Tanks and Seats

Among other things, much of my time today was spent dealing with air tanks and seats. As mentioned before, car 36 had one of its two main air tanks go bad, so we picked out a replacement from the department stockpile, and took two tanks over to the steam shop for hydroing. On Sunday, the tests were done: the other old tank from the 36 passed, but the hoped-for replacement did not. The Car Dept. guys then picked out another spare tank and took it over to Smoky Hollow.

The 36's old tank is marked with ultrasound measurements of its thickness in mils at several points. Ultrasound means high frequency sound, and because the speed of sound in steel is much higher than it is in air, of course, we have in effect an impedance mismatch at the boundary. This causes reflection, and the phase difference measured at the source accurately determines the thickness of the steel. It's the same basic principle used in radar, sonar, and so forth. Well, enough physics for today.

I had to go over to the steam shop to clean up the next replacement tank. Just surface rust, though.

After wire-wheeling for a while, it looks better. And the background is more interesting, too.

Here's the tank that flunked. Welded repairs had been made at some point in the past, but were "giving". That's not good.

Later, Richard decided to cut up the bad tanks to see how thick the metal was. These would probably be nice planters in your yard, so make us an offer.

Now for seats. Today Tim and Frank started installing the "bowling alley" seat cushions in the 24. The floor has been cleaned up, and the interior is really starting to look ready for service.

Also, the letterboards have been repainted in preparation for lettering.

By the end of the day, the interior looked like this.

The seats in the 319, on the other hand, are not nearly so nice, and several need new upholstery. I decided about six of the seat back need to be recovered, and I've started investigating what needs to be done. New material will be ordered soon, and I hope to have the work done over next winter, in house if possible. Negotiations have started.

As you can see, these seats backs are coming apart.

This cushion I took home for recovering, since that's an easy task I can accomplish in a couple of hours.

Update: And the next day, after about an hour and a half of work, it looks like this:

Gerry and Mike were unloading a new (old) milling machine for the car shop, to replace the Bridgeport. Gerry was also working on final adjustments to the brake rigging on the LSE box trailer.

And Rod shows us a new gasket for the D3-EG compressor on the 24 that he made.

Most of the rest of my time was spent starting inspection on the 36, for which there's not a lot to take a picture of. Here's the inside of a C-6 controller, with the cover off and the arc chutes open. By the way, Ed Oslowski happened to be in Barn 8, looking for parts in the 277, so he helped me with sequencing the 36. He and John Arroyo were working in the Liner again today. They just don't quit.