Christmas 2009

I enjoy volunteering at the LSRHS museum. I get a sense of accomplishment fixing something on the critter. Many days you can smell the grape jelly cooking at Welches. The excitement of a train coming. You can hear the diesel horns sounding the crossings far away. Seeing the signal bridge light up, and listening to the dispatcher crackling on the PA. The rumble of the NS local delivering tank cars to Welches. Come and visit.
P.S. There is a fund to replace the radiator on the Whitcomb.

I went up to the museum in November to work on the engines valve covers. You would think that the cast iron valve covers that go over the rocker arm assembly would go right on. Well they never have fit right. I changed some rocker arms from the spare parts and tried all 6 valve covers on the three heads. I think that I got finally got them all fitted correctly. I also had some parts for the original air cleaners. I went to the parts store and found paper air filters that fit them. I had to make some plywood ends for them. I installed them on the engine.

Cab ride in Big Red

The Whitcomb boys were treated to a cab ride in the museums 25 ton GE locomotive. Thank you engineer Steve. We love the Whitcomb but were very impressed with the simplicity and smoothness of the diesel electric. See a short video here.

Winterizing the engine

October 19th Hank and I went to the museum to winterize the Whitcomb. We wanted to run the Whitcomb so we got the water hose from the station and put 4 hoses together to reach the Whitcomb radiator.. With water overflowing the radiator, I started the Whitcomb. We ran it for about 15 minutes and then shut it off and went to lunch. After lunch Hank said ‘start it up’. It came back to life and I moved it back and forth a couple times. Then it was time to winterize it. We drained the radiator. There were drains on the exhaust and intake manifolds. There is a drain on each of the 3 blocks and the air compressor cylinder. We put RV antifreeze in the water pump and the exhaust manifold. We went back to work the next day and the GE locomotive was open. Steve gave us cab rides and I took video. After operating the Whitcomb the day before I was just amazed at how well the GE ran and operated

Fall colors: Red, Orange and Yellow

It happens all the time on your model railroad; You assemble the train and start out when, Oh crap it came uncoupled. A full size prototype exists for that. We loaded up the caboose with people for a ride and started out, the two engines left the rest of the train behind. (how embarrassing - not really). A little adjustment on the coupler and we had no trouble after that. It was cold and rainy Saturday but cleared up Sunday afternoon.

I met my son at the museum at 9:30 am to paint the body of the Whitcomb. I used a wire wheel on my angle grinder and knocked off the loose scale and rust. My son painted the upper portion of the cab red as it was originally. I rolled the cab and hood. We went over the louvers with a brush. We took a break about 2:30 and got lunch at Burger King. We finished up about 4. Later my daughter painted the number on the side. We plan to put a logo on the cab sides and safety strioes on the front and back. Ray and Steve coupled the Whitcomb behind the GE 25 ton for wine festival weekend

Whitcomb starting

Here is video of the whitcomb starting.

Sad news

The radiator core on the Whitcomb needs to be replaced. That's water running down the front of the radiator on the whole right side.
I put 4 buckets of water in to see how the patch on the bottom was doing. There was a place in the rear of the core where 4 tubes are leaking badly. I decided to fill it up and see if there were other leaks. I connected all the radiator hoses and filled up the radiator. The whole top header of the core is leaking badly. Water poured over the front of the radiator.
Replacing the radiator is a big deal. It needs to be removed with a crane and put on a flat bed truck. It is too big for a pickup truck. The tanks need removed and taken to a shop and welded up. A new core needs to be custom made ($$$). The top and bottom tanks need bolted on. Then the radiator and hood need replaced using a crane.

