10/18/14 Motorcars and Shay

The newly purchased M19 motorcar

   The crew that showed up on 10/18/14 were very productive.  Their main project for the day included moving a newly purchased Farimont M19 Motorcar into the main shop to be rebuilt and made runnable again.  The motorcar is going to need new roller bearings, a few other  replacements and a new coat of paint.  "Roller bearings are a machine element that constrains relative motion and reduces friction between moving parts to only the desired motion" (from Wikipedia).  Roller bearings are similar to ball bearings except they use small cylindrical rollers instead of balls.  All this work needed on the Farimont M19 Motorcar will sure keep the crew busy for a while. 

The M9 motorcar waiting for a head gasket replacement

   If your remember from last Sunday (10/12/14) when the Bucksgahuda and Western Railroad went on a motorcar ride, one of the motorcars did not work.  In addition to that, the Fairmont M9 Motorcar failed to start for the part of the return trip after a short break on the ride.  The crew figured out that it malfunctioned because of a blown head gasket.  In order to prepare to replace the blown head gasket, the crew removed the gasket yesterday (10/18/14) to make for an easy replacement when the new gasket comes in.  

An example of what the flues look like on a shay

    
    
   Finally, the crew finished off the day by cleaning out the flues of the Shay that the Bucksgahuda and Western Railroad owns.  A flue is a long pipe for smoke and waste gases produced by a steam engine or shay.  There are several flues in a steam engine or shay that need to be cleaned out because excess ash accumulates in them.  Cleaning out the flues is one of the major steps of getting the Shay ready for winter.   

 

First two pictures taken by Scott Bauer, last one is from Google