1 : 1 scale modeling

[e-paw]

We have a great time at it Charlie, we have a great crew and our hosts at Steamtown couldn't be better. Not many clubs get the chance to maintain there equipment at a place like this, and we take full advantage of the opportunity that we were offered here. I don't know the particulars of the arrangement that we have with the parks service but both the ARHS and Steamtown have benefited greatly from the deal. It will be a great moment of pride when we fire up and run the B unit for the first time. It will then be the last and only operating F-3b in the US (there are a few others here and there, but none in service). We will definitely have to go out for a nice cold one to celebrate that day. After she it painted (the easy part) and lashed up in consist with her sister A's it will be a great moment of pride in what we have done.

[cn nutbar]

Excellent work Steve I really liked the video,reminded me of typical use of the F-units at Leetown

[Steamtrains]

Mannnn....You guys bought a special ticket to Heaven..?? Or what..!!

#2124 is a real jewel....

[e-paw]

This weekends job was to finish up the rear truck clean up and installation..We first disconnected the sand, air, and motor wires from the truck and with help of the drop table we were able to move it over to the next track for cleaning.


With the truck spotted over a special track for cleaning oily, greasy, and otherwise yucky locomotive parts we removed all the covers and got to cleaning.

Here is a pic of the #3 motor that is coated with old engine oil.
Compare it with the pic of #4 motor witch is in pretty good shape.


With the covers off you can see how the motor brushes and commutator are coated with oil.

Now look at it after cleaning..

The car body got some TLC also...

Here is a shot of one of the motor covers that is covered with oil.

Spraying the cleaner that is a commercial form of pine-sol is a very messy job.. It 's hard to tell, but that's a person in an orange shirt under the truck spraying the cleaner on the motor..


Here's a view that not a lot of us get to see... the under side of an F-3 with the truck removed.

When the cleaning was finished we pushed the truck back onto the drop table and got ready to reinstall it.

We centered the truck under the king pin and reconnect all the wiers and hoses.

She'll get tested later but for now it's time to go home...but I grabed a few shots of the new headlight being preped for paint.



This one will replace the one that was damaged on the Steamtown's loco.

Although we were unable to find the source of the oil leak, we are pretty sure that it is old oil from some time ago, that was never cleaned off by the previous owner.

[Charlie B]

thanks for the update. I look forward to your posts.....Oh what I could have done with a drop table!!!!!!
Charlie

[e-paw]

Well Charlie if you 'r ever in the aria you are more than welcome to come down and lend a hand on the F-3's. We will be wrapping up our weekend sessions shortly because Steamtown will be closing on the weekends in the winter. We don't have anything planned for this weekend as the tri state group will be changing out the batteries on their F-3 (#663). The weekend after that I will be riding in the cab of the DL&W units on one of the Steamtown sponsored excursions called the GREAT GATSBY EXPRESS. They like to have someone from the ARHS along with them on these trips in case some thing goes wrong and help with start up and MU'ing the units, so this time it's my turn.

There will still be work sessions held during the week, but it is hard for me to get to them because of my work schedule. The units will be moved indoors into the roundhouse and the rewiring will continue on the B unit.

[Charlie B]

Well Charlie if you 'r ever in the aria you are more than welcome to come down and lend a hand on the F-3's.

Well thanks for the invite, but I have reached my limit on locomotive repair. 14 years of nursing an ALCO S1 that is 6 months older then I am plus a few miles of railroad ties done the hard way, and many other little odd jobs has done me in. I am content to watch. I get time at the throttle now and again but that isn't a big deal anymore either. You fellows are doing a great job. Keep at it and keep it up.
Charlie

[e-paw]

I just wanted to let people know the Anthracite railroads historical societies has a face book page.. It has a bunch of pics of the work we did last weekend on the f-3's ,,and I swear I have more hair than what showed up in the pics

[e-paw]

last weekend I road along in the f-3's as an escort on the Great Gatsby express. It was a 1920's themed excursion with costumed characters, period cars,and 20's music. Our job aboard the train is to look after the locos, help out the crew, and trouble shoot any problems that may come up during the trip.

First off I took some pics from the cab as we waited to get the all clear as the regular Steamtown train was getting ready to pick up it's passengers.    

   

Once that train was out of the way we backed up to clear the switch that would bring us over the the platform

Here's a few pics from along the line to Goudsboro, our first stop.