First start up

Well here’s the good news. After nearly 3 years of work the 200 hp LeRoi engine started. I put gas in the spark plug holes and cranked it over and it started up, didn’t stay running, but it started. The single carriage battery turns it over. It had great oil pressure. and the air compressor pumped air. There are many adjustments to make and the radiator is still leaking, but the engine is running.
Wed July 29 I sealed off the bottom radiator hose and put some water in the radiator. It leaked a little.
Thur July 30 I cranked it over with a tire iron in the ring gear and saw the timing was off. The impulse on the magneto was happening too soon. I unbolted and slid the water pump, distributor and magneto out from the timing gears and rotated the gear 1 tooth clockwise (retarded). This was an improvement but it needed more. I moved it 2 more teeth. Almost correct now I moved it one more tooth.
Friday July 31 I filled the torque converter with hydraulic oil.
Saturday Aug 1 My nephew, who repairs machinery in the steel mill in Pittsburgh, came to visit. He was a good heavy machinery mechanic would be a good one to help me on the first firing. We put gas in the spark plug holes and put the plugs back. It started right up but wouldn’t stay running. It wasn’t getting gas. The fuel drum was set up right and the fuel pump wouldn’t pull the fuel up the 3/8 pipe. We tried to prime the pump but the engine wouldn’t stay running.
Sun Aug 2 We ran a single 3/8 copper line from the fuel pump in to the drum. The engine started but the fuel pump wouldn’t hold the prime.
Mon Aug 3 I made a rack or stand and turned the fuel drum on its side. Gas now ran gravity flow to the fuel pump. The engine started and ran but fuel pored out the front carburator. The float valve was stuck open.
Wed Aug 5th I took the bottom plate off the radiator and put water in it. I saw where the leaks were. I bought more epoxy and spread it over the leaks. I disassembled the front carburator and adjusted the float valve. I will grind notches in the radiator plate to fit better.

Bottom radiator tank

I was previously unable to get fuel to flow from the gas tank to the carburators, so I decided to install an electric fuel pump. The fuel pump was installed and gas was brought to the carbs.
I had meant to epoxy around the piece that was broken out of the bottom of the radiator. The broken piece was in the shape of a flap. When I squeezed the flap up into the radiator it didn’t fit the hole. When I tried to straighten it so that it would fit it broke out. It turns out that was a good thing. With the piece out, there was a 5 by 10 inch hole in the bottom of the radiator. I was able to get my whole arm up in the hole and pull out handfuls of rust and a huge mouse nest. I spent quite a bit of time cleaning out rust and debris, most of it came down on me crouched under the frame between the radiator and the greasy motor. I mixed up a big can of PC7 epoxy and spread it on both the hole and the piece. I put the piece back in the hole and blocked it up to cure. I plan to sand the joint and put another light coat of epoxy on it. The new steel plate pictured above with a rubber gasket will strengthen the weak bottom.

Jun 24,25,26

The Whitcomb has 2 Zenith carburetors and 2 governor bodies The governor linkage did not fit up well so I decided that the governors were facing the wrong way. So I had to take them off make new gaskets and put them back on with the linkage facing in. I wired the coil, voltage regulator, and magneto. The cotter pins in the air compressor connecting rod were not through the castle nuts. I tried some different things and ended up putting lock washer under the nuts to bring them down far enough for the cotter pins to be effective. I crawled under the back axle to connect the clutch linkage. I found I had to loosen the clutch air cylinder to get the pin in the linkage. I did find the grease fittings for the axles. They are hard to get to without getting under the axles between the wheels.

June 17,18,19

Hank and I went up to the museum to work on the Whitcomb. It rained all 3 days. Ray and Steve spiked down rail into some new ties, getting ready for a CSX engine to come for a fire exercise. Hank ground off the bolts on the radiator grill because they were too rusty to be unbolted. We also had to grind off some of the 16 bolts in the bottom tank. We bolted in 'C' channel brackets which will connect to the 1/4 plate we are putting on the bottom of the radiator to seal the ice crack. We laid the new steel plate in and measured for the bolt pattern. I mounted the governors, the 2 carburetors and the magneto. Hank made gaskets for the valve covers. We got soaked through to our underwear.

June 2,3,4

I put the reconditioned valves back in the air compressor. I took a passenger car battery which was new, to bulldog battery in Cleveland. They put battery acid in it and I took it back. Cyd helped me get it in the Whitcomb. I bought a 30 gallon drum to replace the gas tank. I put a 3/8 ball valve on it. I thought we might be able to close the split in the bottom of the radiator with a steel plate. I measured and drew plans for the fix. I bought 2 pieces of “C” channel and a piece of ¼ plate. Hank drilled it to match the bolt pattern on the bottom radiator tank.

Install the intake manifold

Hank and I went to the Museum Sunday May 24th to work on the Whitcomb engine. We had three objectives: mount the intake manifold, disassemble the air compressor head and build a frame to jack the hood up.
We worked on the water cooled intake manifold at home. The water jacket on the manifold was cracked due to freezing. I epoxied the cracks and Hank drilled out the rusted drain plug. The exhaust manifold has six connections to the exhaust ports, three connections for water cooling to the head, and four water connections to the intake manifold. The intake manifold has 4 water connections and connects to all three heads. Just about everything needed pried up, down or sideways to get the bolts started in. All connections had new gaskets. We noticed quite a bit of rust and scale in the water jacket of the exhaust manifold. We removed the stuck thermostat and tried to get as much rust out as possible.
Monday we took the cover off the air compressor valve chamber using instructions from Andy Szabo from Arizona Railway museum. The leather seal washer was hard and brittle. Two new ones were ordered. Hank spent quite a bit of time removing some black hard carbon like crap that was blocking about half of the exhaust port. All the valves were stuck and I could not get the exhaust valve out. The others will be disassembled and cleaned. I installed the Conrader unloader and cut a copper line to attach to the air compressor head.
Tuesday Hank and I sawed up some lumber to lift or support the hood while the radiator is repaired.

