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Thursday, December 6. 2012Reconditioning overhead partsIRM has accumulated overhead parts from everywhere over the years. A small amount are old but never used but most are old used parts. Many are styles that are no longer made and therefore have historical value. A good example are wood strain insulators (wood strains). This is one item we have in abundance, in varying conditions from never installed-still-in-the-box to outside rotting in a barrel. Wood strains are insulating tension members installed in span wire to electrically insulate two sections of span wire or hardware and span wire. They are also used as insulation between pieces of hardware and in specialwork. They come in various sizes, lengths and end fitting configurations. The typical woodstrain is made of a section of turned hardwood rod with a mallable iron end fitting crimped on each end (eye-eye, clevis-eye etc.). The modern equivelant uses fiberglass rod instead of wood. Because of the wood which will rot, woodstrains are a high maintenance item. Because of this, my policy is to recondition used woodstrains before putting them in service. I have spent many weeks reconditioning parts to build up an inventory. First, they are stripped of bolts, pins and wire. Then, they are inspected for soundness. After passing inspection the metal ends are sand blasted to white metal. The wood is lightly sand blasted to remove loose paint and foreign matter. After another inspection, the end fittings are dipped in cold galvanizing compound and allowed to dry. One end must be dry before dipping the other end. Next, two coats of grey oil base house paint are applied to the wood. Once the paint has thoroughly dried the metal ends are given a final dip in galva-bright. Now they not only look like(better than) new, but will last for years. This process takes six days per batch (20-25 pcs). Other parts are reconditioned in a similar fashion. Round top and pulloff hangers that have durego or composition insulation have the exposed insulation sand blasted and are given one coat of insulating varnish. These are also dielectric tested to ensure insulation integrity.  Woodstrain before sandblasting  Woodstrain ends dipped in cold galvanize  Woodstrain ready for instalation Sunday, August 8. 2010Line Report - August 6, 2010WIRE DOWN! The following report is from Gerry Dettloff who was drafted to help in an emergency repair last Friday.  The Problem On Friday morning a transverse span wire that supported the trolley wire span wires came down between the tail track diamond and the Diesel Shop driveway on the Car Line. The wire that came down ran from the steel center pole west between the tail track and the Car Line to a
pole near the tail track switch.
 Long Reach Roger Smessaert and I happened to both be on the property. I
was helping Roger hook up electrical connections for the Thomas Event. I was contacted about the emergency and Roger and I along with Carl Illwitzer went to look at the situation. Roger moved Truck 70 into position and shut off power to the Car Line. We tied off the hanging span wire to make the area safe. Then in the true spirit of the DC Line Dept, we went to do something
else!  Tight Squeeze Actually, a vendor for the Thomas Event was waiting for the power to be
connected to his set up area. We did that and then after lunch, went back to the line problem . The problem was caused when a wood strain broke in half on the center pole that apparently has every other span wire and overhead line attached. After Roger figured out how to get in there, he replaced the wood strain. We realigned the span wire and Roger tensioned it and attached it to the new wood strain. Then Roger re-energized the Car Line.  In the Air  Finishing Touches We were done by 3 PM and I put the Car Line back in service. Monday, June 28. 2010 |
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Comments
Mon, 09-08-2025 08:22
Good job on the Burlington Nortern 9976. OK.
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:56
No new news that I have heard of thus far.
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:53
I'll also be doing another update on it soon. Keep en eye out for that.
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:47
A little work was done to it for Diesel Days this year. You'll see photos floating around for the temporary short term job that was done to make it [...]
Wed, 08-06-2025 13:01
Is steam car CN 15444 going to be coming to museum several times it was to be moved to muesum
Sat, 07-19-2025 18:56
Yeah, sadly it's still there as of 7/19/2025
Thu, 06-12-2025 19:14
Its been 14 years guys, where is the unit? Like really? Did you guys misplace it? Or are repairs taking that long? At this point be might we will have [...]
Wed, 04-09-2025 17:40
Jamie Thanks for the update. She's gonna shine like every thing else you guys do! Smeds
Thu, 03-06-2025 16:28
Yes, there is a wye. Those two have been MU'ed on diesel days a year or two ago.
Wed, 03-05-2025 14:04
7009 number boards look good. Is there a way to turn a locomotive around at IRM? In case you ever had a mind to connect 7009 and 6847?
Fri, 03-29-2024 21:26
We're slackers and spend more time working on the equipment in the shop than keeping all you readers updated. We'll work on it, but I'm sure updates [...]
Thu, 03-14-2024 08:02
What happened to the Department Blog? It's been over 2 years and I still regularly check for updates, but nothing comes...