   

   

It's a good climb out of Scranton east to Gouldsboro but we made it there right on time.    

[e-paw]

In Gouldsboro the passengers were able to take a ride in a classic car, grab a bite to eat, and shake hands with Al Capone.
   

   
Then it was on our way to Tobyhanna.



The passengers were able to check out an old Ice house here as we ran around the train for the trip home.

But before we left I grabbed a pic or two of a near by DL&W tower and some freight cars that were on the siding.







Then the passengers re boarded and we were ready to highball.

[Ralph]

Looks like a great time! Love the cab shots especially. Excuse my ignorance, but why are there two horn cords?

Ralph

[e-paw]

It was a good time Ralph, I enjoyed myself greatly. As for the two horn chords,, the one closer to the engineer's seat is the forward facing horn, the other is the rear. The first time I was in the cab I had the same question.
On the eastbound part of the trip we could not get #663 to load in reverse ( it was the rearward facing unit) while MUed. so #664 used all of it's 1500 horsepower to get us up the heavy grade out of Scranton. We were pulling six sold out heavy weight coaches and one idling F-3, but still got there right on time. When we turned the train around for the ride back, making 663 the lead unit the problem disappeared. So with all 3,000 horses we went west to Steamtown.

here is a short Vid of us going through the tunnel near Moscow on our way back. http://s840.photobucket.com/albums/zz328...152522.mp4

Here's another vid of us pulling into Steamtown. http://s840.photobucket.com/albums/zz328...153305.mp4

The only problem is that the "new" photo bucket has video add that mess up the entire site,, just be patient and they will eventually load and play.

[e-paw]

Just a quick update on the winter plans for the F-3's. Here is a copy of an E-mail that I received about the work ahead.



The ARHS's plan for this winter is to begin work on a complete rewire of
the F3 B unit presently in Jersey Central paint. We have secured
significant supplies toward this effort and we are requesting that the
locomotive be moved to an inside location similar to last year so that we
may move forward with this work. Additionally, if it is the same spot in
the roundhouse as last winter then if DL&W #664 can also be placed on the
same track. This would allow us to do work which requires drilling and
welding in the walkway areas so that it can pass its inspection next year.
Please let me know if this plan works with other things going on in the
Park and the roundhouse. I understand as with last year our work sessions
inside the roundhouse would only be possible during the week and the winter
hours schedule for the shop workers.

The rewire of the B unit is one of the first steps towards possible
operation. The rewire will allow us to test the other electrical components
of the locomotive which if all is well could lead to starting the
locomotive next summer. Depending on funding a Lackawanna paint job would
then follow.

And the reply from steam town

I passed your request on to Will S. He will move the
equipment into the Round House track 14 after completion of our operating
season. On Monday December 3rd locomotive shop staff will shift to winter
schedule Monday to Thursday on four ten hour days 7:00 am - 5:30 pm let me
know where we may assist with moving your projects forward? As always thank
you very much with supporting our operations the equipment has been a great
asset while establishing an excellent partnership.



So things are moving along nicely now.. I wont be able to make to many of the winter work days because of work But I will keep every one updated.

[e-paw]

I found this pic that I took in Jim Thorpe of the two F-3's while they were still in CNJ paint. A few days after I took this pic The EMD's were off to Scranton to become DL&W 663 and 664    

Just behind them is a real CNJ RS-3 #1554 (aka Pete). She is owned by the ARHS but leased to the D&L who did a total rebuild on her bringing her back to a "like new" condition. They did a stellar job on the old Alco stripping her down to the frame and bare metal, then repainting her back to her as built CNJ colors.    

[e-paw]

Well we are back to a weekend schedule at Steamtown so I now have the chance to get my hands dirty, and dirty they got..663 suffered a broken water pipe during the time that we were on winter hours. So it was my job to get it fixed.

    In this pic you can see the broken pipe with the threads still in hole of the larger pipe where it was once attached.
But in order to reach it we had to remove the nipples that feed in and out of the oil pump. :? This was messy :? .    
That's the oil pump there,, It's located at the rear of the prime mover on the engineers side. The pipe that we were working on is the one below it with the valves on it.

While we were working on that.... work was started on the new electrical cabinet install for the B-unit. We received it from NS just before they scraped it.    
We have to cut an access hole in the roof in order to crane out the old one and drop in the new one.     After the new one is welded into place the roof panel will be welded back into position.