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From: MDelvec952 mdelvec952 AT aol DOT com
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2010 00:12:32 -0400
Subject: DL&W F3 Volunteer -- F-Troop continues
"Tri-State_F3_Scranton_9-18-2010_045.jpg" - image/jpeg, 800x1067 (24bit)



Greetings, gang,

The reports from the front are still those of progress. Saturday's work session was a great success with a big enough gaggle of people to get a lot done. The weather was gorgeous, and much more comfortable than the grueling heat this past summer.

Among the many little things accomplished, all of the porthole screws were coated and installed (they were put in dry for Railfest, but the coating with anti-seize compounds will prevent them from seizing in the future.) The kick plates were returned and progress made on installing them. The window mechanism in the cab door was surveyed and found to be repairable -- work we hope to finish before the snows fly. Some scraping and POR-15 was painted inside and around the radiator areas. Many of the carbody filters were re-installed, and much of the future work was surveyed and measured for, such as flexible piping to help channel interior carbody rain water away from the floor and major components. Some touch up painting got done, and engineering for a way to contain the drippage from the air-box vent pipes with the help of ARHS's Craig Easley. And let's not forget the measuring of the battery box for its new residents. It was a very good day.

What was most striking, though, happened upon our arrival. All of us parked near Bay 9 where we had been all along, and as we walked around the corner of the building we could see the 663 with its nose pointed directly at the morning light, framed by the bricks of the roundhouse and diesel shop. The scene is breathtaking in person, and I highly recommend anyone reading this to give the area a visit in the next couple of weeks. Sometime in October the pair of F3s are scheduled to be placed in the parking lot coupled to a vintage freight train that was being assembled while we were working. The new location is wide open, and the units will be as visible as the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.

The next work session hasn't been firmed up, so if anyone is interested or can be in Scranton, let me know. Craig Easley and Tom Kelcec may separately find themselves in Scranton Thursday, if that interests anyone.

Also, it appears the best way to get the new batteries from Maine to Scranton is via one-way truck rental. If anyone is interested in this trip, about an eight-hour drive, please let me know. Nothing is firm for a schedule, but we'd like to get it done before it gets too cold to add protective paint inside the battery boxes.

In other good news, our facebook page (Tri-State Chapter NRHS) reached 100 friends this weekend, a pretty good milestone. It's been fun seeing the various images that our friends and members have been posting.

Meanwhile, enjoy the photos, and stay tuned for upcoming work parties. ....Mike Del Vecchio







Above: Soon after our 8:45 a.m. arrival, we found the F3s basking in the gorgeous morning light. Then it wasn't long before NKP GP9 514 was sashaying by with the vintage freight train that had been posed behind the Reading RS3 out in the yard near Bridge 60 Tower. Behind the photographer are several stretches of track in various stages of rebuilding and rehabilitation, thus causing a shortage of track space. Placing the vintage freight train and our F3s on that parking lot track gets the stuff out of the way for several weeks. Regular F-Troop volunteer Dave Lindstrum took the above photo.


Below, Dave Lindstrum meticulously coats each of the 64 porthole screws with an anti-seize compound and installs them with just the right torque. Dave is indeed our "Lord of the Rings," in that he took the portholes home, drilled and tapped new holes in the aluminum and iron rings to accept the new steel screws. The originals were of a disimilar metal to the rings, and the chemical reaction over the years prevented their removal. All had to be ground out -- Gary Kazin did that work in April. Dave moved each hole about 15 degrees so each was in virgin metal. Tony Traglia painted both sides of the rings, and both sides of the retainer plates to protect all of it from the elements. Tom Kelcec has been shopping for all of the unusual gasketing throughout the locomotive, and he found the tubular rubber gasket around the portholes protect them for decades. There was none of the tubular gasketing remaining when we removed the portholes in March. Ken Capuder brought his beatifully
polished kick plates, then he and Dave began the process of reinstalling those. But as you can see from all of the names in just this paragraph, the birth of DL&W 663 is quite the group effort.



Below, another stalwart F-Trooper Tom Kelcec is putting filters into the intake manifold. The two that came out of this housing now need cleaning and painting. Bob Bahrs had taken most of the filter boxes home where it painted the housings, removed deteriorated steel mesh, and oil soaked the mesh that was still in good shape. These boxes in the photos that Tom and I installed were oil soaked, and these cleaned and painted boxes go into fixtures much more easily than they came out. We are purchasing modern material to fill the empty boxes. These filters help keep rain water out of the carbody, so we hope to get all of the boxes filled and installed before the winter weather sets in. To the left in this photo is one of the drains from the upper carbody that needs hoses run to channel that water out of the carbody.





Craig Easley is demonstrating that the germ of an idea that he had for capturing the seepage from the air-box drains would fit between the battery box and the fuel tank. Every diesel locomotive drips occasional oil on the ballast from the air box vents. But at a national park "oil-in-the-soil" is a no-no, and we're designing a simple way to capture the seepage. Dave's idea is to use 8-inch pvc pipe, pitch it to one side where a ball valve can empty the tube at will. The volume will be about five gallons, probably decades worth of seepage.
--26c98028-b573-4b5e-be8e-5bde6878185b

Tri-State_F3_Scranton_9-18-2010_045.jpg

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