Western Railroad Discussion > Update on locomotive M & R, at OERM (SCRM) 01/06/19

We had five people to work yesterday in and around Carbarn #7. I started the day by installing a new brake cylinder cup on one of OERM #1975 brakes. The brake was leaking air and old cup was worn out. The style of rubber cup in the locomotive are obsolete. Dave found 8 of them and acquired all of them for storage incase mor of the locomotive's brakes are found to be leaking. This shows that museums operating vintage locomotives,  at some point in time, may be unable to locate spare parts for their equipment. Our two ex-Army ALCOS were made during WWII!
      Next I began to reinstall the fan safety cage in the front of our ALCO S-4 #1474 The cage is made in four sections. The sections are made of steel and are heavy. I was only able able to get half of the safety cage installed and will have to finish next week!
       Dave had to troubleshoot USAF 1741, our 45 ton shop switcher. It intially refused to start---even though it has virtually new batteries. Dave was able to trace the problem to a faulty switch, shown in the second photo! This switch was original with the locomotive. Dave has been our savior when it comes to the eletrical systems in the our vintage locomotive fleet.
Carl, Frank, and John spent the day completing torqueing down the Crab bolts on the SP 1006 prior to filling it with water. Once we have comfirmed that all of the power assemblies are properly sealed in the block, we can put some fuel in the tank and start the primemover!! We are getting very close to operational testing of the SP 1006!
       Now that the SF #108 is operational, we were able to move it to another track and make room for an additional locomotice in the carbarn. The SP 1474 was rolled into the carbarn which will make it easier for me to complete the safety cage! Due to ALCO's engineering design we were unable to replace the V-belts in the back of 1474 without removing the hood!

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Thank you, Tom, for the updates!

Posted from Android

John Acosta
Palm Springs, CA