Engineer’s Journal – April 24, 2005

Sunday, April 24 – Jerry Lynch, Mike Hankins, and Harry Abbott had been spearheading the compressor mechanical situation. They partially reassembled the air pump so we wouldn’t lose any parts and stripped the connections from the compressor and loosened the mounting bolts. We made an arrangement with a boom truck operator to arrive at 5 pm, approximately the same time that Ron would be arriving with the loaner air pump.

We made a supply run to Harbor Freight Tools and picked up three large ratchet straps. We decided that we’d crate 745’s compressor in the new compressor’s box and then load it on top of the water tank on the tender just behind the oil tank. There are steel brackets under the walkway that will provide structural anchoring for the tie downs.

The boom truck arrived about 20 minutes early so we got him into position.No sooner had he gotten his outriggers set and his boom extended, than our angel of mercy Ron Larson pulled up with the loaner compressor. We quickly determined that the lifting eye that we had wouldn’t fit the 1 ¼” threads in the top of the compressors. Ron and I took off for the KCS shops and we found some hardware that would suffice.

We hooked up the old compressor to the boom truck and the bolts holding it to the locomotive were removed. The compressor swung free and was temporarily placed on the bed of the boom truck so more fittings could be removed. Jerry, Harry, Mike, and Ron were in the process of doing this when David, Willy and I had to leave to meet our compliance with hours of service law. As of this writing, they’re still working on the compressor change out which had a bit of a challenge in that the steam supply line attached at a different place on the compressor and we have a very limited supply of pipe fittings on board and it’s Sunday night. We’re hoping that they’ll be successful in getting everything hooked up.