It has been a busy summer for us here at the Detroit Toledo and Milwaukee Roundhouse. Our main focus in the last few months has been the Detroit and Lima Northern 4-4-0 No. 7. The boiler is nearing completion with the instalation of the boiler tubes complete, and the throttle stand has been bolted into place. The locomotive's frame has been leveled and trammed, and machinging is to begin shortly on the newly cast shoes and wedges. Both driver sets have been dropped and placed into the wheel lathe to have their hub liners touched up. Construction has progressed on the newly fabricated lead truck for the 7. New pedistals, boxes, brasses, oil cellars, and swing link castings have been cast and are currently being machined.













The last picture shows our latest refurbished boxcar stenciled in the New Haven paint scheme. These are not vinyl decals, the stencils for this car were created by Engineer Christopher Slamonson.

More to come...

Nice work there, both on the locomotives and the boxcar. Just curious, why did it get New Haven lettering? That's not an original New Haven boxcar as far as I can tell.

Howard P.

Howard,

You're correct it isn't an oiginal New Haven car. We have three C&O boxcars in our collection one was repainted as such the other two we are diverging slightly. The schemes may not be authentic to the cars, However they are authentic markings to similiar cars. Our focus isn't directed to the actual cars, rather we desire to display the the markings on boxcars from other railroads. The rivet counters and purists may scream however the stencils were created closely following actuals car that at one time existed.

Cool to see that GVRR has another boxcar painted, there should be only one remaining still in plan brown.

The air compressor for the Detroit & Lima Northern #7 was pulled out of deep storage and rebuilt. The 8" New York Air Brake Air compressor was apparently never used in service. It appears it was mounted new on the 4-4-0 before going on display in the Henry Ford Museum. There is still writing on both of the pistons. Unfortunately the steam jug collected rust from laying in storage and accumulated a few bands of heavy rust depending on what angle the air compressor was sitting. After cleaning, honing, lapping check valves, creating all new copper gaskets and replacing the rock hard piston rod packing, the air compressor cycles well on air! Once the Torch Lake is steaming again, it will provide the steam to break in the air compressor while on the workbench.

You guy's are really doing a bang up job, keep up the good work. I really like the wooden lagging on the compressor, way too cool.

How interesting. Just another example of why RYPN is the best place on the web.

Today in the DT&M Roundhouse used the Torch Lake as a stationary boiler to break in the 8" New York Air Compressor. A flexible line off of the steam dome of the Torch Lake allowed the air compressor to cycle while secured to the work bench. After a few leaks were fixed the new old stock air compressor cycles smoothly. It was even pressed into service to fill the main reservoir of the GE 50 ton diesel on the adjacent track.



Tomorrow, the more modern 9½ air compressor on the opposite end of the bench will be tested on steam.

I am curious of the lagging on the air end. Was this perhaps a measure taken to "pretty up" the locomotive, I know Henry had his people go to great lengths to accomplish such things on his railroad.
It seams odd as all literature points to the need to keep the air end cool. As is illustrated by the addition of fins on 9.5" pumps.

Cheers, JAson

How high of a main res pressure will that 8" achieve on the torch lakes 125psi boiler presssure?
Looks like significant blow-by is occurring past the something on the steam end??? The individual exhausts are slightly less than discernible.

Cheers, Jason

Jason,
I suspect that the sound of the individual strokes is partially obscured by the small diameter and relative great length of the exhaust line which would thus be creating a moderate amount of back pressure; the compressor may also be manually throttled back, since there is apparently no governor given the bench setup. The other sound we're hearing is the unfiltered & unmuffled sound of the air being drawn into the compressor and passing through fitting and the valve. Other than that, it sounds pretty healthy looks like a great compressor! Matt, Chris, and crew, great job as always! Looks great.

Adam

Jason, I believe the wood lagging on the air jug was factory standard. Railroads probably removed the lagging later while in service. Since this 8 inch air compressor was never used, the wood lagging remained. I don't think it was "Ford-ized" since the lagging would be obscured by the sheet that covers the air side as seen in the "before" picture. While bench testing, the air side of the 8 inch air compressor ran about 100 degrees warmer that the 9½ inch version.

Adam was correct about why there is no pronounced chuff. The small 25 foot hose for exhaust created some restriction. The exhaust pipe is larger than the input pipe, but there wasn't a sufficient length of large hose lying around the shop. The wheezing sound heard from the air compressor is the compressed air issuing out from the valve that was pinched back to allow an air cushion in the air side.

It did manage to raise the the main reservoir on the GE to 95 lbs, but the valve off of the Torch Lake wasn't open all the way and there was about 100 lbs of boiler pressure during the test. We didn't want to beat the snot out of the air compressor, just slowly break it in. It should have no problem pumping up the main reservoir on the D&LN #7 which operates at 180 lbs.

I'm going to Hijack this thread briefly to give a little background on the 8" pump.

I'd equate the lineage of Westinghouse pumps to that of computers between the 80's and now. As soon as one became available it was almost instantly replaced by something better until sweeping changes were replaced by somewhat minor revisions.

The 8" pump was the replacement for the earlier "trigger" pumps which was subject to erratic operation. The 8" pump although better still had its faults namely supplying enough air for airbrake equipped cars of the longer trains of the day. Many of those issues, largely capacity, were rectified with the introdction of the 9 1/2" pump.

The addition of fins to help cool the air side was another improvement in the progression of the 9 1/2" pump.

As the progress was made the 11" pump was introduced followed by the interesting Tandem pump. The Tandem pump utilized an 8" steam end with the valve setup of a 9 1/2" pump and two 11" air cylinders.

Things progressed further through the series of cross-compound pumps that our friend Bob Milhaupt from IRM has ben inquiring about.

On back to the 8" pump it must be noted that the air being drawn into the pump is not filtered. In fact it is drawn in though multiple ports on the side and bottom of the air end.

As an aside I am curious if there are other engines operating with the 8" pump or if there are any that are displayed with an 8" pump. Additionally I am curious if there are any locomotives that have either the "trigger" or Tandem pumps.

Dave Sutter

Is that the same wheel lathe the PM 1225 people used to have? I heard they gave it to the Ford Museum.