Today overall crane helped Wayne Allen , Adam Bartley, Cory
Fothergill, and Ryan Fothergill install two traction motor combos into GP9 72.
This project included building a combo from scratch , as well as installing one
that the club received from the Mass Bay Grant. Special thanks to Dave Swirk
and Andrew Seeley for helping operate equipment as well.
This weekend Jm Hamlin helped clean out the rotted metal
from the short hood of 72. Once this section is cleaned we can see what needs
to be cut out (if anything is left 😉). We will weld in new
metal to the
sub floor, reattach the number 1 traction motor and fix the
bathroom floor. Wayne Allen finished removing old cab heater piping and wiring
. He removed the remaining truck brake rigging in prep for traction motor
installation. Cory Fothergill finished polishing the rear axle that will have a
traction motor added to it next weekend. A bad voltage regulator was replaced
as well.
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| Cleaning out under the Short Hood of GP-9 #72 |
Cory Fothergill and Wayne Allen continued work on 72 (1741) this weekend. A traction motor blower had been making some noise, first motor #4 was changed out, as it was the loudest. The housing was full of dry oil, fuel, and sand mixed together. The locomotive was restarted but found that there was a similar noise coming from the other side. At that point motor 3 was removed, found to have bad bearings and also full of oil and crap from years of neglect. At the end of the day both traction motor blowers are quiet and doing their job now. The traction motor blowers on our F units and GP9 are ac motors that spin a cage to provide cool air to the traction motors to keep them from overheating and receiving damage. Each locomotive has 4 of these ac blowers. 72 was also moved to put more oil in it, and the rear axle was worked on again for prep to have a traction motor installed in a few weeks. We hope to have all 4 traction motors installed by winter.
Here is 72 on the turntable at North Conway
This weekend Wayne Allen and Cory continued work on the 72. The old water cab heaters have been removed from the cab and all plumbing removed as well. These heaters will be replaced with electric heater once the new cab floor is installed. One of the biggest challenges in keeping locomotives “healthy” is keeping water, oil, and electricity where they should be at all times. The water cab heaters had leaks and require lots of attention so as almost every other GP7/9 have been updated we will do the same. The brake rigging has been partially removed and rear axle has been polished to get ready to install traction motors
Midcoast Rail and the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority (NNEPRA) have started new passenger service between Brunswick and Rockland. They are operating the service with self-propelled Budd Rail Diesel Cars (RDC)
New Passenger Service to Rockland
This weekend Wayne Allen and Cory Fothergill got a chance to
do some more work on locomotive 1741/72. Leaking water lines on the air
compressor were replaced, a new engine protector device was installed, the
traction motor duct boots have begun to be replaced as well as cleaning axles
for traction motor installation. The main generator brush holders were cleaned
up and she was started for several tests. There is a small hole in an exhaust
stack that will be corrected which is the noise you hear in the video.
Otherwise the 1741/72 motor runs clean . Work will continue in the following
weeks.
