Steam & Excursion > Soo Line 1003 at Fox Lake, IL 8-5-22

Portrait shot of Soo Line 1003 waiting at Fox Lake, IL for the Metra rush to subside.  Scheduled departure was 7:35 pm.  
Engine and tender looked nice and clean.  Well done to the engine crews and those involved in bringing this locomotive to Chicago.

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Beautiful photo - Almost timeless scene.
Bob

Notice the 'white-washed' tender drawbars!

You get Extra Credit points  if you explain 'why'...

​W.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/06/22 11:36 by wcamp1472.

wcamp1472 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Notice the 'white-washed' tender drawbars!
>
> You get Extra Credit points  if you explain
> 'why'...
>
> ​W.

OK, I know why, but I'll wait for someone else to explain.

Beautiful shot of a fine looking locomotive!
GK

wcamp1472 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Notice the 'white-washed' tender drawbars!
>
> You get Extra Credit points  if you explain
> 'why'...
>
> ​W.

I would imagine that was done to show any cracking of the drawbars.
A crack would result in a visible rust train in short order.  Railroads
painted passenger trucks with aluminum paint for the same reason:
easier to see the telltale trail on a light colored surface.
SR2

WELL DONE----
Very well-put.

Due every 90-days of service...

I'll send the Extra Credit via E-mail.

​W

( extra information.....
   When using two drawbars, the lower bar is there in case the upper drawbar fails.
    In the upper bar the two round holes [for the drawbar pins] have hardened steel bushings
    pressed in-place.
  
   The lower bar, called the Safety Bar, has one round hole at the front pin, and an elongated hole
    at the rear drawbar pin.   The elongated hole means that the Safety Bar NEVER sees any
    strain from the draft or buff forces in daily service.  Again, the holes are fitted with pressed-in,
    hardened bushings.  The only time the Safety Bar is the 'active' bar, in the remote case of
    failure, or broken upper drawbar.

    The elongated hole allows about an extra couple of inches more space than the round holes 
    of the active drawbar.
    
      In case of the road  failure, there would be a lot of banging and hammering because of the 
      extra space away from the buffer ---- between engine and tender.  
       At the roundhouse, over a pit track, a replacement drawbar would be applied.   

      Drawbars are intended for draft forces only [ stretching] ,  there are matching buffer plates
     between the engine and tender for handling the 'buff' forces ---- forces pushing against the
     engine & tender...

       The buffer arrangements are designed to keep the 'shoving forces'  on the centerlines of
      both the engine and tender ---- especially when shoving heavy loads, as in a lot of cars, 
     in backwards movements. ).

 



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 08/06/22 18:03 by wcamp1472.

Never understood this, aas always many thanks Wes for the superb explanation!

Follow-up...
There are modern equivalents. Do a Google search for 'dye penetrants', should pull up several
products..... an application I hadn't thought of was checking aluminum castings for fatigue cracks...

In railroading, we used lime and alcohol as an inexpensive 'paint'.

We would use two of us to remove the two drawbar pins and the two
drawbars from between the engine and tender.

We'd recruit a couple of volunteers to wire-brush & thoroughly clean the 
inspected components.... Then we'd have them clean all the surfaces with solvent.
Again, they'd use rags and abrasives to get the drawbars wiped, cleaned, 
and ready for hammer testing.

When the cleaning materials and solvents dried-up and the bars were ready for the
'paint', we'd coat all surfaces on all parts of the drawbar assemblies with the white 'paint'

After, the paint dried...for about an hour, we'd hammer test the bars and pins.
It was loud, and we spaced each blow about 2 inches apart....

Then, after hammering,  we'd examine the white 'paint'  for any traces of 'bleed-through'
revealing any tiny surface cracks.  The 'ringing' of the rods 'pumps' the vibrating cracks,
staining the dried lime with any retained solvent  --- revealing the tiny cracks...if any.

Other methods, like Magna-Flux, use tiny magnetic particles in an oil
suspension, then wrap the subject pieces in a couple of turns of heavy, insulated
copper ( stranded ) wire and apply magnetic (DC) current to the coil....and then check
for tell-tale wiggly lines revealing cracks.   Using ultraviolet light in the Magnetic Flux
process made it a more accurate test.   But, in the 'field', dye penetrants ( lime, etc)
and hammer testing sufficed.

(What the volunteers didn't know was that the cleaning and solvent process left 
  the rods nice and clean.... but tiny cracks would soak up the solvents and any oil,.
  Sure, they'd get the rods and stuff nice and clean; but, the real benefit was revealed
after the 'paint' had dried and the hammer blows would make the metal ring loudly...
thus, pumping any cleaning residue up into the dried, white dye..... revealing any cracks.!)

So, if you get to volunteer to help clean  the testing parts, do a good job with the solvents and rags!

When reassembled in the engine and tender, and all put  back together, the drawbar ends 
in their respective pockets were nice and neat.   FRA inspectors like to
inspect the insides of drawbar pockets' walls for any white 'paint' traces.  
Some folks back-in-the-day, had tried to white-paint the ends of the drawbars without taking
the engine and tender apart...

That always left traces of white slopped onto the pocket's inner walls...revealing the
fact that the bars had never been physically removed....
That is an FRA No-No!  Resulting in a bad reputation for that engine and its' crew,
and possibly fines for the carrier that intends  to operate that loco...

Don't even try to cheat!

​W.
 



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 08/07/22 18:50 by wcamp1472.