1 : 1 scale modeling
Great work!

Love turntable pictures!
~~ Mikey KB3VBR (Admin)
~~ NARA Member # 75    
~~ Baldwin Eddystone Unofficial Website

~~ I wonder what that would look like in 1:20.3???
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Morning all......We have been plugging along with lots of chores on the F's. Next weekend we plan to put the 3 units together and perform a load and brake test through the MU line of the B. This will insure that will be able to have proper control of all 8 throttle notches and that there are no problems with the air system in the "B". We are not worried about the brakes so much as we did a lot of work to them back when NS took them down to Spencer for the Streamliners festival. If the independent and automatic brakes did not function correctly NS was not going to move them.  As for the trainline MU, I have checked it over several times with a meter and found it OK. We have never done a practical real world test , we are confident that it should be fine . I'll give a walk through of how that works when we try it out next week. The two "A" units have been in constant usage this summer pulling the yard shuttle two to three days a week, and excursions every Saturday and Sunday. so squeezing in time for maintenance has not been easy.


As for other goings on,,, Steamtown will be getting a new director, the current one will be filling a new position inside of the NPS. A temporary Director will be appointed from Steamtown until a new one is found. This should not effect us as we are in the middle of a 5 year contract with the parks department.
It also looks like we, ( the ARHS volunteers ) will be given hostlers training. This will allow us to move our equipment around inside the yard and shop area without the need for a Steamtown crew.


The last thing that I want to get to is the weather....The rain and Hot, Humid weather has been relentless this summer leading to some equipment problems and crew fatigue. It has also taken it's toll on the railroad. At this time there are several wash outs on the Pocono main. Yesterday after time spent working on 664 and the "B", Toptrain and I went to check one out  at the western portal of the Nay Aug tunnel. These washouts have put this part of the main out of service for the next two weeks. So now hopefully we will be able to get some restoration work completed and the main will be open for Railfest and our convention.

   

   
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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A few shots from this years railfest at Steamtown on a very gloomy Saturday.

   

   

I spent most of my day running as the mechanic on the photo excursion.
   

   

   
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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Most of our trip had a 10 mile per hour speed restriction because of all the wash outs from last months rain. Repairs were made by the DL in order to get the line back open but the restriction will be in place until the track work is complete. A few pics of the damage.

   

   

   

   

   
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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A few more to wrap it all up.

   

   

A shot of an ATV that crossed in front of us, if the line wasn't restricted to 10 MPH we'd still be picking parts of this guy out of our front coupler. On the right just past the ATV are some barriers. Between them is a fire trail that is gated and locked, the only way to access this point is the fire trail. The ATV came out from the trail , turned left towards us, then jumped off the tracks to where it is in the pic.    
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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I have a few more pics to post on what we've been up to ….. Next weekend is our  (the ARHS) convention where we will be celebrating the 70th anniversary of our F-3's. It will also feature our F-3b in consist on it's first excursion. We were hoping to have the prime mover running on this trip, but with having to keep up on maintenance of the other two A's. we just did not have the time available to get here running. She will however be dead in tow on this trip.  
   

   

The good news is that when we tested her in MU, we were able to get all 8 throttle notches through the MU line of the "B" as well as a good load test.  The independent and Train line (automatic) brake also functioned as it should. This means that we can control all the necessary functions of the two working ''A'' units from either cab, through the "B". 

What's holding us up from starting the "B" is that we need to install a new governor and that we need to rewire the " start / stop / fuel pump" circuit to work with the Norfolk Sothern controls in our main cabinet.

The governor arrived at the shop earlier this week, it is what takes the electrical signals from the cab (or another unit in MU) and uses hydraulic pressure to adjust the engine speed to the correct throttle notch. With railfest going on this weekend,  not only do we not have the time to install it, but now it may be needed in 663 as she keeps shutting down in low idle. This is due to the hydraulic pump in her governor not being able to keep up pressure .  

