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BUFFALO CREEK #43
ALCO HH660
Restoration Begins
by: Scott H.
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After Winter's Rigging had removed the roller bearing transport trucks and set the locomotive on a set of freight car trucks it was time to reassemble the original Alco Blunt trucks. Efforts were made by the Society to preserve the pieces but outdoor conditions on the agricultural siding were less than desirable. In the spring of | ) |
| 2005, we started the rebuilding process by polishing the 7" axle shafts and packing them cottonwrap soaked with oil and grease. The process was very slow and by winter of that year only four shafts were ready for use. It became very clear that it was going to take more man power and heavy equipment to get the trucks reassembled. |
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Over the winter, the eight bearing lubrication pads were removed and power washed with a mixture of diesel fuel and kerosene to remove all grit and debris. The logistics of making the reassembly happen took many weeks of planning and gathering up the necessary supplies, tools and people. In early spring we met with Marv Winter to see if he could help the process along. Marv generously donated the use of his entire shop, tools and power and on June 9th, 2006, he had his men move over 25 tons of pieces and parts from weedy siding into his shop. He even staged two pieces of rail to locate the traction motors! |
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Over the weekend of June 10th and 11th, 2006, at 7:30am, a group of eight Society members and friends gathered to start the reassembly process. Pat Connors from the BSOR was our head mechanic and without his engine house skills, I doubt we could have accomplished as much as we did. | ) |
| Also on hand were Dave Fleenor, Mike Fitzsimmons, Rick Henn, Jim Long, Al Olmsted, Bob Snyder, and myself. Moving the 5 ton pieces of iron was a breeze with Marv’s 10 Ton overhead crane. He also allowed us to use all of his "monster" tools which also helped move the process along. A number of us attacked the axles with power wire brushes, emery cloth and oil while others worked on removing the big 2-1/4” bolts on the journal boxes. |
| Once the axles were shiny and the bearing blocks were clean, it was time to start putting things back together. Since no one in our group had ever done anything like this, it was a great learning experience. Each truck is made up of five very large cast iron pieces and we had a crate of smaller pieces and parts. Al and I fabricated new plywood oil retainers which had to go over the axle ends before the side frames could be lowered into place. Pat showed us how to keep the bearing keys in place without getting your fingers squashed! Each of the four traction motors has a set of four spring packs that allow the motors to move up and down under power and keep the nose of the motor centered. Once most of the truck was back together the compressed spring packs had to be installed between the motor and the bolster. Mike F. found that a lot of yelling made them go in better before the tension was released. |
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At the end of Saturday, one truck was ready to roll. On Sunday, Rick, Pat, Jim, Mike and Dave finished the second truck with their new found skills. On Monday morning, Marv had his crew move the assembled trucks back to the siding behind the locomotive so we could continue the work anytime we wanted. | ) |
| A 55 gallon drum of special journal oil was purchased from Squire Fox Lubricants in Eden to fill the eight journal cellars which now had the eight clean bearing lubricator "mops" installed. It took a little more than 30 gallons of oil to saturate the lubricators and fill the journal boxes. On June 16th, 2006, we spent a day gathering parts to get the brake system back together. Another big Thank You has to go out to Bobby Winters for donating eight used brake shoes, retaining keys and clevis hooks from the old South Buffalo Railroad S2 engines he was scraping out. It was quite an adventure “digging” these relic parts out of the weeds and mud at the “junk yard.” Jim L. was also able to get an ASME Certified welder to get two “ears” welded back onto one of our 12” brake cylinders. In addition to covering the cost of the welding, Jim also donated two hammers and three large wrenches which we modified to reach the “impossible spots” on the cylinder bolts. Thank You Jim! On our next visit in early July 2006, we hung the eight brake shoes and installed 16 brake rigging clevis loops and pins. We also welded on a new “blower shroud” to the top of one truck and loosened up the four brake rigging turn-buckle brake shoe adjusters. |
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In late September, 2006 all the work that could be done was finished and so we informed Marv that we needed some "help" lifting the locomotive. A couple of weeks later, six of his men were on site bright and early. Using his 100 Ton “Mantis” Crane, the crew lifted one end of the locomotive and the guys rolled one freight | ) |
| car truck out from under the engine. One assembled truck was already positioned at each end of the loco and with a small grunt, two guys pushed them under the locomotive with minimal effort. Dale the crane operator, then lowered the engine ever so gently down onto the truck as the guys on the ground made minor adjustments in its position. The process was repeated at the other end and the job was done before noon! |
