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The SMRS has cancelled two runs in July. The reason for this is to perform needed maintenece to the primary power WM 75. During this maintenance the wheelsets will be replaced and converted from friction bearings to roller bearings. This work will improve safety and insure continued operation for years to come.

I wish I could get 70+ years out of a pair of shoes, somehow the 75 has.

A little more info from our website on the work we are doing

http://www.southernmichiganrailroad.com ... shoes.html

And Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/SouthernMichig ... d/?fref=nf


Our loco will be flying Monday if all goes well. If you come to watch or photograph please be safe and do not distract the workers. Society staff(me) will be on site to assist please respect our property and do not trespass for that better shot.

SousaKerry wrote:https://flic.kr/p/J91VtH

Work in Progress by Michigan Central Lines, on Flickr

(for those too lazy to click the link)

What's happening here is the new wheel set is being test fit in the truck before assembly. The SMRS 75 sits on blocks in the background.

Didn't know you could convert those old things to roller bearings.

OSRR wrote:Didn't know you could convert those old things to roller bearings.

Actually it was quite common in the 70's and 80's to convert cars and locos to roller bearing. It is now outlawed in interchange service mostly because any cars built with friction bearings are now over the 50? year mark.

Basically yoy machine out the pedestal boxes to accept a new bearing plate and wallah instant conversion. These wheelsets were salvaged from a scrapped unit many years ago and have been sitting in Tecumseh South Yard long enough that no current members remember where they came from.

I personally had a hand in washing out literally decades of grease and grime from our 44 toners engine compartments today. It was quite the dirty job, but another step forward in putting the locomotive back in service.

Ypsi wrote:I personally had a hand in washing out literally decades of grease and grime from our 44 toners engine compartments today. It was quite the dirty job, but another step forward in putting the locomotive back in service.

I will have to see if I can find the before and after pictures, in 2009 I spent a Saturday with a 5 gallon bucket of purple power cleaning the engines of that thing, I can only imagine how much built up on that since then, on top of what I did not have time to clean.

I will say there were spots where I couldn't tell if it was grime or paint I was removing.. But 100% of the time it was grime

Sunday I was in the #2 engine bay looking down the metal under the engine was actually shinny, not from oil or water but clean enough to eat off of shinny. I wouldn't as I don't have a death wish but I was amazed. Of coarse since we blasted out the engine bays all that crap is now on the outside of the loco so wherever you touch it you get a nasty surprise. Whole thing needs a good wash now.

Hey maybe that could be a fundraiser for us, a locowash, charge $5 to wash the engine... oh wait we don't have hot college girls in bathing suits getting wet and soapy.