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Thank you for the update. Amazing work going on there and it's been a while since the last update. I was going into withdrawal.
I'd love to see the shop if I ever get up your way.

Nice work, as always. I too was wondering about another update....

Kelly - what's the current practice for those new equalizers? Machined from a solid forged 1040 billet or some such, or a more modern steel?

I have a question about that crankpin? How were you able to get such a good polishing job on that crankpin still on the wheel?

It says they pressed it out of the wheel center, turned it, then pressed it back in.

That is not how I read it.

They removed and turned the one they couldn't get a good surface on using the means they would normally use on mounted pins. If turning isn't necessary, hand held tools can do a nice job of polishing. There are a few portable crankpin lathes left that can turn crankpins in the wheel........ you do what you can with what you have available as long as it's within normal accepted tolerances.

I read it as Rick reads it. The pin was polished in the wheel first. The pits were found to perhaps be worse than expected so at that point the pin was removed for turning then pressed back in.

So, the question remains, what did they do to polish the pin before it was removed? Perhaps just by hand?

J.R. May

As always, thanks for the updates. Those of us actively involved in restoration feel more secure with the Strasburg covering our backs!

Rick - according to a 2006 post made to "Practical Machinist" by someone at Strasburg Railroad, they have an Underwood portable crank pin turning machine. H.B. Underwood made a line of portable tools for crank pin turning, cylinder boring, etc. designed for short lines and industrial shops that lacked the full range of machinery that a class I railroad would own.

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/an ... ne-115349/

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Thanks Kelly. I am particularly interested because I will very shortly be polishing the crankpins on J&L 58. Had not even considered those big flap wheels on a die grinder until now.

Happy Thanksgiving!

fantastic work as always!

Kelly,

The crankpins on the engine I work on (CNR 6213) are also quite pitted, though we polished them up by hand just enough so that the locomotive could be switched around the museum grounds from time to time.

I'm curious, when you machined the pitting out of the crankpins did you have to make new brass bearings for the big end of the main rod? What would be the procedure here? Our engine has floating bushings.

Did you machine all of the pitting out or most of it, etc. In essence how much pitting can a crank pin tolerate?

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