the Aux Gen and Main Gen checking brushes, wiping down everything, including thoroughly cleaning the brush holder insulators. Jeron and I lubricated the front fan pulleys and tensioned those belts. It is at its maximum travel, and the belts are getting very worn, so we'll probably change them at the next inspection. Laddie spent a lot of time sandblasting many parts for the 33C. All in all, it was a very productive day.

Photo: CBQ 504, an EMD SD24 in the shop.

Saturday in the shop was quite busy. We had Gregg W, Mike B, Don P, Rob S, Dan C, Jeron G, Laddie V, Jim W, Cody Z, and myself. Gregg was working in the M-35, as he put it, "putting things back together that he started taking apart 30 years ago." Mike and I started out bolting the platforms that were painted the day before back into the 504 and painted the top of them along with the bolts. Don changed out some broken toggle switches for the nose and cab dome lights in 1848.

Photo: Dan taking measurements on UP 1848.

Jeron, Mike, Don and myself went outside and chipped and dug out a handful of switches and the doors on track 22 so we could move 1848 and 504 outside to test. After they were moved outside using 8537, our trusty 45 tonner, we started 1848 and 504 to let them warm up. Later on Dan tested the rectifier modules that were replaced on 1848 under self load, all worked well there, although there was an issue with specific throttle positions missing some engine speed changes, likely something with the A valve on the governor. We'll look into that soon. On 504 we just wanted to test out the cab heaters, which worked great.

Back in the shop, Laddie, Rob and Dan moved the controller from CNW 1518 from the bench up into the cab. Rob continued working on sandblasting cab parts of the 411. Jim and Don watered the batteries of 33 and put it on the charger since it has been a while since that was done. Later on, all of us started cleaning up various materials around the shop, moving a lot of material for the 33 further down the aisle to allow room to work next to 33. A lot of parts that have recently arrived were moved to where they go. A lot of electrical parts that we won't likely use for a while were moved from the parts room to a crate. A lot of general shop cleanup happened until late in the evening.

Photo: The controller of CNW 1518 placed on the cab.

We even plugged in a backlit number board for Milwaukee Road 197 that someone dropped off a while back. Anyone know if it is still around?

Photo: MILW 197 number board.