Charles City Western 300

Pete Galayda continues his fine work on the Charles City Western steeple cab electric locomotive, and has forwarded a few photos.  Every week throughout the recent winter and cold months he, and helpers, have been at work in our heated shops, or as conditions allow, out on the locomotive itself. 

Deck Framing

This is the last piece of angle iron framing which is used as a cap strip on the wood decking at each end of the locomotive.

West End

A milestone has been reached.  Here is the completed decking on the west end of the locomotive, complete with the steel cage for resistance grids in place.  WOW!!  A lot of work and an impressive accomplishment.

Here is a long overdue update on our Mc Guire Cummings steeplecab locomotive from Iowa.  Rest assured that Pete Galayda and his crew are working on this project every week, in the shop throughout the winter months.

The Cutting Edge

Here is shot of Gerry Dettloff, (trust me, that is him behind the sparks,  under the locomotive with the cutting torch), removing some badly deteriorated electrical conduit which could no longer be unscrewed at its threaded connections.  This is part of the ongoing process of rewiring the locomotive as the detective work by John Nelligan proves how the system needs to work.

Cage Work

Gerry Dettloff and John Nelligan are assembling a rebuilt and restored steel cage on the walkway beside the hood.  This cage was part of the design by the builder, to house and hold seven grid boxes, part of the control system.  With the boxes installed and wired, it will receive a protective steel screen.

The cab, space under the hoods, and under the frame are crammed full of things, so the builder chose to mount the grids on the walkway on top of the frame.  I suppose that would restrict a crew member trying to exit the cab and quickly get to a retriever, but there is no cab door in that corner anyway.

With thanks to Pete Galayda for the pics and update.

Some of you have been following along at home as we strive to understand and restore the carbon arc headlights on this locomotive.  See the submitted BLOG comments for some good information and discussion.

John Nelligan has researched and come up with some very good 'new to us' information.  I will repost his findings below.  Thank you John and Steve Kraus, for making all of us a little bit smarter.  Reading John's findings in light of Steve Kraus's comments makes sense.  The brightness of a carbon arc light device requires the positive electrode placement to be just so, to give maximum efficiency.  Reversing polarity with the DPDT headlight switch makes the other electrode the positive side, and it is now outside the optimum placement, making the headlamp seem 'dimmer' in that connection scheme.  The arc itself is unchanged.

Steve's experience is with lower voltage arc lights.  In the locomotive, the circuit receives a nominal 600 volts, but with the dropping resistance, the effective potential across the headlight is MUCH lower, after the arc is struck.  In fact, maybe VERY MUCH lower since ionized air in an established arc provides almost ZERO resistance.