1 : 1 scale modeling
#1
The Anthracite railroad historical society has set up shop in Scranton PA. at Steam town. I've been a member for about a year now and will be joining them in the restoration and maintenance of their equipment. This weekend will be the first work session that I will take part in, so the camera will be getting plenty of exercise. This weekends goals are to get the aria ready to repair one of the F-3a's that broke down during an excursion and start the restoration of the F-3b. It would be great to have the trio ready for next years season, but there is a lot of work to be done before then. I'll take tones of pics and keep everyone posted on the progress.
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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#2
Great news Steve---now that we have a connection with Steamtown,maybe you can suggest cosmetically restoring Canadian National Mike #3377 Icon_lol

[Image: 2009penn1213.jpg]
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#3
Sorry CN, but, We will only be working on equipment owned by us <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.anthraciterailroads.org/index.php">http://www.anthraciterailroads.org/index.php</a><!-- m -->. our equipment is only being stored at the site, Steam town offered us some indoor space to work from. Anything that is part of the Steam town collection ( like the mike ) is cared for by there own set of volunteers.
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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#4
well it a start. The CNJ F-3b (ex BAR) was cleaned out, and all the spare parts were moved into our parts car spotted just beyond it (ex LV #8221).
[Image: 20111211103613.jpg]

The F-3b was broken into in south Jersey and lots of the inner workings were striped, it will be restored to running condition and painted to match our other F-3's with DL&W freight colors. The LV box is also going to get repainted back to it's original markings

Here's a shot of the primemover[Image: 20111211115115.jpg] It received a rebuild just before it was put into storage and vandalised.

A detail the is seldom to never seen on a B unit is the cab, yes they have one. It will only give you the first few notches on the throttle, independent brake, and reverse. Just enough to move it around in a terminal situation.[Image: 20111211122533.jpg]

Here is here sister F-3 restored and until just recently in operating condition, she suffered a short in the control weiring during the last excursion. So that is on the to do list also. [Image: 20111211124859.jpg]
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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#5
Here's an update on what's been going on with the rebuilds. Instead of writing an long paragraph I'll just give you the link to an article in our news letter. https://acrobat.com/?i=s5ARXp8gIWLzd3R9jOQvZQ PS: I'm the guy in the first pic with the green hat.
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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#6
[Image: 20120422114910.jpg]
We had our first weekend work session of this season yesterday. We are currently trying to get the F-3 trio ready for this summers excursion season at Steamtown. The A-b-A set will help take some of the load off the steamers. They are former BAR units that have seen several modifications over the years and far out lived their expected service lives ( EMD figured them to last about 15 years ). At one time they that had Steam boilers and dynamic brakes, bolt removed by BAR. The BAR also sent them back to EMD for rebuilds where they received a pseudo F-9 electrical systems and the B unit got dash 2 transition equipment making it the only F-3b-2 that I know of. Over the winter, and up to today, control systems of the units are being rewired. All the old damaged wire is being removed and replaced with new, I spent the yesterday checking and rewiring the electrical cabinet with the help of 2 other members that know this machine like the back of their hand. This shot shows the cabinet as it looked at the start of the day[Image: 20120422100235.jpg] As you can see it's a mess, I swear it looks better now.
If you were standing in the cab looking towards the rear on the unit that what you would see.

This one is the rear of the same cabinet [Image: 20120422143409.jpg]

The prints of the units provided by EMD are a little different than what I am used to looking at but they have been a huge help in this job. [Image: 20120422122942.jpg]

[Image: 20120422123315.jpg]

And of course I couldn't go there without checking out the other equipment in the yard. Here are some of the other units owned by the ARHS including our former CNJ RS-3 that has been completely rebuilt and restored to It's as built paint. [Image: 20120422124406.jpg] At this point the RS is in the same condition as when it rolled off the show room floor.

[Image: 20120422124127.jpg]
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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#7
I went to another work session yesterday over at Steamtown where the ARHS crew got a lot accomplished.I was back to work on the main electrical box up by the cab of the A-unit. Most of the wiring is now finished and tested. We did hit a little snag in that one of the wheel slip relays (motors 1+3) was damaged and needs replacement. It's the small box and coil on the lower left.
[Image: 20120505122058.jpg]

After that I went over to the B-unit to help with the wire demo. It seams that either the former owner or EMD over filled the conduit well past the recommended 80% fill ratio.
[Image: 20120505131234.jpg]
This became a major chore to remove, But with a come along, a lot of wire lube, and a little foul language it all came out.
[Image: 20120505163427.jpg]

Steam town is really counting on us to get the f-3 set finished in time with both of it's steamers down they only have one operating locomotive to pull trains.[Image: 20120505112008.jpg]
The nickle plate geep is doing all the work for the time being.
Anyone that was on the '09 Gauge trip to Steamtown will remember that the machine shop behind the roundhouse is an impressive place.
[Image: 20120505111923.jpg]


[Image: 20120505111940.jpg]
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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#8
Went up to Steamtown for another work session with the F-3's. Today we concentrate on a small punch list of problems in order to get the units ready for their first excursion of the season in two weeks.The A-A set will pull a train from Steamtown in Scranton to one of Bil's old hangouts, The Dansberry depot in East Stroudsburg Pa. Next Week The ARHS crew will be testing the two A units separately and MU'ed, just to make sure there are no bugs still in the control systems.

As you can see from this pic:

[Image: 20120512092953.jpg]

They have moved us from the roundhouse, to the great outdoors just behind the shop building. Behind the A's is the B-unit that is getting a complete rewire and will be painted to match It's sister F-3's

Here you have the engineer's view looking south where some of the other restoration projects are set out.[Image: 20120512113721.jpg]

I have shown some pics of the electrical drawings before but I wanted to show you an over view of most of the drawing.[Image: 20120512135846.jpg]It's called a table print for a reason. It measures about nine feet long.