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With the full weight of the locomotive on the trucks we could now start to reconnect the brake system to the engine. Our first problem was readily apparent; these were not the trucks originally under #43! The pedestal pad shims to control rocking were way too high and needed to be removed. These pedestals are not meant to touch the bottom of the frame and the height of them would have prevented the truck from swiveling. It sure would have been nice to know this before 60 tons of engine were sitting on them! Using two 20 ton jacks, we lifted each corner of the engine just high enough to torch the extra pedestal plates out which was easier said than done. After the jacks were removed the engine settled down nicely to the ¾” maximum allowed by the FRA. |
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We now were able to replace the truck clamps using 16 - 1” bolts that keep the engine connected to the trucks. ALCO also wanted to make sure that no ones trucks got loose if involved in a wreck so they added 8 very large safety chains which went on smoothly on a nice day in late December. | ) |
| When the weather broke in March 2007, We were able to turn our attention to the brake system. Numerous attempts at getting the brakes to apply from the control stand were fruitless. So we called our go-to guy, Pat C. “Chief Mechanical Officer” of the Buffalo Southern and he told me “its probably dirt in the “diverter valve” located under the cab.” He was correct. Crud had built up between the “O” Rings and the flapper valves inside and in a couple of hours it was back in place and it worked! With 125 lbs of air supplied by an Emglo compressor and 35 lbs showing in the brake system, a slight pull on the independent brake handle brought a slight shutter from all four corners of the locomotive. With the brakes holding air we decided to press our luck and work on the Leslie-125 horn. I own a couple of other Leslie products so disassembly, cleaning, lubing and reassembly went smooth. With a tug on the lanyard in the cab, old #43 got its voice back much to the dismay of the dogs in the neighborhood! |
| During our next work session, we made final adjustments on the brake rigging to get 2” of throw on each cylinder piston. I knew this would have to be addressed again after the replacement brake shoes conformed to the wheels. At this point in late April of 2007 we thought that everything was ready to go and it was time for Pat C. to call for an inspection. | ) |
| Two weeks later, we got the bad news. On May 17th, 2007, the regional FRA inspector was impressed with all that we had accomplished but “Red Flagged” the engine on four items. Three were no big deal but one problem would add two years to our goal. Three of the “switch steps” needed a side plate to keep your foot on the step if you slipped. Both the front and rear of the pilots needed larger guard plates to keep objects from getting under the locomotive from both inside and outside of the rails. Eight one foot sections of the black pilot grab irons had to be painted white. And finally, six of the eight wheels had excessively high flanges, a result of tire wear, and had to be cut down. This would mean either removing the trucks from the engine again and then sending the axle sets out for service or finding someone who could use the traction motors to spin the wheels and use a rail mounted lathe to cut the offending flanges. We decided on the later and so we set out on a quest to get Dave Clark Enterprises to come out and take a look at the engine. Dave Clark is a man of many talents and his skills have taken him to all four corners of the United States and parts of Canada. He has done jobs that other railroaders said couldn’t be done and so it is hard to find him without a long list of work scheduled months in advance. I began a monthly routine of calling Dave to get to get put on the list. |
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While we waited for the wheel work to happen, we kept busy grinding, priming and painting what ever area needed attention especially around all eleven cab windows. I took care of “switch steps” and Jim “handled” the grab irons. One by one, new gaskets and | ) |
| “Mercon” polycarbonate plastic replaced the broken safety plate glass in the cab. Jim removed both the front and rear headlight housings to rebuild them at home. |
| It was now spring of 2008 and the elusive Dave Clark paid us a visit! After a two hour inspection this big burly man announced “no problem!” He had everything needed except a large “wheel loader” to move the engine if needed, a 500 amp DC Welder and the time to do it. He also didn’t like the “wimpy” pilot guards I had installed and suggested a couple of six foot ¼” plates would do a much better job. He left North Collins with a wink of his eye and nod of his head and said “I’ll call ya!” |
| We continued on with the tasks at hand as the months ticked by. Jim bought some very heavy ¼” plate steel which I fabricated into two very nice looking “sno-plow” plates that even have rounded corners. Eight stout 7/8” bolts were used to secure them to the pilots. | ) |