The rewire is another story.. When we first wired the starting cabinet, we did it as per the old EMD drawings. Then the new Main cabinet was installed. We did not even consider that this could be a problem until we tried to get the starting contactor, kill circuit, and fuel pump to work with the emergency shut off. With the type of relays in the NS controls it just was not going to happen. luckily all that is needed is to change out and rewire the fuel pump switch and remove the old start button from the circuit.

I removed the cover from the starting cabinet yesterday and took it home with me to get this project going. Here's what it looked like when I got it home.
   

After some cleaning with white vinegar and tin foil it looked like this, after a quick buff with some fine steal wool.
   

 That's the new switch on the left , and the faceplate for it on the right. I located the holes for the new switch and drilled them out. I also had to re tap the mounting holes in the switch... Screws were not included to mount it to the cover, and I could not find a match for them , they might be metric. So now they are a standard 10/32 thread.
   
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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Here it is with the switch and nameplates installed. I had to close off the old start button location also. I re-inked the old nameplates and reused them for a more finished look.
   

This shows the back side of the mounting.
   

The last thing that needed to be done was to make up a legend that tells you what each terminal does in each position. I went over the switch with an ohm meter and printed out my findings. I laminated it to the back of the cover with some clear packaging tape. 
   
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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Nice Work!!!!!  Always fun seeing restored trains!!  
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~~ Mikey KB3VBR (Admin)
~~ NARA Member # 75    
~~ Baldwin Eddystone Unofficial Website

~~ I wonder what that would look like in 1:20.3???
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A few weeks ago we had our big 70th anniversary for our f-3 trio. This was the first trip that we were able to take the "B" out on the main. It did rain a bit, but not enough to dampen the spirits of those who attended.  All went well and I have a few pics from the photo excursion that I was a part of.

One of our photo stops near Cobbs Mountain heading east on the ex-DL&W Pocono main.
   


Here is a shot of Mr. Richard Jahn who accompanied me in the cab for some of our trip. He is Vice president and Chief Mechanical officer of our historical society. He is the main reason these F's escaped the torch and are running today. 
   

Another photo stop, not sure of the name of this location.
   

A view of one of the photo lines near one of the 4 remaining Lackawanna's concrete towers between Scranton and the Delaware water gap. I believe we had about 160 passengers on this trip, about 75 of which were photographers.
   

The tail end of our train at the same location. On the right is Mr. Dave Monte Verde owner and president of the Delaware Lackawanna railroad that operates the trackage that we are running on today.  ( That's his private car, so I had to make extra sure that we did not have any F-unit breakdowns today )
   
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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Moving the train into the Elm Hurst photo location.
   

At this point we were taking bets to see who was going to drop their camera into the wet grass first.
   

At the end of the trip we had a birthday party of sorts for our EMD's
   

And finally a shot of our crew Starting on the left Mr. & Mrs. Kuczynski (trainmen),  Fireman Rinkunas, Engineer Arin Stout, ARHS vice president Rich Jahn, ARHS mechanic / electrician Steve Olear (me, trying so hard not to sneeze) , and Conductor Ottinger.
   
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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Nice scenery, and a decent turnout, despite the weather.  Those F-units look great, and it's also nice to see those towers still there...too bad they'll not likely ever be restored.

Thanks for sharing the photos with us, Steve.

Wayne
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It's so wonderful seeing them out on the rails! Smile Great work!!!
~~ Mikey KB3VBR (Admin)
~~ NARA Member # 75    
~~ Baldwin Eddystone Unofficial Website

~~ I wonder what that would look like in 1:20.3???
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Evening all. Last Saturday was our first trip back to the museum since the government shutdown ..We didn't accomplish much work ( there was only two of us ), but, it was more of a day to get our heads straight and come up with a plan about what projects to do with the time that we still have. This last shutdown cost us five weeks of time that we normally use for heavy maintenance. Operating season starts in less then two months so we have to use our time wisely. Before the shutdown started the "B" was left outside where it is currently covered with snow. We will most likely not touch it until the other two units have started pulling excursions again.

