The McHugh Locomotive shop has been busy. I’ve posted elsewhere about steam locomotive No. 6, “The Train the Wouldn’t to Die.” Below is a summary of some other recent work.

The West Chester Railroad is located in West Chester, PA and operated by the West Chester Railroad Heritage Association (WCRHA), a 501-c3 non-profit. Their Christmas trains were being pulled by ALCO C-424 (built in 1965) No. 4230 when its auxiliary generator failed. Former Penn Central GP-38 No. 7706 finished out the 2020 Christmas season for the West Chester Railroad.

McHugh Locomotive was contracted to perform on-site and shop services to get the ALCO C-424 locomotive back in service. The auxiliary generator was removed and rebuilt at the McHugh shop. The locomotive will return back to service for the startup of the WCRHA 2021 season.

During the 2020 Christmas season, West Chester’s EMD GP-38 No. 7706 developed some electrical issues with several relays and contactors. A WCRHA volunteer visited the McHugh Locomotive and Equipment shop and JC McHugh donated the electrical equipment to resolve the problems, getting No. 7706 back into service for the WCRHA Christmas trains.

McHugh Locomotive & Equipment was also contracted during January 2021 to provide an on-site inspection of several of the diesel locomotives at the WCRHA. The McHugh Company provided a detailed written report of the condition of each locomotive that the WCRHA will use as part of several grant opportunities to fund various restoration projects that include their vintage diesel locomotives.

Here is another project completed for WCRHA earlier and worth sharing. Their ALCO RS-18 No. 1803 suffered a bearing failure of the axle set #1. The locomotives truck assemblies had the obsolete old style oil bath type SKF bearings that are no longer available. To restore the locomotive back to service the following repairs were made. A new axle was manufactured to AAR standards that would accept Timken 6-1/2” x 12” class F roller bearings. The new axle was machined to accept the GE traction motor support brass and the used bull gear from the old #1 axle set. The used qualified bull gear and the new Timken bearings were installed onto the replacement axle. The two old SKF axle journal box were modified to accept the Timken roller bearings. The #1 and the #2 axles sets also had the wheels re-profiled. After the truck assembly received various other repairs it was reassembled at the McHugh shop. The old SKF covers where applied to the modified journal boxes with Timken bearings to have the truck assembly appear to be historically correct.

McHugh Locomotive and Equipment is rebuilding a center-cab diesel locomotive for the Huckleberry Railroad, a 3-foot gauge heritage railroad near Flint, Michigan. The locomotive is nearing completion and more will be posted on that project soon. Here is a look at some of the progress as seen in McHugh Locomotive shop. First, we see the rebuilt journals and axles.

Next is a before and after of the main electrical panel for the center-cab diesel locomotive.

Here is a before and after of the engineer’s control stand and gauge panel.

From February 5th we have a photo showing work to replace a failed D-78 traction motor for a GP-38 of regional railroad. Seen here onsite is our heavy-duty service truck with crane, welder, air compressor, and all the tools required to do the job safely.

Here is a photo showing lift being made to replace a failed traction motor on SD-40-2 for a regional railroad.

Last photos show a failed 6"x11" axle with gear box and traction motor from a American 840DE locomotive crane owned by a regional railroad. We supplied a replacement qualified axle with bull gear and a replacement rebuilt gear box. We also reconditioned the WH 1443-EC traction motor.

I've recently joined the staff of McHugh Locomotive. If I can be of any assistance please let me know.

Tom Gears

Great work - it's good to have a source ready to take on such a variety of projects including obsolete ones...... thanks.

There you go --- if anybody would like to check up on these guys, PLEASE contact me and I shall be delighted to provide a reference.

Why didn't you install 26 brakes and PTC?

The pressure maintaining feature of 26 would be useful with the small reservoir and compressors capacity of a GE industrial. (And yes, I know they replaced both)

The Huckleberry Railroad requested that the air brake equipment in the GE 45/50-ton center cab to be similar to what is currently equipped on the railroad’s two steam locomotives and one diesel locomotive. There is something to be said for standardization for both maintenance and ease of operation.

McHugh Locomotive offered to upgrade to larger air tanks, but this would have required placement above the deck. The folks at the Huckleberry Railroad wanted to keep the smaller diameter air tanks under the frame as originally built by GE.

McHugh Locomotive, at no additional charge, provided new AAR air tanks of the same diameter but a bit longer, allowing the air tanks to remain under the frame while providing some extra air capacity. The Huckleberry Railroad stated their similar GE 45/50-ton 3-foot narrow gauge diesel in service with the smaller under frame air tanks has not had any issues with maintaining proper air pressure. I hope this clears up any questions on the air system installed in the GE 45/50-ton center cab.

Tom check your PM's

for the rest of you my sarcastic comment was lost in transmission.

That will teach me for trying to post off my ohone.

Were the proposed tanks going to be custom built, or did they have a set from another locomotive that would fit?

Mine too. Sorry.