Absolutely fantastic! I can't even think in terms of anything that big and that heavy being removed and replaced!
As a 51+ year railroader from a railroad family - I have always wondered what the 'enticement' was that drew people to desire to work in the Car Department - spending time much too frequently crawling around on the ground in all kinds of weather underneath rail cars where each and every piece of the car that may require removal/replacement/repair is of a size and weight that can easily crush the life out of a human. Admittedly in the 21st Century the 'shop track' environment is vastly improved over what it was when I was working 'on the ground' in the 1960's & 70's. But even in a well lit indoor type situation - one mistake and the parts being handled can quickly cause one's demise. Hats off to everyone whose career was through the Mechanical/Car Department path - there would not be a railroad without your efforts. It takes people with a wide variety of interests and intellects to make a functioning railroad organization. There is no single path that is suitable for everyone. My own career had me involved in a number of different aspects of railroading - some I liked, some I was less than thrilled with - but all were necessary to the functioning of the company and Class 1's are big enough with enough different areas of work product for virtually anyone to be able to find a job area where on feels qualified, challenged and respected for what you accomplish.
Great sequence of photos. Really explains your operation. I'm surprised the King Pin is so short. MT and Kadee King Pins are much longer. Of Course the dimensions of scale not being linear may explain that. LOL
I had a question, earlier, I forgot to ask. How are the new plastic pedestal liners attached to the bearing blocks? Doug
The plastic pedestal liners wrap around the truck frame on either side of the bearing block just like the steel ones did. However they can not be welded in place so there is a "tab" at the bottom that sticks out to the side and gets wedged between the truck frame and the steel plate bolted to the bottom below the bearing box that holds the box from dropping out the bottom. We actually had the wrong liners that stuck out to the sides too far and had incorrect location for the holes for the bolts holding the bottom plate. We had to drill new holes and saw off the extra tab before mounting the bottom plate. Here you can see the extra plastic sticking out the side before I took my Sawzall to it and cut it off. The bolt with a washer and nut are holding the liner up till the bottom plate was installed.
Was having a wheelie good time today for while. Then encountered new problems that needed to be fixed before we put everything back together again.
We had extracted one wheel set where the steel pedestal liners had swelled up due to rust. Cleaned up the rust and installed new plastic pedestal liners. Rolled the wheels back under the frame, jacked up the car and removed the shop truck, rolled the passenger truck back under the car and set the car down on the truck. The other wheel set that we had not messed with was then stuck in the truck frame. So had to jack the car up agin, roll the truck out again and try to get that wheel set out so we could install plastic liners. Maybe tomorrow.
Got the other jammed wheel set out and the steel pedestals removed . Now to add the new liners and put Humpty Dumpty back together one more time.
Well, the saga continues. We were unable to finish all the grinding to be able to install the new liners and had to put the car back on the shop truck till next week. The steel liners are welded to the frame with stainless steel rods. The guy who cut the welds off for us before, used a carbon arc "Torch" but he was unavailable. An oxygen/acetylene cutting torch will not touch the stainless so had to burn the manganese steel liners around the welds to remove the liners. That left a ton of stainless steel and bits of the liners that remained to grind away. Took way longer than we anticipated. I am away from the project for the next few weeks due to traveling to somewhere remote and off the grid. They assured me that they will manage without me.
Here I am with my angle grinder going after some welds. Lining up the bearing box between the new plastic pedestal liners while the truck frame is lowered onto the replacement axle at the other end of the truck. A little bit of my butt can be seen behind the opposite wheel where I am lining up that bearing box. A piece of the chain used to keep the equalizer springs compressed can be seen in front of Al's face.
Were all this to have been done, in the day, at a working passenger car shop - everything would have been accomplished within a normal working day - with the working passenger car shop having on hand all the specialized tools necessary and the employees skilled in using those tools. I am not taking anything away from your and your band of volunteers - you all are doing the best you can with the meager tools in your possession. Well done so far.
So then, does all of this work have to be inspected and approved by a Federal or State agency before this car can be put into service?
The state Department of Transportation does periodic inspections. I mentioned earlier that it was the "Feds" but it was really the TxDOT that bad ordered the car. The FRA does comes by unannounced and makes sure the COT&S on the brakes are up to date and makes sure all "Blue Flag" safety protocols are being followed in the yard. The Austin Steam Train Association does their own inspections before letting a car go out on their train. If an inspector happened to drop by while the train was out on the line stopped in Bernet and bad ordered a car, it would have to be repaired in place. That would complicate things a lot.
I have always like to see how things worked. I remember as a boy taking apart my wrist watch. Did not figure that one out at the time and could never get it reassembled again. Years later, while in high school, I took the transmission out of my brother's truck for the same reason. His girl friend had stripped second gear out of it and I convinced him that I could fix it. Found a shop manual and went to it, successfully getting it repaired while learning what was going on. It wasn't all magic after all. On the model railroad front, I was always fascinated by all the details under the cars and on the truck side frames. I could sort of get an idea what things did but there was so much that I did not understand. By volunteering to work on museum cars and tourist train cars over the last 30 years, I am starting to understand a little bit more. Every new problem is like a challenge to learn more. And you get to use BIG tools.
"As the Timken turns, so do the Days of our Lives...." This could be a mini-series! Bob Villa, "This Old Railcar"
