If you follow the Blog or look back to Oct 19th you see that Whitcomb's radiator leaked badly in several places. The bottom was broken out from water freezing in the bottom tank. A member of the LSRHS named Chris Bohn works for TitanX engine cooling in Jamestown New York. Chris approched the president of his company and TitanX agreed to donate a new radiator core for the Whitcomb. Thank you TitanX. Chris came and took measrements and made a CAD drawing of the new core. Hank and I went up to the museum July 6,7,8 to disassemble the radiator. We had to grind off many of the bolts because they were rusted tight and you couldnt get a wrench on them. We got the top tank free but we couldnt safely lift it off the radiator. A telephone man drove in and I asked him for help. We got the top tank off and got it on the ground. The side pieces and core were next. Both the top and bottom tank need welded.

ATCSmon Display

I think it would be great if the museum had a way to know or display if there were any trains in the area. People across the country are using scanner radios and computers to track trains like the railroad does. NS transmits data on 900 mhz. CSX curently uses telephone lines.

Febuary and March 2010

Hank and I went up to the museum in Feb 2010 and put in 2 new Optics windows.

I went up in March and made a new rocker cover gasket for the engine. The weather was rare warm day in the high 60's. The hood moved a little bit when running in the critter crawl. I lined up the bolt holes with a come along and put new bolts in.

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