New brake shoes

Dec 19 I drove down to the Fredricksburg car shops (about 2 hrs away) to buy some cast brake shoes for the speeder. I bought 4 brake shoes (2 were missing from the car). When I went to the museum I noticed that the wood blocks on our car were ½ inch wider than the blocks that came with the new shoes. My friend and I made new wood blocks.

Christmas at the Station

Saturday Dec 1 2012 was a nice day. I went up to the museum for Christmas at the station. It was a great day with a very large crowd of people. I made a video of the caboose hop. I drained the old gas from the gas tank on the A6 speeder and put in some fresh gas and some gas stabilizer. I did not want to run bad gas through the new carburetor. I disconnected the temporary plastic gas tank and connected the line from the fuel pump to the carb. I bought a tube of silicone and caulked the seams on the roof of the car. I removed the corner brackets for the front and rear platforms to wire brush and paint. I measured all the wood dimensions to make all new treated wood. I replaced the missing brake lever. When the brakes didn’t work I saw that the front brake shoes were missing. I hope to be able to find new brake shoes for the car.

I went up to the museum Sat Nov 10. I took a battery and a rebuilt carburetor for the Ford engine. The first thing that I wanted to see was if the battery would turn over the engine. It did crank over so I installed the carburetor. I didn’t know the condition of the gas tank and fuel pump so I hooked up a temporary gas tank which was gravity flow to the carb. Next I checked for spark. I disconnected the high tension wire from the coil and held it against the valve cover while I cranked it over. There was no spark. I took the distributer cover off and sanded the points. After a couple tries I had spark. I poured some gas in the carburetor and cranked it over. I ran about 10 seconds and then stopped. I had to do that a couple times to get gas in different parts of the carb. After that it ran pretty well. Sunday Nov. 11 was a beautiful day with a high in the upper 60’s. I went to the store and got a gallon of Safety Yellow paint, a brush and a roller. I used an angle grinder with a wire wheel to knock off the rust blisters. I brushed and rolled the paint on the sheet metal. Monday Chas and I took a lot of heavy metal out of the car. Things that looked like RR parts we put in the freight house.

Fairmont A6 heavy duty speeder was obtained by the museum in a trade from the Ashtabula antique engine society. The speeder was used on the Bessemer and Lake Erie railroad located in NE Ohio and North Western Pa. The speeder looks pretty rough. Its got a lot of suface rust and its been canabalized. I plan to change the gas, oil and antifreeze, replace the missing carburetor and brake parts and see if it runs. When the weather gets better I will wire brush and scrape the rust and paint it. I would like to paint it New York central Gray but the museum might want it BLE.