Bay State DL-109 Restoration Project

[R.K. Maroon]

Thank you, gentlemen -- as always, I appreciate the kind and encouraging words.

Here's a quick update:

Sprockets and gears have been pressed onto the axles for all six wheelsets for unit #1. I want to do a clearance and alignment check with the truck bolster and motor-worm before soldering the sprockets and gears in place. The next step then is to rebuild the bolsters. I have started with the one that was most mangled. I am about half way through building it back up. The before is on the left and the after (so far) is on the right:



I've got a little more to build up around the motor bolt holes, and then next step will be to build back the area that was carved out when the motor was moved. The clearance hole for the neck of the motor should be round. Does it have to be? No. Am I going to do it anyway? Yes.

Jim

[up148]

I haven't seen this quality of craftmanship for a long, long time. Rebuilding (adding material) to a part because a replacement doesn't exist.

Nice work Jim!

[R.K. Maroon]

As mentioned in my last post, I decided to fill in the wallowed-out hole in the truck bolster shown above, "just because". I needed a crescent-shaped piece, .17" thick. My first thought was to cut a piece out of plate or bar, but I didn't find anything suitable in the material inventory. I rooted around the odds and ends and I found this:



This is a piece of 3/4" brass rod with a 1/2" hole that is not centered. It's near perfect, except the hole needs to be a bit bigger, as the motor neck that goes in the hole is 9/16". I have a boring bar, so I could increase the size of the hole while keeping it offset if I could mount the piece in the lathe such that it would rotate around the hole. To do so, I slid the piece onto a 1/2" drill mounted in the tailstock. I put the fattest section of the part down and closed the chuck until the jaw at the bottom just touched the part. I then inserted a shim into the gap in the other two jaws:



Tighten up the chuck and away we go:



Here is the piece after boring:



From there, it was a matter of cutting off a piece of the correct thickness to produce a ring, marking and cutting a crescent out of the ring, and then minor shaping to fit. Here it is sitting in the bolster:



It's not perfect, but it doesn't have to be. Soldering next. My torch is running out of oxygen, but with luck it will last long enough to get this done. I'm also going to fill in the screw holes where they are broken out.

Jim

[sleepmac]

Jim, thank you for documenting your interesting solution to that problem. Great skill on your part to make the repair.

Dan Weinhold

[R.K. Maroon]

I have been out of town for a week, but back in Dallas now and back on the DL-109 project. Today I soldered in the fill piece shown in the last post. I used a torch for this. I apply solder liberally to make sure the spaces get filled. It leaves quite a mess of blobs when done:



I considered machining it to clean it up, but decided that sanding it (with 220 grit wet-or-dry) was faster. Fortunately solder and brass sand easily:



So far, so good. The next step will be to add in material where the mounting screw holes have broken out. Again, not strictly required, but it's just enough of a challenge to make it interesting and not so much that I question my own sanity (though others might).

Jim

[Rufus T. Firefly]

......it's just enough of a challenge to make it interesting and not so much that I question my own sanity (though others might).

I understand that all too well!

[up148]

That is real craftsmanship and very enjoyable to watch the progress and learn. So many people would have cut corners and just fixed as little as possible, but you've gone the extra mile and repaired/restored it for generations to come. Great work.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

That is real craftsmanship and very enjoyable to watch the progress and learn. So many people would have cut corners and just fixed as little as possible, but you've gone the extra mile and repaired/restored it for generations to come. Great work.

Most people are in the camp of "it's not going to be seen so it doesn't matter".......nope, that's not acceptable!

[up148]

Yep, exactly. That separates the craftsmen from the bubba's.

[SWrailroader]

Jim,
Thank you for sharing. Interesting stuff!
Rob

[R.K. Maroon]

The next step of the truck bolster restoration is to build up and restore the area around the motor mounting holes. I had several false starts, as I tried to add pieces that were pre-cut to the correct shape. That went nowhere, so I finally soldered in a large block of brass, cut from 5/16 square rod:



Drilling out the existing hole once the filler piece was soldered in was going to be a problem. So, before adding the piece, I mounted the bolster in the mill, and moved it in X and Y to locate the hole along the spindle axis, such that a drill bit would pass through the hole. A straight-edge was used as a fence to locate the front edge, so that I could relocate the bolster once the filler was soldered in.



With the filler piece soldered in and the bolster back in the mill, an end mill was used to rebore the hole:



Here is the underside of the bolster after the hole has been restored:



As seen, this side of the hole is countersunk for a flat head screw. That was cleaned up by centering a countersink bit on the hole:



I'll come back and machine off the excess metal of the filler piece after I get the other hole to the same point.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Nicely done

[sleepmac]

A great example of fine machine work!

Dan Weinhold

[R.K. Maroon]

I have to admit that, at the end of the day yesterday, I was thinking that this bolster restoration would never end. To my delight, things went bang-bang-bang today. I bored out the other motor mount hole, soldered on three more filler pieces, and went to work cutting the excess material off on the mill:



Here is the restored bolster next to it's mate:



The bolster on the left is one piece. The bolster on the right is made from ten separate pieces(!). It's still not 100% complete, as I need to drill and tap the hole for the kingpin screw. There is also a raised boss missing at the kingpin location. This spaces the bolster away from the chassis frame. So technically there will be eleven pieces when complete. I think I'll just use a washer instead of actually recreating the boss. We'll see. I also need to do a trial assembly to make sure that a) there is sufficient clearance for the center wheel set, and b) the worm correctly engages the worm gear.

Nice to see daylight after hacking through the jungle
Jim

[up148]

It's been an amazing project and I can certainly understand the overwhelmingness of it. But, a real credit for you to have the vision to see the end product and and not stop until you got there. I agree on the washer, but not my call.