senMar 14

Fairly quiet day today at the shop. Replaced the bulbs in Franklin’s marker lights, then measured up every wooden piece to start making a rebuilding plan for all of it. Also realized the “floor” was just held down by gravity, pulled that up and it turns out someone made it to cover up the degrading subfloor, so that got cleaned up a bit and measured to replace. Lots of fresh plywood (and a bit of other lumber) to order and cut soon! I brought the measurements home so that’ll get put into Excel and sketched out to figure out how many 4x8 sheets we’ll need, and of what.

There won’t be any choo-choo updates for the next few weeks, as I’m going to Steam School to start the journey to get my TSSA steam ticket! After the class it’s a bunch of studying, an exam, then 60 boiler operating hours plus 60 maintenance hours in my logbook, then another exam. #choochoo

Show threadsenMar 14
@vga256 6135 (another Budd RDC) came inside today to start making a todo list of what needs to get done to use it again :) It needs some electrical and mechanical work (and a lot of new windows obviously) but the interior is in fairly good shape. #choochoo
Show threadsenMar 7
Also also, the cab got put back on #9 this week and the tender got re-attached, starting to look like a real locomotive again! Should be out running again in a few months, a lot of brake work and other reassembly still to do. #choochoo
Show threadsenMar 7
Also, there’s a reason these are sometimes called “putt putts” #choochoo
senMar 7
Not the nicest day out today, but a successful shakedown test completed! Mostly couldn’t record as I was driving, but got a few seconds as we headed back to the shop. Lots of little things and cosmetic things still need sorting out, there’s still months of work ahead for that, but it’s finally a reliable vehicle at this point 😄 #choochoo
Show threadLotharMucki 🦄Mar 6
Schön paar Km hoch zur See abgerissen und dann über #BadDoberan zurück. #GravelBike #TschuutTschuut #ChooChoo #Molli #Ostsee #BalticSea #Dampflok #BadDoberanerMünster #Heiligendamm #Börgerende
senFeb 28

There we go, old alternator had failed and I’d just been putting the battery on to charge once a month for the last 6 months, but now it’s got a good alternator that’s charging the battery again.

Next up I need to sort out a replacement fuel tank, it’s got a little plastic snowblower tank in it temporarily but it needs a bigger tank, and one that doesn’t require taking the “hood”/seat off to fill up. #choochoo

Jamie Dawn ElmsFeb 25
What's your favourite train seat? #trains #trainseats #travel #transit #publictransport #publictransit #notsponsored #notsponsoredbutshouldbe #comfort #choochoo
Show threadsenFeb 21
I haven’t posted in ages given the broken ankle that kept me from the shop for the last few months, so as extra context: This is one of my projects at a heritage railway, restoring a Fairmont M14 speeder to good running condition so we can both use it as a maintenance vehicle, and also give the public rides and stuff on it. His name is Franklin, and he turns 73 years old this year. He runs on a 5 horsepower 2-stroke engine that the company making the vehicle made themself. It’s more or less the simplest possible two-stroke engine you could make, everything including mixture and timing are fully manual. #choochoo
senFeb 21

Back at the shop today, trying to sort out why the speeder still won’t start. After extensive testing it looked like there was a severe exhaust restriction somewhere, so we started disassembling the exhaust system and found one! Sorted that out, replaced a fouled spark plug while we were at it, and it fired right up despite having been sitting outside at around 0°C all day! So happy to hear the putt putt sound again after all this time.

Now it’s on to all the smaller stuff. Sort out the rusty fuel tank, alternator issue, some lights, replacing some wood, and a bunch more. #choochoo