The Florida Railroad Museum is working on bringing our CF7 #204 back to life. After going through the engine, we found a bent connecting rod on #12 cylinder (photo attached). Looking for leads on who might have older EMD parts. The #204 has has a B-block converted by Santa Fe to a BC block. The connecting rods are of the older b-block style that wrap around the wrist pin (again photo attached). Part number on rod that came out is 8159013

Any leads for a supplier would be appreciated.

Little more on our CF7 #204
Built in April of 1950 as Santa Fe F7 #238
rebuilt by ATSF in 74 to CF7 #2472
#2472 was bought by IMC and ended up at Port Sutton near Tampa in the mid to late 80's, painted and renumbered #204. The #204 worked at Port Sutton nearly three decades. The was transferred to Kinder Morgan at some point at the port. The #204 had engine troubles and was parked. Sold to a scrapper, CSX wouldn't move it to the scrap yard, so the museum swooped in and offered to acquire it. The scrapper ended up selling the museum the #204 for $5k. We had a house mover, move it to Parrish.

The 204 is now in the shop with hopes of getting it going. Body is a little rough, but being completely rebuilt in 74, the wiring, contactors and all electrical is in great shape. The prime mover appears to be in good shape, except the bent rod. It does have C block liners, so the water/gasket issues we don't have.

If we can get the 204 operational and reliable, the plan would be to "restore" it to its appearance in 1988 (the oldest IMC #204 photo we can find). After all we are a Florida Railroad Museum, the ports and phosphate played a big role in Florida Railroading. Further more, the #204 has been the 204 longer than it was as F7 238 and ATSF CF7 2472. It's been a Florida engine for over 30 years!

Thanks,
Glenn

I would try Hatch & Kirk. We used them alot for our old 567 power but its been a few years now since we used them but worth a try. They used to be the " go to place" for our small fleet of 567 power.

Hatch & Kirk would be my go-to as well.

They were/are the OEM for quite a bit of EMD stuff, but I know they have been thinning the older stuff out lately. Still worth a call though.

Question from a non-technical railfan. How could only one connecting rod be so bent and the others be OK?

Probably from not blowing down the cylinders of any water before trying to start, especially if it sat for awhile.

That cylinder could have hydrolocked or seized.

15 or 20 years ago we almost lost a F-unit to such a incident, for some reason it wasn't blown out properly before starting and one cylinder had some water in it. In our case the connecting rod broke and punched straight down, it did not damage the block but did damage the oil pan, which fortunately was able to be repaired without removing the engine from the locomotive.

The damaged power assembly was replaced, and that locomotive has operated ever since.

Edit: I see AlcoGuy posted while I was typing.

Always blow down your engines, every. single. time. The extra 2 minutes can save you countless amounts of money in time and material.

It makes me cringe when I see museums and shortlines alike just start things right up after sitting. It does not matter if its been 5 minutes, 5 hours, or 5 months.

No doubt blowing them down is key. We blow down our other EMD's every time, the 204 came to us this way. Oddly enough we could not find a leak on the cylinder. Nothing in the exhaust port, head nor liner. Thinking it had rain water in it, they (kinder Morgan) rolled it over and there goes the rod. Once we get it back together we will continue to check it for a leak(s).

Thanks for the lead on Hatch & Kirk, they list the 567B rods on their site, I already requested a quote.

Glenn

This is a little off topic. After 30+ years of rolling over an engine a couple of revolutions, the general manager has given us new instructions on how to blow down an engine. We are to just bump the start switch three times with 10 or so seconds in between. Has anybody heard of this? I guess the idea might be that engine wouldn't have enough inertia and stop before bending/breaking something if a cylinder had too much water in it? A manual I have from the 80's says to turn the engine over twice. He's the boss, but he has only been around 5 or 6 years.

The liner above blew out with less then a full revolution of the engine. I will never forget that sound...

We blow down until all signs of vapor are gone, and when actually starting, let the engine make a good 3 or 4 revolutions with the rack dead before opening it, this way if something DOES go right away, the engine isn't also trying to start.

The last railroad I was at adopted this procedure after a small leak was discovered. That lasted about a month, then the start contactor welded itself together and the crew panicked. Luckily somebody had sense to open the main disconnect. If you are that unsure about water in the engine, bar it over by hand.

At the Class I I work for, there used to be rule that required any locomotive shut down more than 24 hours had to have the cylinder test cocks opened before starting, and contact Mechanical for anything shut down more than 48 hours. Now there are no rules covering the procedure.

It is too bad the engines don't come equipped with a slow motor turn option, for just this purpose.

Starting during production of the Dash-2 series, EMD had a feature available for electric starter motor systems with a timer that cycled a resistor in and out of the starting circuit to reduce cranking speed and force for one or two revolutions at the beginning of the cranking event. The idea was that if the crew had not blown down the cylinders before starting, and one had water accumulated, the hydraulic lock might occur with a low enough force to not damage the cylinder.

PC

I can't help but to stop a moment to ponder 24 years as an F7 and 45 years as a CF7. Maybe instead of a CF7 being an F in disguise, the F is the future CF7 in disguise; from butterfly to caterpillar.