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Update September 25, 2010 --
One
of the many on-going cab projects is finding replacements for
the
missing cab gauges. Our friend Richard Oed in Germany
located,
purchased and shipped two Deuta speedometers which are electrically
identical to the missing tachometers. He then produced 2
beautiful replacement tachometer faces which were applied to the
mechanisms. Bob Zenk produced a paint formula and the paint
for the needles and we soon had two lovely replacement tachometers.
It was interesting to find that the movements are DC
voltmeters
with a built in bridge rectifiers which are needed because the
tachometer generators on the engines produce AC. Richard also
contributed the pair of Engine Hour Meters.
Dan
was found working on the bathroom door. Two of the hinge pins
were broken and there were some 20 unused screw holes in the
door
surface. There sure were a lot of things hung on there over
the
years. Liberal applications of paint remover and elbow grease
produced a nice clean surface and then a bit of welding and body filler
took care of the holes.
Dan
also took on the task of striping the interior of the bathroom and
preparing it for paint. We removed the right side wall in
order
to make the work easier and to get access to the ceiling panels.
After removing all the garbage from the floor, Dan discovered
that the base of the toilet was broken in a multitude of pieces.
That's just one more darn thing to deal with. The
door in
the back wall of the bathroom was something of a
mystery and the only explanation we could find was that it was an
emergency escape door. That is until we got an email from our
friend Carl-Peter Zander. He explains the door as follows:
"The
UIC code asks for an escape opening, if there is no direct door from
the drivers compartment to the outside, or if the side door in a hood
type unit is more than 7 meters from the front end of the locomotive.
Both are not the case in the ML 4000.
To explain this small door, we have to go back into the
history of the prototype units, which in the very beginning of their
operation, suffered from some trouble in their diesel engine
governor/regulator, which is a very sophisticated mechanical item. The
Maybach specialists were able, to do some setting or repair in the
locomotive, but it was very difficult to reach the vital parts of no.1
engine. Therefore SP asked to have this door for the second locomotive
type.- Problems with the governor were overcome , and I do
not know whether this door was ever used."
Dan
Furtado Photo
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Dan
Furtado Photo
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Dan
Furtado Photo
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Dan
Furtado Photo
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--
Update October 29, 2010 --
Dan
has been doing wonders in the bathroom area. He stripped
nearly
everything, applied rust neutralizer, primered and painted.
This
is the first area of the cab interior to have the "new" look.
Dan
Furtado Photo
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Dan
Furtado Photo
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Dan
Furtado Photo
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Dan
Furtado Photo
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Dan
Furtado Photo
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Dan
Furtado Photo
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Dan
Furtado Photo
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Dan
Furtado Photo
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Dan
Furtado Photo
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Dan
Furtado Photo
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Dan
Furtado Photo
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Dan
Furtado Photo
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--
Update October 30, 2010 --
Guest Worker Bob Zenk,
filing this report from Location: Brightside.
Restoration on the cab interior is progressing rapidly. So it's time to
start making sense of the cab window frame system.
'System'
is not an exaggeration. The side window frames were originally supplied
by the German firm of Happich/GHE, a major supplier to this day for
transit hardware. They are designed in the German style, which favors
aluminum exterior brightwork. It's a signature look for SP 9010.
There
are four dozen separate pieces of aluminum extrusion making up the six
cab side window assemblies. Sorry -- 'systems'. The sliders, for
example, are made up of three separate extrusion profiles in a
rubber-sealed sandwich, six pieces total not counting the center
dividers, glide rails, or glass. They are also milled for drainage.
Bob
Zenk Photo
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Bob
Zenk Photo
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Bob
Zenk Photo
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SP
9010's windows suffered a number of indignities through the years, not
the least of which was having the large sliders cut down by 9" in an
effort to control cab heat and rain ingress. The shop forces were
likely instructed to, well, git 'er done. That nobody fussed too much
is clearly revealed by the vise marks in the center dividers.
Bob
Zenk Photo
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Bob
Zenk Photo
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Bob
Zenk Photo
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The
clear anodized bright finish tends to fend off corrosion to a certain
point, and then it develops metal leprosy. We used cloth polishing
wheels and compounds to try and bring back some of the less crusty
pieces. A couple turned out okay. But once anodizing goes bad, it stays
bad, and the surface has to be cut completely.
