I charged the battery in the Whitcomb. This is a good battery, it was a take out I got at the battery store nine years ago. It still holds a charge and turns over a 1500 cubic inch engine. I intended to correct a leaky carburetor, but I didn't have enough room in front of the engine to remove the rods that lock the engine bay doors. The Whitcomb was coupled to heavy weight passenger car and there was not enough space between the two to get the rods out.

I went up to the museum May 15th and charged the batteries on the Plymouth. I noticed on previous occasions that the brakes on the Plymouth were not releasing. This causes a lot of wear on the shoes and wheels. This time I saw a spring hanging unconnected on on part of the brake linkage. I thought, that spring should be connected to the lever next to it to release the brakes. I tried to release the brakes by hand, pulling on the linkage. It would not move. I connected a come-along to the linkage and released the brakes. I greased the shafts that work the brake mechanism. I connected the return spring and bought one for the other side. The brakes release now. I checked the levels of the gas, oil and coolant. I added two gallons of antifreeze mix to the radiator.

I went up to the museum and painted Steve's Plymouth and installed a fuel pump regulator on the Whitcomb. The fuel pump is putting out 12 PSI. I put a fuel pump regulator in line after the fuel pump. Although the regulator bought the pressure down to 4 PSI the engine did not run well. I brought the carbs home to clean them out again.

I talked to Steve about doing things at the Museum on my vacation Aug 1. He wanted to paint the Plymouth red and put American Car Foundry ACF graphics on the cab. I thought since the weather was so good I would do that ahead of some of my other projects. I spent a day sanding the old paint job and Tuesday painted the body of the Plymouth.

Caboose ride for charity.

Steve K organized a train ride to benefit some employees laid off at the GE plant in Erie. Steve had a slide show on small industrial locomotives(critters). The 18 ton Plymouth was on one end of the caboose and the 30 ton Whitcomb was on the other end. The caboose was filled with passengers. Both locomotives were running and the Plymouth pulled the train west and the Whitcomb pulled the train East. The Whitcomb did not run perfectly. I think that was because the fuel pump pressure was too high. The Whitcomb hydraulic clutch seemed to be leaking. I ordered a fuel pump regulator for the Whitcomb and will try a heavier oil in the hydraulic clutch.

More pictures: Ray,Scott,Tim and others work to level and put new ties under the ladder track.

I went up to the museum in April to charge the batteries and check the locomotives in preparation of a locomotive run May 22. I put 6 gal of gas in the Whitcomb. I charged the batteries on the Plymouth and noticed that the throttle was stuck. Evidently the water leaking from a gasket rusted up the throttle linkage. I put a vice grip on the linkage and oiled it. I worked it back and forth until it was free. I put some epoxy on the joint that was leaking. Tim and I started the Whitcomb and the Plymouth. I worked on the plymouth hand brake. Ray and company are replacing ties on the ladder track.

Steaming video cameras at Lake Shore

Virtual Railfan set up two cameras at the museum. You pay a subscription fee and watch on your computer screen at home. Cameras are located at North East, Pa and several other places in the US. I took some screen shots and got permission to put them on the blog. The shots reflect the beautiful weather and sky changes we often take for granted.

A short video of the Caboose hop at Christmas at the station Dec 5th 2015.

1908 B&LE box car loaned to French Creek Valley HS

A 36 foot wooden box car built by Standard Steel in Pittsburgh will be trucked to the French Creek Valley Railroad Historical society in Meadville Pa. Here is a video of a CSX mixed freight passing the box car.

Charge batteries and check Plymouth

I went up to the museum in August. I hoped to meet with Steve to run the Plymouth Locomotive a bit. We wern’t able to move the engine but I did work on the headlight and get the light working.

I noticed a small coolant leak between the head and rocker housing on the Cummins engine.

Jerry was replacing some rotten wood on the NYC wood caboose built in 1915

Night at the Museum video.

Ray is positioning freight cars for the night photo shoot. There are some photos on the Fairmount A6 Blog.

Adjust Plymouth brakes

The Plymouth does not have air brakes, it has a hand brake operated by a hand wheel at the engineers right side. The brakes were never that great since we have been operating it. I noticed that when the hand brake was tight the shoes on the left side of the engine were not contacting the wheels. I checked with Steve and decided to adjust the left side brake. My first thought was to make the shoes reach farther, lengthen the adjuster link. The threads on the link were rusty and painted. I cleaned up the threads, reinserted the link and adjusted it. I soon saw the adjuster needed to be shortened. It works better now

More pictures of the volunteers who helped get the Whitcomb running.

I have lots of pictures and videos of the Whitcomb on the blog. I decided to put up some pictures of the people who worked on the Whitcomb. My friend Hank helped me work on the Whitcomb for 3 or 4 years. We drove from the Cleveland area to the museum and worked on the Whitcomb on day 1. We would stay overnight at my place near Findley lake. We would work at the museum another day and come home that night.