J&S Truck Build/Rebuild - Official Work Thread

[Bill Reidy]

Jerry and Carlos Steinke have spent countless hours preparing the passenger truck frames for coach No. 9.  Checking shop bay 2 today, I found the passenger truck parts had recently been painted and set out to dry.

[James Patten]

Jerry and Carlos Steinke work on final preparations to install the wheel sets in the refurbished passenger car truck frames in the background.  They've spent many, many hours preparing the trucks for the coach.

Carlos and Jerry have spent a year and a half working on those trucks.  I helped them dismantle them in July of 2021. 

I believe both of them were involved in a wreck/derailment at Edaville, one truck was particularly banged up, which is part of why it took so long to get them reassembled.

[Bill Baskerville]

I believe both of them were involved in a wreck/derailment at Edaville, one truck was particularly banged up, which is part of why it took so long to get them reassembled.

I assume you are saying that the trucks were involved in a wreck/derailment, not Carlos and Jerry.

[James Patten]

I assume you are saying that the trucks were involved in a wreck/derailment, not Carlos and Jerry.

Yes, I meant the trucks.  I'm not sure Carlos was even alive around the time of the wreck (I think it was 70s).

[Bill Baskerville]

I assume you are saying that the trucks were involved in a wreck/derailment, not Carlos and Jerry.

Yes, I meant the trucks.  I'm not sure Carlos was even alive around the time of the wreck (I think it was 70s).

Thanks James, I asked that question with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek.  I know John and others can make great puns with this if they try.

[Ted Miles]

Folks,
          I thought the trucks under the #9 coach were to be new from the ground up.

I would be interested to know what car these refurbgished trucks came from?

Ted Miles, WW&F Life Member, Build 11 Contributor 

[Ed Lecuyer]

There are two sets of trucks that Carlos and Jerry are working on simultaneously.

The new trucks for coach 9.

The spare passenger trucks that have been at the WW&F as long as I remember. Once rebuilt, these will be placed under F&M coach 2, as they match what that car had originally. The freight car trucks under F&M 2 will end up under box car 56 that will be the new WW&F tool car.

(Jason, please correct if I have anything incorrect.)

[Jason M Lamontagne]

Ed is correct, however some clarification:

The J&S trucks currently under refurbishment were built for B&SR combine 11.  Edaville move them to SR&RL coach 21 (F&M 2- currently owned by ML&M and at the WW&F).  Thus we will reunite the trucks with F&M 2 on a reversible basis (in other words the coach still belongs to ML&M and the trucks belong to us).

The B&SR swing mo trucks from coach 2 to box 56 are a temporary measure (a few years) to buy time to construct a new set of freight trucks.  The new freight trucks will be WW&F common bolster trucks destined for flat 126 (a WW&F repro).  The trucks currently under 126 are B&SR swing mo trucks, which will get moderately refurbished and placed under box 56.  This frees the good trucks that would have been under box 56 to serve as operating alternate trucks, allowing systematic refurbishment of other B&SR swing mo trucks in passenger service.

A couple ancillary goals: the truck work is connected to our implementation of the vacuum train brake system, as we plan to install vacuum brake cylinders and reservoirs direct to trucks.  This will make fleet wide implementation much more practical.  Further- box 56 leaving shop bay 3 will permit the boilers for 10 and 11 to move into that space.  The boiler work really deserves dedicated workable shop space to spread out and properly tackle the many parts of the boiler project.  (L10 itself will go in the enginehouse, where it will receive some non-boiler improvements).

We’re still looking for an opportunity to change that up a little- and get some other trucks under 56, so the good swing mo’s out of coach 2 can help with vacuum brake implementation right away.  However, short of an alternate set of trucks for 56, we’ll stick with the plan above, get 56 in service and free shop bay 3 for boilers.  (No, neither MNG, ML&M, nor SRRR have spare trucks- we’ve asked). 

We’ve weaved a tangled (but hopefully logical) web of trucks

Thanks
Jason

[Ted Miles]

Jason,
          Thanks for untangling the the truck puzzle; I am glad to hear more antique J & S trucks will be put back in service under at passenger car car like F&M #2.

