Western Railroad Discussion > AT&SF 560 (Fairbanks Morse H12-044) Progress Reports ?

I just wondered if I missed any progress reports on SCRM  (OERM) '  AT&SF 560 (Fairbanks Morse H12-044)  project ??

SF560 restoration is continuing. The trucks are out from under the locomotive and have been pressure washed. The next step is to inspect the brake rigging to identify which parts need to be replaced or repaired. Work has started under the locomotive frame to clean it up and replaced missing access panels, clean the fuel sight glasses, replace air tank drains, clean and paint brake line filters, etc. New bolster bowl liners will be ordered to replace broken ones that were in the bowls. The journal boxes will be cleaned next Saturday and new preoiled oiling wicks installed. Then it's time to prepare the trucks for primering and painting. The locomotive itself will stay on jacks until the trucks have been refurbished and the underneath of the frame has been attended to. There is just a lot of detail work to do and we only work on it on Saturdays so things go slow. But at this point it looks like everything has an answer. It just takes time to get it all done. By the end of the year we should be getting pretty close to the end. Best guess is that it will be early next year before we say it's finished.

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Why isn't work going faster, you act like you're some lind of volunteer museum! I'm blown
away by how much you guys get done on equipment that you don't work on a regular
basis, keep it up!

Out 

=17.549999237060547pxThanks for the comment. We try. One thing we found out years ago is that if there is no work plan, we stand around and BS all day. But if we identify things that we want to get done that day, it usually happens.

The real test will be when 5704 arrives and we work to get it fully operational by the end of 2025. We are pretty sure it's possible "if" we can get the parts we need and we don't find any catastrophic failures in the diesel engine or the main generator. As noted in many other publications, BNSF donated the locomotive to SCRM and has promised to assist the restoration by supplying parts. 

Thanks for the update, D-Althaus  We appreciate it.  We know its hard, dirty work with a lot of time and money spent on the project
But when the day comes, and it rolls out of the shop, running and looking brand new..then the effort was really worth it

But 5704 at least resembles something built in the last 50 years and had scads of common parts, an
FM switcher? 

Out 

The "common parts" isn't what it sounds like. When we look at EMD parts, some items from the late 1939's were still being used into the late 1950's. With Fairbanks Morse, everything associated with the Diesel engine, and most of the electrical apparatus were unique to FM. There are sources but not cheap. And the AAR trucks under FM locomotives look like AAR trucks under EMD units but many of the parts are not the same. Fortunately the FM trucks are identical to AAR trucks used by Baldwin, which we have, if we need spare parts. Fortunately we have excellent documentation so can identify almost anything we need. 

My point was that in the case of 5704 or for that matter any "modern" EMD parts are rarely an issue.
That's not the case fot an FM, the stuff is still out there but certainly not plentiful. 

Out 

I spent a couple of hours on the trucks needle scaling some of the the blue paint left over from the blue and yellow days. That blue paint is very stubborn depending on where it is on the truck casting. Some locations will require a rotary wire brush to remove it. After the trucks are bare to the casting we get to move on to the fuel tank which has a layer of dirt and fuel accumulated over the years! Our goal is to produce a rare locomotive that looks like it has just been delivered--much like the SP 1006.




 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/11/22 07:13 by TomPlatten.