1 : 1 scale modeling
#76
Here's the story from Kalmbach....


WAUKESHA, Wis. – The readers of Kalmbach's annual Locomotive magazine have spoken. They have chosen the Tri-State Railway Historical Society's Lackawanna-painted F3 No. 663 as the "must see" diesel locomotive to receive a $1,000 grant from Locomotive and Kalmbach. The locomotive's supporters came through with 402 nominations.

As announced in Locomotive 2013, Tri-State will receive a donation of $1,000 toward the care of No. 663, and the 1948-vintage EMD F3 will be featured in the next issue of Locomotive. The organization, part of the National Railway Historical Society, will use the money has part of $5,000 project to restore the locomotive's compressor.

"There were many miracles that helped the F3s along, the same miracles that every successful project seems to attract," says Mike Del Vecchio, group president, chief mechanical officer, and F3 project leader. "But as everyone who has ever tried to preserve railway equipment knows, saving and restoring the piece is less than half the battle. Maintaining it for future generations is considerably more work and expense
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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#77
Looks like I missed out on some cool work. Maybe I can get back into the fold when I feel better
Tom

Model Conrail

PM me to get a hold of me.
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#78
Well sir you are always welcome. Steamtown has offered to keep the restoration area open to us all winter long. I have another half a days work to do on the body work then I will be moving on to the MU system on the B- unit. That needs to be operable so that even if we don't get her running for Spencer. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://nctrans.org/Events/Streamliners-at-Spencer-(1">http://nctrans.org/Events/Streamliners-at-Spencer-(1</a><!-- m -->).aspx
We will still be able to string em together and run them as a unit with the B in isolation. That is more brain work then muscle work that I could use a hand with. so I hope you feel better and join us. I think the next work session will be next weekend, probably.
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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#79
We finished up another day with the B unit. All went well and was rather productive.


A bad section on the frame was cut out and a new angle iron was fitted in place. In this pic it is ready for welding.    

I spent the morning cleaning out the frame members from debris like in this before and after set of pics.     Grime, dirt, oil, and rust has built up in the lower crevasse of the truss work, this blocks off the drain holes and just creates more rust. So this is probably the first time they were ever cleaned out.    


   

When this was all finished some of the guys applied this stuff to all the exposed surfaces of the framework.     It removes the rust from the metal and seals it prevent new rust from forming.
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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#80
When you first put in on it looks like this...    

Then it cures and turns the metal black and looks like this...    

While this was going on I started to work on the MU system, I'll post some more on that in a bit.. It was a rainy day and the two girls got to hang out together with us behind the diesel shop.    
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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#81
While this unit under B&M ownership it was involved in a wreck. With the skin removed the repair to the damage can be seen here in the frames truss work.    
Look at the upper right of the angled frame member the weld line is easily seen, as in the section where it crosses the horizontal member also.    

   

As for the MU.. I started at what we are calling the front end,, where the cab would normally go. Here the B&M has installed a 27 pin MU receptacle near the center of this pic.     I checked it out with the help of another crew member and found that the wiring was free from shorts and grounds from the receptacle up to the splice block above the front door. Last year new wire was installed from there to the control cabinet so I can get started on splicing the two sets of wire. On this end there is also the original factory MU socket mounted above the door.    
The other end only has the factory one, so that will be addressed as they are difficult to reach. I will be much safer to work on them with the MU connection in the lower position.
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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#82
Just got back from the restoration today so I'll post a few pics. It's nice to have the locomotive shop open to us on weekends this winter, even with shortened hours we are still making good progress.


I spent the day labeling and terminating the MU wires from the receptacle to the splice blocks mounted above the front door. Normally they are located in the nose, but it's a B-unit so it's a little different. I also rang out all that wire at the bottom of the picture as it was not numbered. It all leads to the main cabinet that is mounted right behind me in this pic. It will get terminated on the splice blocks with the other wire. Others members worked on removing rust and cutting out new sheet metal parts.    


Speaking of the main cabinet .....The big cheese of our group, and all things F-3 started removing some of the unused, damaged, or otherwise unneeded wire from terminal boards.    

Just a few tracks over GP-9 #514 is having a little maintenance done.    

   

   

Looks like we will be back there in two weeks to continue working on the B.
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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#83
I was finally able to get up to Scranton to play around with the B unit. Tomustang and myself spent the morning going through some more of the MU wiring at the front end and started working on the rear MU conduit. We removed a section of the end wall because one of the ribs is in the way of the receptacle. If you look at the pic of the other side with the MU in place, you will see that the B&M did the same thing. Also You can see the box and conduit for the pre-lube pump receptacle. The section of the end wall will be replaced along with the receptacle installed latter. Soon we'll be able to wire it in.

   
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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#84
Looks like a great project, and one you can be proud to be a part of of.

If always saddens me to see machines like this allowed to rust away. Better to just scrap them that condemn them to a lifetime of neglect.
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#85
MountainMan Wrote:If always saddens me to see machines like this allowed to rust away.
That I can agree with......
MountainMan Wrote:Better to just scrap them that condemn them to a lifetime of neglect.
........ but without wishing to start a 24 , disagree on this one. Once scrapped, always scrapped, at the worst case, at least patterns can be obtained from what's there.
Hats off to all those who volunteer their time to restore items so that the rest of us can oooooh and aaaahhh over them. Cheers
Cheers, the Bear.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
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#86
Another work day at Scranton. We did some more grinding..    

Some more rust proofing...    

We removed the brake valves so they could be sent out to be refurbished...    


And I finished up the front terminal block and started the main cabinet. The wires draped out of the side are spares that we ran, they will get tucked out of the way inside the splice box. ...    
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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#87
all that neat Behind the scenes stuff Big Grin Big Grin Big Grin
~~ 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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#88
I forgot to post the pics I took from last week. Nope

More of the same projects with a bit more progress.

The hole is punched for the MU receptacle and the patch plate has been clamped in place for welding.
   
   

I have been working off of two sets of prints to figure out the wiring on the new electrical cabinet. I have labeled all four of the terminal blocks with the southern wire numbers that NS had used.     In this case the post that I have striped of wire are the ones needed for the MU system. The number fallowed by the letter "T" means that it is part of the MU receptacle or "train line electrical connection" . The # is the pin, So wire 8-T, is pin #8 on the receptacle. That is the focus on the wiring for now so that even though the unit will not run on it's own yet, it will be able to be coupled in-between the two operating A-units without hampering their operation. For now the "B" will act as a really heavy extension cord.

And the last of the Chicken wire has been removed.    

There is also a u-tube video of the "B" getting moved out of the sand blast booth so that the recently painted tender trucks for the 26 to be moved to the main shop.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaBa6coKgnc&feature=share">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaBa6co ... ture=share</a><!-- m -->
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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#89
Paint stripping has begun,,,,,    

   

And some more body work.    

   
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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#90
While the paint and body crew was doing there thing, I was seeing to the mechanicals.

The Front MU wiring was completed to the main cabinet. It's all the gray wire on the binding post marked with a number and a " T ".    

With the patch welded in place for the MU receptacle, I was able to start the MU wire on that end. It consists of 25 wires that are all measured out and marked on the floor next to the 0-4-0. That is enough to reach from the MU location in the lower left corner of the unit to the first box over the rear door.    
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
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