More work on the Fairmont speeder today! Last week was ignition system, today was fuel. Took the fuel tank/gascolator out and drained the dark brown mix of gelled gas, 2-stroke oil, water, and rust, tore down the filter and washed it all in varsol, and still couldn’t get any liquid to come out of the tank! Blew out the connection to the tank with compressed air which finally got it opened up, seems like it was 100% plugged with rust. Made up some new cork gaskets, reinstalled it all, and then found the fuel line has a hole chewed in it halfway to the engine. We didn’t have any fuel line around the shop and it was close to the end of the day, so going to order some tubing and get back to it next time. Spark works, air works, fuel is in progress, so we’re hopeful we’ll get it starting in the next few weeks.

Today was the kind of day that washing machines include “don’t wash gasoline-soaked clothes” warnings for. I wore all the PPE and gas is still soaked into my pores. #choochoo

Heute etwas Fußi #DSCVFB #RUSG #niemalsallein #choochoo

Today’s workspace! Trying to get this Fairmont M14 up and running again after it’s sat for several years. #choochoo

Ab die Post nach Hamburg 🚂
#choochoo #tootToot #reiseCoda #eh22
#travelynx
https://travelynx.de/status/pascoda/1744786860?token=8000191-165

Back at the shop after a few weeks off with the flu. Today was a day of cleaning and organizing! Got part of one of our sea cans cleared out to start turning it into a fluid storage/dispensing area, and made a shelf with some scrap wood which will hold a bunch of hose reels for putting oils, coolant, etc. into trains without having to use the hand pumps we use today.

Our two speeders are in this can too, these are what workers used for getting around the railway before modern Hi-Rail trucks. Getting these in running condition again (one is restored but has a flaky ignition system, one hasn’t ever run since we got it) is on my “soon-ish” todo list! #choochoo

Love me some #Eurostar action. Really friendly train team too. Yay. #interrail #WineOnTrains #ChooChoo

More #SouthCoastRail Grand Opening swag -- commemorative rail spike!

#mbta
#publictransit
#choochoo

I also started blasting 102 years of paint and grime off her builders’ plates, to get ready to have them powder coated (then the text re-painted). It’s a slow process but I don’t want to damage it, so am running fairly low pressure and more walnut than glass bead in the blasting media mix. #choochoo

Spent a bunch of time inside #9’s firebox today, getting more stays fit up. It used to be pretty bright inside from all the holes, but as we get most of the stays in it’s gotten super dark!

In normal operation there would be more stuff in here (still to be assembled), and the floor would be made of grates and covered in coal (which someone would be shoveling in through that big hole in the back sheet). It would also be a fair bit warmer :) #choochoo

Half day at the shop today because I have other stuff going on later, so just a random “sights and sounds of the shop” video filmed while I was waiting for someone to grind something inside the firebox. Cut/fit/capped a bunch more flexi stays today! If dentist drill sounds bother you maybe mute this one, the die grinder sounds a lot like one of those. #choochoo

Flexible stay day! The boiler is made of inner and outer sheets, between which is water when in operation. As things heat up the geometry changes and, if everything was securely bolted together, it would break its bolts. Flexible stays get welded to the inner sheets only, with the outer side having a ball on it that fits into a collar with a cup. This lets the sheets move relative to one another but still stay where they need to stay.

We cut many flexible stays to the right lengths and fit them today, in the next few weeks we’ll be ready for the certified welders to come in and finish welding everything up! #choochoo

Heading north again. I'd hoped to go from here to Málaga and then Barcelona but the tickets were too expensive and so I'm just retracing my routes. Anyway. #Choochoo #Renfe #Algeciras #Madrid

Bye 8140, have good switching! #choochoo

Lastly, got a call on the radio that 8140 was trying to head out to a customer to switch freight for them, but the switch to get out of the yard was frozen and wouldn’t line the way they needed it to. Headed out with shovels, switch brooms, and a giant blowtorch and spent an hour out there clearing snow and ice off the switch until it would go. Not many photos of that since we were in a time crunch, but it set a new record for me in terms of “task during which I felt the most like a Railroad Person”. #choochoo