Roudhouse Machinist Tales: E-8 / 9 Main Reservoir Change Outs in Tales of the Jointed Track

There are major inspections, that are not only a railroad maintained requirement, but a Federal Requirement. One of these is the 3 year air. You basically remove and change out all the air brake and associated air equipment. Control valves, service portion, emergency portion, the Automatic and independent brake valves
( Cabless boosters do no have these, some depending on the railroad had a hostling control and a small independent brake and the power controller allowed enough power just to move it in and out of the stalls). But to clarify, the boosters , have all the air equipment, just not the brake valves the engineer uses. We were working on a ex-UP E-9B unit, for AMTRAK for the M-12 and 3 year air, and if needed, or in this case replacing with a drilled main reservoir. The unit wasn’t in the diesel shop, but spotted in one of the stalls in the old roundhouse.

The main reservoirs are the storage units for air. Compressed air, will be moved from the air compressor to the number one Main reservoir, then to the number 2 Main reservoir, then utilized as needed. The number 2 reservoir will fill to capacity first, because the connecting pipe between the two, has a one way check valve, when number 2 pressurizes the check valve seals and the number one fills.. The number 2 main reservoir is the storage air for the locomotive and train braking. The number one stores air for all air operated magnet valves, windshield wipers, radiator shutters, sanding valves,etc. It will also make sure that the number two reservoir, is always supplied. Since air does not like to be compressed, it will generate heat and these go through a series of after coolers then into the reservoirs, so if there is a high humidity, water can and will collect inside the reservoirs.

This does two things it reduces the volume capacity for air to stored and it corrodes the inside of the reservoir. That’s why there are blow downs and you can also manually drain them as well. The E units has either one main each side of the fuel tank or one on the rear of the fuel tank, suspended, and one in the car body, toward the rear by the steam generator. It depended on what the railroad ordered.

We were replacing main reservoirs, we did the car body one with relative, ease, by using a fork lift to take the old one out of the car body through the center door on the rear of the locomotive where the coupler is. It was getting around 230 pm and the first shift was getting ready to leave and the second trick, was starting to trickle in.

The E unit was needed for tomorrows departure, and had to get finished. Jimmy the other apprentice said we’d stay and put the one underneath in. Someone needed the fork lift, that we were using, to move parts from where the storehouse dropped em off. They took them up to ramps on Line one and two. So that was gone to help us out.

We dropped the old main reservoir and rolled it to the boilermakers shop. He would hammer test it in the morning. If it passed, it would be drilled and reused on another Amtrak unit. We placed the newly drilled reservoir on planks under the piping. A drilled reservoir has weep holes drilled in a grid like layout. The special bit goes in 1/32 of an inch, so if corrosion happens it will breach the weep hole and blow air, and then its a scrapper,and it won’t rupture and explode, and Yes they have done that.

We we chain jacked it into place, and after several failed attempts, we got it into place. The gaskets on each end. were placed in. I bolted one end, and Jimmy the other. We made sure the unit was good to start and fired it off. The compressors kicked in and went to each reservoir and made sure there were no leaks. We also walked around to insure the train line was closed and the end cocks on each end were also closed as well.

Air is like water it will find away and a path to escape if given the chance. All was good and both diesel engines, with their attached air compressor pressurized the unit in about 5 to 8 minutes time. The pressure went up to 140 lbs and the unloader magnet valve energized, and the compressor stopped pumping air, since it was a booster, and not hooked up and controlled by a lead locomotive, the brake cylinders were in on a release condition. A chain across the rail and a handbrake kept it from moving. I grabbed the air hose, and held it firmly and slowly opened the angle cock to the train line. This was enough to simulate a brake pipe reduction. The brakes set up. We double checked the water levels and lube levels on both diesel engines. This was reported to the foreman, and he looked it over gave his approval. The hostlers were called to move it out of the stall.
Jimmy and I handed in our time cards, and headed for the locker room.

Last updated June 04, 2015