Exhaust manifold mounted

May 6,7,8. We got the water manifold, between the three blocks, on the right side of the engine on with neoprene gaskets. The water pump which drives the distributor and magneto was cleaned up at home and the timing was set. The water pump gear was carefully mated with the timing gear to have the spark occur at the correct time (20 degrees before top dead center we hope!). James was working on the 25 ton GE and Ryan showed up. They helped me get the 6 ft long exhaust manifold mounted on the engine. It is still loose because it has to line up, and bolt up to several other castings on the head and intake manifold. We are working on the intake manifold to drill out the pipe plugs and install ball valves to drain the water. The conrader unloader is being disassembled and cleaned.

Stuck in the engine

I went up to the museum to put the cotter pins in the connecting rods. You use a tire iron in the flywheel to turn the crankshaft until a connecting rod is accesable thru the hand hole cover. It was a tough job reach through the hand holes and turn the nuts one way or the other to line up the cotter pin hole and the castle nut slot. I often had to use a hand mirror to see the allignment. I was laying on my stomach on the running boards of the engine, with my head close to the crankcase and my arms inside the crancase. Someone droping off news papers told Steve there was a guy stuck in the engine compartment back there. I got them in but I am still working on the air compressor rod.

I decided to use the flat tappets instead of the roller tappets because the roller tappets froze up so fast. When we put the tappets in their holes we found out that there was a misallignment between the cylinder castings and the crankcase. Hank machined the tappets to fit. The machined tappets went right in and the pushrods went on. I bought 5/8 inch studs, cleaned the threads in the heads with a tap and installed the 18 new studs. I disconnected the pipes to the sand dome in preparation to removing the hood.

April 11 2009

We made 2 brake linkage pins from 1 1/4 inch bar stock. I made a clock, and an armrest to replace the rough old 2 x 4 bolted to the window. My son Dave came up to help lift the engine blocks. New base gaskets were cut out. We lifted the blocks to the walkway beside the engine. The rod caps were removed and the nuts put on to keep the shims from falling in the crankcase. The pistons were pushed to the top of the cylinders and the crankshaft turned until one of the two journals was at TDC. It took 3 guys to lift the blocks and put them on the crankcase. Steve helped us with the first one and James helped with the other two. The pistons were tapped down until the rod was on the crankshaft and the nuts were put on. They are not wired yet.
Hank and I put the last of the brake linkage together with the 2 new linkage pins. We had to use crow bars and jacks as the brake shoe and heavy linkage arms wanted to go every way but line up. Hank and I put the rebuilt heads on. I decided to go with newer type of tappets. They would not fit in the crankcase. Hank will machine them. much more work is needed. Donations are needed for hoses, belts, batteries etc. The radiator needs removed and the bottom tank welded.

March 15 2009 update

Hank and I worked on the Whitcomb for 3 days in March. The weather was great, temperture in the high 50's. We assembled the brake cylinders with new cups and spring. We reconnected the air supply lines, rigging and brake shoes. Two connecting pins will need to be made from 1 1/4 inch bar stock. We mounted the air compressor cylinder on the crankcase. The cylinder was from the spare engine and the air supply piping was slightly different. We finished painting the last corner of the cab floor.

The Air Compressor cylinder

I looked over the two air compressor cylinders and their pistons. The air compressor cylinder is a separate 7th cylinder, water cooled, located between cylinder 3 and 4 on the crankshaft. The A.C. jug from the locomotive had frozen and split. The one from the spare engine looked OK. In one A.C. piston all the rings were stuck. I had to purchase 2 oil rings for the best piston.
As it turned out the big end of the A.C. rod would not go straight through the hole in the crankcase. With 2 of the bolts removed and the rod at an angle it fits into the crankcase. I made 4 brass shims and 1 steel shim for the connecting rod. After several trial fittings I got the right number of shims in place. I was able to insert the A.C. piston in its jug.