| 06/20/2004 --- This was a good news/bad news week. For the good, we had Phil Orth removing the fireman's side NWP emblem from the carbody. Dan Furtado came by a couple of days later and did a great job sanding down the metal.. I was not able to work on Saturday because of family commitments but Phil met me down there on Sunday morning and we cleaned the bare metal, masked the area and applied the primer. I wanted to also paint the area black but was unable to get the Imron 333 black that I wanted. That will have to come later. And so, because there is no NWP identity left and the number boards are done, the locomotive is now renumbered to 5472. The 4423 is dead, long live the 5472! Click on any thumbnail for a larger image. Use your browser's "back" button to get back here. |
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| And now, for the bad news. I wanted to
fire the engine up so I could check out the cooling fan
operation. Upon opening the test valves and cranking the engine
over, I was pretty well drenched with a spray of water from cylinder
number 9, the one closest to the lay shaft. This is not
good. It is usually a sign of a blown head gasket and will have
to be fixed before the engine can run much more. Perhaps we can
use this failure as a learning experience for the motive power folks in
the canyon. EMD engines do not have head gaskets in the
conventional sense but that term is the is the closest thing I can
think of to describe the failed part. When the gasket is removed,
there will be photos. When I did get it running, Phil operated the temperature switches so I could check on the fans. I found that one of the switches has been disconnected, probably for some time. Why? I have no idea but will pursue a reason. The first 3 fans run properly and the engine high temperature switch does what it is supposed to do. --- Howard |
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