Diesel Service Report, November 15, 2022
Day Out with Thomas
SP1006 and SF108 were used for five days pulling the Thomas the Tank Engine and Thomas’s sidekick locomotive, Percy. SF108 operated flawlessly all five days. SP1006 ran fine for the first four days but then developed what appeared to be a Main Generator loading issue. The generator was not developing as much power as it should. It still pulled the train but didn’t have the amount of power that it should have had. The fuel system pressures were fine so the Diesel engine wasn’t starving for fuel. The best guess is that there is a problem in the generator excitation systems. John Salvini will investigate it in the next couple of days. Hopefully it’s nothing serious.
SF560 Restoration Project
The work on the trucks has been completed and the trucks are back under the locomotive. The truck work consisted of a complete refurbishment of the brake system, including repacking the brake cylinders. One traction motor wheel set (combo) was replaced due to very noisy gears or bearings in the original combo. And new wear liners were installed in the truck center bowls. When all that work was finally done, the cribbing under the locomotive was removed and the trucks shoved back under the locomotive. Once the trucks were in place, the side bearing clips were loosely set in place and the locomotive jacks were slowly lowered until the locomotive bolsters were in the truck center bowls. Of course, it’s a lot easier to say it than actually do it.
After the cribbing was removed, the first truck was pulled under the locomotive using Carl’s forklift. That truck was then placed under the front of the locomotive. Of course, the four 75 ton jacks were still holding up the locomotive high enough so the front truck could be moved underneath and clear the fuel tank.
The locomotive had been on very large timber cribbing and four locomotive jacks since last March. Now, eight months later, it’s back on its trucks.
Once the front truck was in place, the rear truck was moved under the locomotive.
Then the jacks were slowly lowered down while keeping a close eye on everything to make sure nothing was getting in the way.
The last work for the day was to reattach the rear foot boards.
Next Saturday, the locomotive will have tarps put over the trucks, as best possible, and a high-pressure sprayer will clean areas around the air tanks and fuel tank. The week after that, the locomotive will be placed over the CB4 pit, and the traction motor leads reattached plus inspection of lower traction motor brushes and other inspections that need to be done. Once all of that is done, the engine should be ready to be started and operated again.
But then its time to clean the engine compartment, paint it, clean and refurbish the cab, paint the outside of the locomotive and install new windows. Lots of work left to do.