Bob
Zenk Photo
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Bob
Zenk Photo
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Bob
Zenk Photo
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There's
also the problem of aluminum being softer than most of the things which
tend to hit it in a railroad environment. Some of the pieces are
dinged-up badly enough that the marks can be seen from fifty yards
away. No amount of buffing will fix that. They have to be taken down
past the damage, and that eats time.
Bob
Zenk Photo
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Bob
Zenk Photo
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Bob
Zenk Photo
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The
upper rear frame on the Fireman's side had been painted over by the SP
in 1969 to combat heat, and the paint stuck real good! We removed
it with paint stripper and elbow grease -- and when we were done, we
wished that SP had painted all the windows like that!
Now... how
to replace the missing nine-inch gap? SP threw away the pieces they cut
out, obviously. But in doing research, we found that other German
locomotives use the same extruded part. Contacting our fearless
European Away Team resulted in enough spare parts from a salvage yard
to at least make the 'plugs' for the exterior.
There is already
one factory joint in the sliders, matching the 70 degree slant of the
verticals. Making a test cut and fitting a salvaged section to the gap,
we determined that a second joint for the patch plug will be nearly
invisible, and suspended any plans to weld or otherwise try to make the
new repair joint disappear.
Bob
Zenk Photo
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Bob
Zenk Photo
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There
will be more salvage parts required: the middle and inner sashes are
also missing nine-inch segments. But first we have to determine if
those are custom parts for the Series units, or if we might be able to
tap our resources in Europe again.
Moving on, the frame sandwich
'system' is useless without the custom rubber parts which seal the
glass, allow the sliders to slide, and channel the water to the drains
instead of the cab floor. There are eight different cross-sections of
custom rubber which do that job -- and all are either rotten or
completely missing.
Bob
Zenk Photo
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Bob
Zenk Photo
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Laying
them out, cutting sections for samples, making extensive notes so we
don't get confused, consulting a Happich/GHE drawing provided by our
friend Franz Wunschik -- a lot of head-scratching will determine which
parts we can service with U.S. substitutes, and which parts we'll need
to source from Bavaria.
The window frames were designed as a complete and
self-contained glazing system, since the cab structure is just a
double-walled box with naked cutouts, waiting for these parts and their
rubber seals to be fitted.
Bob
Zenk Photo
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We
wrapped up our Fall 2010 Field Trip with a complete inventory of parts
on hand including missing pieces, and then engraved the parts locations
on all window frame bits so that they can be easily identified. They're
put away safely while we gather parts and materials, and prepare for
refinishing.
Bob
Zenk Photo
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Bob
Zenk Photo
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Bob
Zenk Photo
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Bob
Zenk Photo
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Which
is now what's being investigated. We've determined that simple
polishing won't repair the damaged pieces. Cutting the surface and
polishing it back to bright aluminum won't prevent immediate corrosion.
Clear-coating will eventually flake off. The original clear anodizing
technique is best done with new metal, is expensive, and doesn't last
forever either -- we have proof!
Best choices being considered
right now are in the powder coating realm -- there are aluminized
finishes which look for all the world like bright metal, and are hard
as a rock. This sounds good... don't want to do this more than once,
ever!
--
Update July 15, 2011 --
Good
grief, it has been over 8 months since this section has been updated.
This is mainly because all our efforts have been going into
the
exterior body work . But, we have a new crew member who just
happens to be a cracker jack machinist. Bill has taken on the
job
of restoring the cab side window frames to a state of usefullness, for
which I am truly grateful. His current task is making the
"plug"
sections that Bob mention last update. The plug in the third
photo is a work in progress but, it is in progress after all this time
wondering what we were going to do.
--
Update November 21, 2011 --
Bill
continues on the window frame project. He has completed the
main
machining work on the engineer's side and is now working on the
fireman's
side. The plugs are being made from sections of window frame
sent
from Austria by crew member Gerold Eckl. These have saved us
a
tremendous amount of work fabricating the plugs from aluminum bar
stock. He is also creating the window divider bars which were
removed during Camera Car conversion.
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