Ted Miles, Member, Build 11 Contributor   

[Carl G. Soderstrom]

Get your programs here! Get your programs here ! You can't follow the changes without a program 

Do you have a diagramed flow chart for all that? 

Unfortunately it sounds logical -- sort of.

[Gordon Cook]

Jerry and Carlos wheeling the first truck(Randy supervising):



(Also posted in Work Reports)

[Paul Hallett]

Jason told me that the J & S Trucks for #21 were nearly ready.  So this is a good time, I think, to tell the story of the derailment that they were in at Edaville.  I was as employee at Edaville from 1972 until 1989 with three years off from 1976 -1979.  It was a weekend day in December of 1974 and the first train out of Edaville Station left in daylight.  We opened at 2:00pm so this was probably the first train at 3:00.  The 1st train had #8 on it with all the clerestory style coaches in its consist.  The second (or third) car back was SR&RL #21.  All was fine for the first part of the trip, then after descending Mt. Urann and traversing almost the whole lenght of the (Richardson) Speedway, it happened.  Coach #21 broke an axle and hit the dirt, estimated speed was 10-15 MPH.  The engineer upon looking back saw sand flying in all directions and he quicly brought the train to a stop.  I was not on the that train that day having been assigned to the 3rd train as a conductor, but I got the news first hand.  There was no personal injury as I recall, it could be that were no or very few passengers in the front of the train because it was an early trip.  I don't know for sure but the 2nd train must have rescued the pasengers.  What I do know is that very soon there were two cranes there that moved car 21 into the adjacent road.  They set car 21 up on blocking right in the middle of the road without its trucks.  We later brought those trucks into Edaville center with the 49' GMC Winch truck.  The broken axle came in some how, too, probably in the Case loader.  The axle was broken off outside the wheel set as cleanly as if sliced by a knife.  It was later determined that there was no radius in the machine work where the axel was turned for the journal.  It was a square corner and that is a no-no!  The axles were not made by a wheel shop but by a machine shop in New Bedford.  They did not know about the radius and it wasn't caught when the wheels were installed in the trucks.  The trucks were repaired, the wheels with new axles were installed and the car continued in service for many years after the incident.  I was pressed into service fixing track that day in my Conductors uniform and then they sent me in to the station to tell them they could start running trains again.  As I recall by 6:30 the trains were running again.  That was a remarkable accompishment and speaks to the high quality of management and staff that we had a that time.  I'll also say that many thousands of miles were run off safely at Edaville and this was the rare exception that proved the rule.

[Dag Bonnedal]

Thanks Paul for a very interesting story.
By coincidence, yesterday we had an internal audit meeting regarding safety, rules and procedures within the machine department,
And among potential safety risks, this scenario was brought up. Our answer was exactly what you said: axles without the necessary radii are crack prone and a derailment at 15 mph is usually not very dangerous.
We have tried to do ultrasonic testing on axles, but it is too difficult and very low chance of finding anything.
During our 60+ years of operation, we have never had a broken coach or car axle. But 11 years ago we had a broken coupled axle on our loco No. 9. It was the third (middle axle) and it broke flush on inside of the wheel on this outside framed engine.
https://www.oslj.nu/en-GB/rolling-stock/steam-engines-39017076
The remarkable thing is that the footplate staff didn't notice and we don't know when it broke. It was the more experienced staff the day after that found that the engine was a bit tricky to start sometimes, when the loose wheel rotated slightly and made the side rods lock.
We had a new axle turned externally and did the rest of the job ourselves. Pictures:
https://museijarnvagenimariefred.se/arbetshelgen-8-9-december/
https://museijarnvagenimariefred.se/nians-renoverade-axel-pa-plats-nastan/

[Jason M Lamontagne]

Thank you Paul for posting this!  I’ve been telling folks my recollection of your recollection- we all know how that goes… so, I really appreciate getting the direct account down officially.  I’ve heard quite a few other Edaville stories that are well worth sharing.

Thanks!
Jason

[Mike Fox]