Christmas at the Museum

I went up to the museum Dec 2rd for the last of two weekend open houses 'Christmas at the museum'. Food was served in the dinning car by volunteers Charlie, Tom and Al. Jared worked in the gift shop. Curt was selling model trains in the station. Roger kept the HO train layout going for the visitors. Ray and James helped me get some LeRoi heads out of the Freight house. James gave me a tour of the South Shore Little Joe electric locomotive.

The instrument panel

When I put the brake controller back in, I took out the instrument panel and 4 inch duplex air gauge. The panel had been vandalized, the glass had been broken and the pointers removed from the gauges. The panel consisted of a volt meter, oil pressure and water temperature gauge. I bought 2 inch gauges that are pretty readily available. The prime mover type and serial number are also part of the panel. The type is GM which stands for Gas, Mechanical. The s.n. is 13204. I spent quite a bit of time working with the ignition switch. It has 4 positions, magneto on, battery on, both on, and off. This allows you to run a set of spark plugs with battery, coil and distributor, or a second set of spark plugs with the magneto, or both at the same time. This is a redundant system for reliability used on fire engines and expensive cars at the time. I cleaned up the switch but I had trouble with continuity. You had to wiggle the switch on the position to get a good contact. I didn't want to trust that switch so I put in 2 toggle switches, 1 for battery ign and 1 for magneto. Of course you can have both on or both off as needed. I painted the panel like the one in another museum. I put in all the gauges and made a lens for the instrument cluster. I believe the fuse is 20 amp KTK type.
The air pressure gauge indicates the pressure in the main tank and the pressure in the brake cylinder. I found 1 side of the gauge still worked and glued a needle pointer on the shaft. I made a lens for the gauge. Im looking for a working 4 in. duplex air pressure gauge for the locomotive

Independant Brake Valve

Whitcomb loco has an independent train brake system. That is it has no provision to power air to train cars that it is connected to. The Leroi engine has a 7th cylinder located in the center of the engine between number 3 and 4 cylinder that operates as an air compressor. Compressed air is stored in cylindrical tanks under the cab of the loco. A Westinghouse SA2 brake controller supplies air to the air brake cylinders. When I got the brake controller, the handle was stuck and would not turn. It was questionable as to whether it could be fixed. I took it over to a friends house. The controller was built in an age when things were meant to be repaired. We thought something in the valve was stuck causing the handle not to turn. Taking it apart there were some heavy gaskets in it. These were molded rubber, both were brittle and one broke as the parts were separated. after disassembling the valve there was nothing stuck or broken just the bushing on the valve was corroded and dry. with blaster and oil the valve handle was began to move. It moved a little further in each direction with each try. Finally it moved nicely in both directions. we cleaned the parts in gasoline and did not disassemble the smaller components. The valve was reassembled, wire brushed and painted.
I decided to go on the Internet and see if I could find the gaskets. I found the phone number for WABCO in Pittsburgh Penna. I called and the gaskets were available. They are in the mail to me.

Whitcomb background

The Whitcomb Locomotive works was located in Rochelle Ill and founded by G Whitcomb. Its 6 cylinder LeRoi engine is a whopping 1,500 cubic inches. That's 4 and a half Chevy 350 engines or about 5 times a normal car engine. It is an over head valve engine with cylinders cast in pairs The pistons are 6 and 3/4 inches and the stroke is 7 inches. The horse power is close to 200 hp in 1941 measurements. The crankcase holds 7 gal of oil and the radiator 20 gal of antifreeze. It runs on regular gasoline and uses 2 Stromberg up draft carburetors. Each cylinder has 2 spark plugs with dual ignition, Battery (coil & distributor) or magneto It has a torque converter connected to a 4 speed transmission with a reversing differential. Both axles are chain driven with 36 inch wheels. As I understand it the locomotive was bought new by the Erie Iron Works in Erie Pa. The engine was used into the 50's or 60's. when it seized due to overheating or lack of oil. The locomotive was vandalized in the 60's . Most of the copper lines and battery cables were stolen. The windows were broken and the dash smashed. Various control levers were bent or broken. At sometime the heads were removed from the engine and the cylinders badly rusted. The bottom of the radiator was broken by water coming in the radiator and freezing. In 1967 the locomotive was donated to the Lake Shore Railway Historical Society. At some time the museum acquired a spare engine.

I drafted a plan to put the good parts from the spare engine on the crankcase in the locomotive.My first job was to remove the remaining rusted and stuck cylinders and pistons. When the front block (2 cyl.) came off the bearing inserts stuck to the crankshaft. The surface of the bearings were galled and not use able. I worried about the main bearings. would they be stuck and unusable too.

Removing stuff from the "parts" engine

I took the distributor and water pump off the parts engine. The parts engine had been covered with a tarp. during the winter the tarp had disintegrated. I took the oil strainer basket out of the parts engine as the basket in the loco was smashed. I took the governor off the back of the engine. These parts I stored in the locked loco. Ray helped me tarp the engine with a good heavy duty tarp.

The latches on the loco for engine access were rusted up. Two latches were incomplete and I was able to free two latches up.

The Le Roi engine is a six cylinder. the blocks are cast in pairs. There is an air compressor piston and jug, so that makes 4 jugs. I removed the nuts from the connecting rods on the block for cylinder 1 and 2. The nuts from the block base were already removed. Ray and I lifted the block for cylinder 1 and 2. We stored the block inside.

I removed most of the sludge from the crankcase with a fire place shovel. I removed the broken strainer basket from the crankcase.

A visit to the Lake shore Railway Historical Society

I visited the LSRHS in North East Pennsylvania in 2006. I looked at a 1941 Whitcomb switch engine. The engine had been partially disassembled and the pistons had rusted up in the block. This engine was a six cylinder manufactured by the Le Roi company of Milwaukee, Wisc. I once owned a Baker 25-50 ag tractor with a similar four cylinder Le Roi engine. I met the other volunteers at the museum. I discussed the possibility of working on the Whitcomb switcher with the idea of putting the engine back together. The museum had acquired a spare engine and extra parts in a trade. I got permission to work on the Whitcomb.