| Summer came and went as did fall and winter. In the spring of 2009, we turned our attention back to PRR #4483 which was due for another paint job. 10 gallons of “Dark Green Locomotive Black” and a Gallon of “Safety Orange” soon had the old guy looking great just in time for a visit from the Horseshoe Curve Chapter of the NRHS. My monthly phone calls to Dave sometimes got a response of “we’re getting close!” Then in the first week of November, 2009 I got the call I had been waiting so long for, “are you ready?” The race was on to line up use of the wheel loader and to get the big generator. Months ago we had talked with TJ Winter, now the owner of Winters Rigging, who gave us use of the loader whenever needed and I found a local rental company that had the 500 amp welder. Now with three days advanced notice, getting the loader was not a problem but the local welder was now out on long term lease and the nearest one was in lower Pennsylvania! Fortunately, Mr. Robert Dingman of the NY&LE Railroad in Gowanda had one we could rent and that second week of November 2009 turned out to be one of the nicest weeks all Fall! |
| Early on Monday morning the 9th, I picked up the welder from the NY&LE yard in Gowanda and then a beastly CAT 962 wheel loader from Winters. The CAT made short work of off loading the welder and then we "wrestled" the two 100 ton lifting jacks, wheel lathe and a whole lot of accessories from Dave’s stake bed truck. By 2:00 pm the chips were flying! |
| One of my biggest fears was that after all this time and waiting for the day to come was that one or more of the traction motors would not operate. If you remember, they haven’t run in at least nine years but Dave said “whatta ya worried about?” “they’ll be fine!” and he was right! Each traction motor has two “field” and two “armature” leads and it was just a matter of picking the correct pair to get the motor to rotate toward the lathe after adding 400 amps of current to get it moving. |
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The cutting process was pretty straight forward but required quite a bit of work. First we spotted the locomotive over a pair of good ties using the CAT Loader. Two large steel plates were then put under the front edge of the traction motor spanning the good ties. Now came the “fun” part, dragging and pushing the two 100 ton jacks over the railhead and sliding them under the motor. These stout but very powerful jacks weigh over 150 pounds each and you are doing this on your hands and knees while trying not to whack your head on any low hanging metal parts. With the jacks in place, start pumping! About 50 strokes of the long jack arm were needed to get each wheel ½” above the rail. Now we could wrestle the “lathe” onto the railhead and lock it down. Again, easier said than done. |
| Wood blocking and wedges were used to support the outside edges of the lathe and then three large “spanner bars” were wedged in between the frame of the locomotive, the lathe and the motor. These bars helped cut down on vibration or “chatter” as the cutting bit chewed into the steel wheel. Once everything was solid, the welder was fired up and we flipped the polarity switch and dialed up the current to give the wheels a speed of about 10 mph. Now Dave could go to work as he cranked the cutting bit into contact with the wheel and worked it back and forth to remove the high flange and flatten the wheel tread. All the set-up took about two hours and the cutting process was done in less than an hour. |
| When one wheel was done we got to tear it all apart and move the lathe to the other rail and then repeat the entire process from step one for each axle. |
| By Thursday, six freshly cut wheels sparkled in the afternoon sunshine as Dave drove away to face “just another day at the office.” On Friday the 13th, we returned the welder to the NY&LE RR. (an adventure in itself), added fresh oil to the journal boxes and finally re-secured and insulated all the loose traction motor leads. We called Pat from the BSOR for a final inspection and told him we were ready for the move! | ) |
| On the 25th, Pat called and told me they were ready to pick up the locomotive that morning. Another flurry of phone calls assured the use of the big loader to move the engine up the siding and extra hands if needed. The old switch was thrown, and the CAT pushed the locomotive out onto the mainline. |
| All went well as #43 was set in behind Buffalo Southerns' RS11 - #5010 and the couplers locked. After an air test and nine years resting on that lonely siding, Buffalo Creek #43 was heading north to Hamburg! At 3:30 pm, the engine was spotted behind the small parking lot of ArtCraft Toy Trains Hobby Shop located in the old Erie Railroad Depot. |
| This is not the end of this story. Much remains to be done and anyone can help! It has always been my belief that with tools and supplies, electricity, and a restroom nearby, more of our membership would be able to help with our preservation efforts especially if you are a diesel fan. Please do not hesitate to email me at smph50@verizon.net if you want to spend some time making things happen. Remember that we also have one steam engine and two cabeese right across the tracks that could use your help no matter how small the task might be. If you cannot physically help, any donation to this project no matter how small will help. Finishing the replacment of the cab windows, a full paint job and purchasing 14 batteries are next on the "to do" list. We'll keep you posted on our progress! |
| The WNYRHS greatly appreiciates all the generous donations to this project to date. However, we could still use your help! All Donations to the WNYRHS, Inc. are Tax-Deductable! If you would like to mail in a donation, send it to WNYRHS Inc., PO Box 416, Buffalo, New York 14231-0416 or |
| Click the PayPal Button to make a Secure Electronic Donation. THANK YOU! |
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