                     664 is in generally good overall shape, the rear truck was prepped to be swapped out with one that is currently under the nickel plate geep #514. And I might add that the GP9 is nearly complete and should be pulling trains again this upcoming season. Icon_e_biggrin   This truck swap will get the parks department stuff and the privately owned stuff under the right equipment again. This job will be done during the week while I am at work Icon_cry  so I will miss all the fun.  Just before the doors were locked we started on replacing the engine room floor in 664. You can see the new sheet metal welded into place here. 
     
It will latter be covered with a layer of aluminum with the EMC or EMD logo on it. If you look back in this thread I'm sure you will find a pic or two of it. In this shot you can see a section where the floor has been cut away and not replaced yet. The fuel fill line is visible along with some of the conduit for traction motor cables.
      This job should be complete in about two weeks. We want it finished before there is another threat of a new shutdown. I will remove the governor connector next week to rebuild at home. I had talked about this earlier in this thread.
     

  663 has two big problems. The first one is that oil is getting past the rings in one or more of the cylinders towards the front of the block. Tri-state ( the owner of this engine, we just lease it ) will have some one come up to test the engine to determine where the problem is. Then the offending power assemblies will be replaced. The second problem is that the oil that is getting past the cylinder rings is getting into the exhaust , going through the mufflers, out the stacks, and pooling the top of the engine. This is a fire hazard, something we do not need. 
   
To fix this we will have to remove the top hatch and mufflers, mop it all up, and replace everything that we remove. We did this a few years ago on 664, so we are prows at it now. We spent a decent part of the day prepping for this work.
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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We are in full swing tiring to get ready for the next operating season. With the loss of 5 weeks due to the shutdown we will be cutting it close. It looks like the power for the first half of the season will be DL&W F-3 #664 and the return of Nickel Plate GP-9 #514.  F-3 #663 will not be ready for a while until the main hatch and exhaust can be removed so the oil can be cleaned up and the bad power assembly (or two) can be swapped out from the engine block. She is currently waiting her turn under the crane for this.
     Let's get into what's happening at the shops in Scranton.
The rear truck from 664 has been removed and ready to be exchanged with the proper one now under 514.
   

Bet you didn't know that f-3's could fly.
   

Here's a look underneath where the truck would normally sit.  # 1 is the truck kingpin  
                                                                                         # 2 are the two air ducts that are connected to the traction motor blowers located in the car body. These direct cool air over the motors to keep them from overheating.
                                                                                          # 3 is a set of wires that bring power to the traction motors, There is another set to the left that is not in the photo.
                                                                                           #4 are the air line for the brakes .
                                                                                          #5 is an old set of pipes that were connected to the boiler to deliver steam heat to any passenger cars in tow. The boiler was removed years ago by the BAR.
   

Here are the two new traction motors that will be going into the truck that will be placed under 664.
   

   
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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We have also added a few of the missing stainless steel kick plates under and on the door of 664. We still need to drill and tap some of the holes to finish the job.
   

I have also completed the rebuild of the governor plug and restored the cover for the starting cabinet. They are now resting on the work bench in my garage. I didn't take any pics of this as it's the same thing I recently did for the "B". Plenty of pics on this a page or two back in this thread.  The floor replacement in the engine room is nearly complete on the engineers side, the fireman's side will be next.

In the Cab of 663 the heater core has been replaced with a new one. It mounts under the "dash board" on the fireman's side. I'm not too keen on the plastic pipe fittings, but I have been assured that they will be fine.
   

We have also just received delivery of some new wheelsets for the pilot truck of the B&M steamer that is also undergoing restoration. The rest of the truck is now being rebuilt and is in all kinds of pieces, all over the floor of the shop.
     
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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