Tales of the Jointed Track Part 6 in Tales of the Jointed Track

My time as an apprentice, was coming to a quick close. I still had school work to do, through the National Railway Education Bureau. These were correspondence courses, sent to your home, with a deadline on what and when to be completed... Then they sent you a 50 question test. Of course since the BN was paying for this...they were sent the results as well, and Cal Jewel got the results too, since he was the Local Chairman for the machinist Union.. So if you didn't do well...or didn't complete what was to be done...He told you of your short comings. I never had a problem ...and everything was completed. DID I GET A GOLD STAR...NO...
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We still worked the passenger units as needed or requested. I was going through the tops.. the pipe fitters were draining the steam generators and ready to clean the scale out of the pipes. This was done each time in Denver, and they were high maintenance. The were the standard Vapor-Clarkson models:
These were cleaned out with an acid wash to knock out scale build up. If there is blockage and the blow down separator not used at least once an hour, the coils will over heat and melt due to lack of water. That was the Fireman's job to insure these were up and operating, the separator blow down used, make sure water is filling properly and cycling..They would use water naturally, so there were filling stations at the depots, to replenish the supply. They were not user friendly, I did not have to operate these in my career ..I never fired passenger, when I went into engine service with the Santa Fe, because we didn't not have that on the route... Every once and a while there was a detour...but Santa Fe had a Mechanical man to aid the fireman as needed. AND YES YOU THE TAXPAYER PAID FOR THAT... Plus when we did any AMTRAK work ..You paid for that too...

So back on topic...
We were working the Amtrak consist, all SP FP-7's, there was a water storage tank, that supplied the steam generators. I noticed a drip, and water pooling on the engine room floor... There were petcocks, to aid in seeing how the where the
water level and a basic idea where it was at. HEY LET ME BE A HERO and I'll tighten it stop the leak . So I did and I broke that S.O.B. right off. Okay the lil Dutch Boy thought he had problems, Well I got someone had to confess...it was a bad petcock, but as a new guy...well Its always assumed your fault ... Hey that how ya learn.
We drained the tank down...and tapped out the offending twisted off petcock. place a new one in there. Yes I got ribbed for the whole deal .. and it wasn't a crisis.. I thought it was...but I digress.

I worked with Adam a few times , a man of not so many words..Getting close to retirement. His son worked as a trainman and/or Yardmaster during that time frame. Adam did Steam Generator maintenance and change outs.. He made sure the regulating governors, pumps, fuel supply was where it needed to be.
There was and E unit at that far end of Line 2... There was a ration of change outs due to melted coils... Now, the railroad is getting the newer employees all crafts, so the fireman aren't trained properly or do not have the experience and if you're not paying attention... you'll cause failure in the long run. Scale and low water levels will melt those coils quicker than you think... Watch the water level and fill cycles ...use the separator blow down to purge the coils of scale ..

So the car body roof was off of the rear end...The old steam generator was lifted out and a new one placed back in. The stacks were fitted for the outlet caps, then, after it was fitted it would be removed, and wait for the car body roof to be placed and secured...then they would be placed back on and secured.
I was told help Adam out.. I helped get tools or parts. fasteners. We bolted the generator to the floor and reattached the fuel lines.. The pipe fitters fastened up the water lines and the electricians, the connections.. So now for the "TEST" ... How does our handiwork pan out ? The battery switch was placed up...and the pump for the generator energized... Adam said..."You ever do this ?" .. "NO I haven't".. "It's not hard.. make sure you place the switch onto fill".."A light will say ready, also make sure the fuel access is on and running." "Then when it says start..click the switch to fire" These were all Idiot lights ... "You ready" asked Adam..."Yes"... "Okay flip it to fill" the pump cycled filling the coils..." Kick the fuel pump on"...we heard the lines begin to pressurize... Adam yelled "Start it Kid".. "Mr Trout the light says not ready ...You want to check" ? "NO... place the switch to fire" ... GULP here goes ... I placed the switch to fire and run.. KAABOOOM... KABOOMMMMM ...black smoke..and the explosion blew the exhaust caps off..and they were in orbit. They hit the top of the diesel shop..Now the roosting pigeons are scattering, people on the shop floor are getting in car body units and/or cabs..or down below... and our missiles finally hit the shop floor with a bunch of metallic commotion. The culprit was an old fuel check valve ...that was changed out and it fired off like it was supposed to. Adam never showed emotion, anger, disgust ..he said "I think it will be okay now"...like he just planted a bed of flowers ... I hated those Vapor Clarkson's...but I could make 'em go if I needed to.
Curses in my Young railroad career.. the Elwell-Parker and the Vapor Clarkson's..

E-8 / 9 main reservoir change outs...
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, in for the M-12 and 3 year air.. 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 on 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. 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 train 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 on underneath in.
Someone needed the fork lift to move parts from where the storehouse dropped em off, and took them up to ramps on Line one and two. 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... 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..and placed the gaskets on each end. 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.. went to each reservoir and made sure there were no leaks.. 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 units 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..enough to simulate a brake pipe reduction. The brakes set up. We double checked the water levels and lube levels on both diesel engines..and reported to the foreman. he looked it over gave his approval, and called for the hostlers to move it out of the stall. Jimmy and I handed in our time cards, and headed for the locker room.

Last updated August 17, 2014