When my friend Al and I were up at Cedar Park working on our cars a few weeks ago, he was interviewed for a video. When I first joined the Gulf Coast Chapter of the NRHS about 30 years ago, I was immediately pulled into this project and have been putting in many hours ever since. On the day this video was recorded, I was working on the diesel generator under this car and was really grubby so did not make the casting call.
If the media is interviewing someone from a restoration project - they NEVER should interview the clean person, that is prima facia evidence that they aren't the one doing the actual work.
I just saw where I did make a cameo appearance in the video. Well at least my legs did. About 3 seconds into the video I walk by on the other side of the car. I usually wear white painters pants (rugged, inexpensive and cool in the Texas heat) and because I was working under the car crawling around in the ballast I had my Velcro knee pads on. They look kind of wonky. The detached muffler for the diesel is hanging right behind my left leg.
The feds bad ordered the car due to a worn out wheel set. So we have to jack up the car to get the truck rolled out and replace the wheel set.
A few more photos from yesterday. The truck being inspected after it was rolled out. Picking up the new wheel set to place it on the rails. The steel pedestal liners (sleeves between the truck frame and the bearing boxes) were cracked so had to be removed. They are welded to the truck frame at the edges so we had to grind off all the welds to be able to remove them. They are being replaced with new modern plastic liners, one of which is setting on top of the orange extension chord. The new wheel set can be seen at the lower right, ready to get rolled in place. However, we ran out of time and were missing the correct parts that go between the equalizer beams and the top of the bearing boxes. It seems there is no standard for these pieces but we found some of the ones we needed in a junk pile. But by then it was getting late and we could not get the truck reassembled. So we stuck an old freight truck under the car to get it off the jacks until we can get back to finish the job. The two wheel sets are off to the left. Had to pull the new one back off the rail to make room to position the shop truck.
There were four of us old guys from the Gulf Coast Chapter NRHS but we had the help from two guys from Austin Steam Train Association. One of them acted as supervisor/coordinator and the other one operated the fork lift tractor and provided a lot of technical expertise. The four of us did much of the grunt work but they did a lot too. I was a jack operator, truck pusher, weld grinder, wheel chalker, impact wrench operator....and many other "crafts". Safety was first and every time anything was moved we had a briefing session before hand so that everyone knew where to be and what to do. A lot of heavy metal moving around.
Russell, I really appreciate your blow-by-blow descriptions. Please continue with them as appropriate. Wish I was closer than eight hours to help.
This is certainly a very interesting thread. @Tower24 and @Hytec's posts expressed the same thoughts I had and @r_i_straw's response answered my questions about expertise and safety. By the way Russell, your photos have been excellent.
The two ASTA guys removing the "truck pin" so that the car could be lifted off the truck. Jacking the car up. Cracked pedestal liner. Rust builds up between them and the truck, swelling up and causing them to crack.You can kind of see the weld on the vertical edge. The end of the equalizer beam that rides on top of the bearing box is on the right. Yours truly with my trusty angle grinder removing a weld. The rusty old pedestal plate that goes between the equalizer beam and the HYATT brand bearing box. The proper plate made for a TIMKEN bearing box. We found them too late to finish the job Friday night.
Some 40+ years ago when I weekend volunteered on a shortline, a guy there told me that "everything on the railroad is big, heavy and dirty" and he was right.
That's just how I roll. Going to get dirty one way or another. May as well stay cool while doing it in the Texas sun. Although we did not have much sun last week, mostly mist and light showers. Painter's pants are inexpensive and rugged as well as long sleeve T shirts.
This stuff is always fascinating, especially to those of us with a natural interest in mechanical things! And, as to the light-colored clothing, it's so you can see if it's really clean after washing. Doug
Finally got the new wheels under the truck frame and the new pedal liners inserted. Lowering the truck frame onto the replacement wheel set. The equalizer beam sitting on top of the bearing box. The new plastic pedestal liners on either side of the box. The other side.