Also, back in the shop. Another crew has just finished installing the flues and smoke box on the former Baldwin shop switcher.[Image: 20120512125858.jpg]
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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#9
We did another day at Steamtown,,but this time I took along a helper from the Gauge, Toptrain. Together we preformed a 92 day inspection on the 663 as mandated by the federal government. It basically is a safety check on each locomotive preformed every 92 days that includes checking things like the lights, motor brushes, handrails, and steps. As part of the inspection we had to start the prime mover to build up air pressure. I took a video of it to showcase the fruits of our labor. AND IT LIVES !!!! http://s840.photobucket.com/albums/zz328...142412.mp4

I took a few shots of the the 663 as we did the inspection. A portion of the work is done from under the engine in the pit. [Image: 20120616114622.jpg] Here we checked the traction motor brushes, oil reservoirs, brakes, and a few other points. It can be dark under there. [Image: 20120616105929.jpg]

Here is a close up of the motor brushes on motor #2. [Image: 20120616113300.jpg] The one on the left needs a little cleaning.

As a side note the crews at Steamtown has been busy repainting the static displays. Here it the Reading T-1 that we used as a meeting point for our 2009 Gauge trip. [Image: 20120616090212.jpg]
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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#10
Epaw, Be sure you check the brake beams on either side of the wheels if you didn't look at them. They tend to rub on the wheel and when they finally rub through they can cause some serious damage and even a derailment. I noticed the rub mark on the wheel that I pointed out, though this can happen when going through a frog. An attachment can be welded to the truck frame to keep the beams centered and clear of the wheels.    
Charlie
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#11
Thanks Charlie ..I will pass this on to the right people. I do like the idea of keeping them on the rail and out of the dirt.
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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#12
Yesterday we had our third successful excursion this one to the Delaware water gap founders day festival, I missed out the other two Sad . All the trips went well without any problems. The 3,000 horse power F-3 set was given a train of six heavy weight cars of CNJ and DL&W heritage to pull. This may sound like over kill for only six cars but the step grade in and out of Scranton is too much for one unit. Once the B-unit is road ready we can handle a larger train. I did take a few pics of the train as it pulled into the water gap station to post here. I was having so camera trouble as far as focus goes so all the pics are a little off.

    With 664 in the lead the consists pulls into Water gap station right on time.




    With the train at a stop and the passengers off to get some lunch we did a walk around of the train to check for any thing that could have happened during the trip.





    All the passenger equipment was from the steam town collection as this is really one of their excursions, we are just filling in motive power while the two Steamers form Steamtown are down for repairs. They are all 1920-ish heavy weights that are used on all the Steamtown fan trips.




This link is to the excursion schedule for this year. Although we are not listed as power for all the trips we are doing all of them except the daily shuttles in Steamtown, those are handled by the Nickle plate geep from Steamtown. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.nps.gov/stea/planyourvisit/upload/2012-Excursion-Schedule.pdf">http://www.nps.gov/stea/planyourvisit/u ... hedule.pdf</a><!-- m -->
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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#13
I haven't had the chance to post much on this thread lately but things have been moving along nicely..



[Image: 20120916140831.jpg]

We have been working on the B unit a lot lately. one of the arias of concern is the prime mover. We have been checking it out, and so far so good, we hope to start it up very soon. It will be the first time it has ran in almost 20 years.

Now it's time for Dinner,, Big Grin I'll post a bunch more stuff latter.
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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#14
I 'll start with yesterday... When I arrived for our work session in Scranton I was greeted to the sound of our EMD's doing switcher duty by the Steamtown crew. I filmed then pulling a cold steamer off the drop table and over to the round house. The F's have become a favorite of the crews there. http://s840.photobucket.com/albums/zz328...090930.mp4 I later learned that it had been involved in a small fender bender the day before when it struck the mezzanine in the round house damaging the headlight beyond repair. [Image: 20120916123653.jpg]
The front glass And cover can be replaced but, the parabolic reflector is a total loss and can not be fixed.

The T-1 is now showing off it's completed paint job as seen here..
[Image: 20120916145005.jpg]


[Image: 20120916145759.jpg]

But now back to the DL&W F-3's. The B unit has been our focus of attention lately as the two A's have been filling in on excursions and even the daily trains out of Steamtown this summer.. This year has not been kind to the motive power at the park. Both steamers and the Nickle plate Geep have spent a lot of time out of service so our units have seen a bunch of in-service miles. As for the "B" we have been restoring it back to service one of the jobs was to replace a section of 3in flex that connects the control cabinet in the front to everything in the rear of the unit.[Image: 20120916112538.jpg] At this point there is no wire in it but that will change soon.

We have also applied a rust Inhibitor/converter to the control cabinet, compare the color of it in the two pics and you will see the difference.[Image: 20120916140949.jpg]

The air compressor and generator blower have also got some TLC. The major components have been removed and sent to the parts washer, we'll reassemble them next week.[Image: 20120916140905.jpg]

The last thing that we did was to spot the 664's rear truck over the drop table and prep it for removal. The prime mover sits in a pit or sump that was filled with old oil. That oil got cleaned out some time ago,but a good part of it has made it's way down through the undercarriage and settled on the rear truck causing some grounding concerns. The truck will be removed next week, cleaned, and reinstalled. while it is out we'll look into how to stop this from happening again.[Image: 20120916152257.jpg]
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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#15
Steve, thanks for the update. You guys are doing a great job.
Keeping these girls in tip top shape can be very rewarding.
Charlie
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