Please forgive necroing an old thread but it is still pertinent.

To those who have purchased packing from CPI for replacement of PM ring segments:
Who did you speak with?
How were the parts identified in CPI-speak?

MCRM is seeking packing for C&NW #1385 which has a nominal 3 3/4" piston rod. I have followed the trail of mergers to CPI at Chart Industries by Howden but am seeking to make the conversations as painless as possible for both sides.

Many Thanks...........mld

Try George and if that does not work out get back to me. mjanssen@vaporlocomotive.com

George Gilbert
District Sales Manager

Compressor Products International
Part of the Howden Group

http://www.CPIcompression.com
george.gilbert@cpi-howden.com

Direct 281-207-4658
Mobile 281-723-7492
Fax: 281-207-4605

Please Note: the new address for Service Center Shipments is
CPI Services
4323 Greenbriar Drive
Stafford, TX 77477

This is reply is to Pete Dietz. Pete have you talked to Dave Wantz? He went through MC stash of packing and has a pretty good idea of what we have. I would hate to see you looking under every pc of carpet and find we had it all along or we have what could be made to fit. Maybe you did already, just trying to help. Regards, John.

Hi John,
Yes, we'd already combed through our "stack 'o packing parts" and found nothing of suitable size. As far as "made to fit", we have the opportunity, and I think duty, this time around to seek out something that is still commercially available with an eye toward what will need to be done in the future. We'll not get just one set, we'll buy spares.
If we use up the last of parts laying around and cobble together, what will we do when those parts wear and require replacement? We've been trying to retain long-term vision in mind looking ahead for many service cycles as opposed to "just get it running now" which will screw us down the road.
Even though it is impossible to convey emotion though a keyboard, but I'm not yelling at you, John. I'm just trying to share some of the thought process..............mld

It was not my intention to question your motives Pete or who and how you go about it. I know Dave had gone through them looking for size for something else. My question was "did you talk to Dave" as to make sure we didn't have a pile of them in stock yet. You may not be yelling but your response is somewhat insulting to my intelligence. Good luck with all you do with #1385. I will not intrude again. Regards, John.

John, I'm sorry you took my reply that way, It was not my intention but something, once said, cannot be unsaid........mld

After a lifetime of opportunities {some failed} to look back on, it just doesn't matter too much. Cheers, John.

Greetings:

The Valley Railroad Co. (dba: Essex Steam Train) has been using piston rod packing made by Hi-Tech Compressor & Pump (215-547-8800), Todd Pollazzi, for about 30 years.

Their metallic packing has 2 sets of three piece rings held together by garter springs and dowel pins to prevent the 2 sets from rotating. It looks sort of like Paxton-Mitchell packing except with garter rather than flat springs.

This design is similar to packing that was made by France Compressor Co. (now out of business).

We have been very pleased with Hi-Tech packing. It is all still in service. When it wears a little we just file a bit off the interlocking ends and we are ready to go again. In all these years used in all three of our steam locomotives, one garter spring has broken and was easily replaced, there was no damage to the packing.

We have our piston rods hard chrome plated and ground round. We have detected little wear on the piston rods over the years and of course they don't rust.

Yes, I have been told that we shouldn't hard chrome plate our rods, but that has been my procedure for about 50 years on all piston rods including air compressors. I've never had any reason to do otherwise.

Be well,

J.David

Messrs. Janssen and Conrad,
Thank You very much for the details. I'll be following up on both of these shortly.

J. David,
Did you need to modify the PM carriers to use the Hi-Tech packing rings?

Thanks again...............mld

Greetings:

The Hi-Tech packing is similar in "design" to Paxton-Mitchell but has a groove in the OD of the packing that the garter spring fits into, adding nothing to the OD of the packing itself. We made a ring that fit inside the original packing gland to take up the space formerly occupied by the P-M flat P-M springs.

That said, we did pretty much the same thing when replacing "KING" style packing.

J.David

I would also agree with J. David. We have modified one of our locomotives with this style packing in the past, and have been very happy with it. Currently we have begun the process to modify another one of our locomotives as we have no interest in machining and maintaining conical lead packing rings.

If you look through the drawings (and can deal with it being in Danish & metric), you can see there are two variants of the packing rings. We place one of each kind in a matched pair, and then use three pairs in the housing to create the piston rod packing.

I have seen a really good photo of us installing it, but of course I cannot find this photo now that I need it.