This drawing illustrates the original KM hand brake system.  It consisted of 4 main sections, the cab brake wheel stand, upper chain shaft, expansion shaft and the truck mounted mechanism.  With all the gears and chains seen in this drawing, it is easy to speculate that the brake was a maintenance headache, being exposed to road dirt and dust as it was.

Bill, our project master machinist, decided to start with the truck mounted mechanism as it is the most complex.  The mechanism requires left and right handed Ajax threaded rods so we found a 16,000 pound rated chain binder on Ebay and started with it.  He bought a section of gear and created the assembly seen here.  The opposing threaded rods will force two of the brake arms apart, applying the brakes on 3 wheels on the left side of the front truck.

The expansion shaft connects the truck mechanism to the lower chain shaft bracket.  It needs to have universal joints on each end and be able to expand and contract with the pivoting of the truck.

There was nothing of the the lower chain shaft bracket other than the 4 bolt holes and a shadow of the plate.  Using those dimensions and a photo of the bracket, Bill made the mounting plate and bolted it into place.  By hanging a piece of chain from the upper chain shaft sprocket, he was able to determine where the lower bearing housing and sprocket needed to be.  You may notice that the original bearing housing had a grease fitting and our replacement does not.  This is because we are using two sealed ball bearings rather than the bronze sleeve bearing KM used.  The same is true of both bearing housings on the upper chain shaft.

The Southern Pacific removed the upper chain shaft by torching off the bearing housings.  For some reason they did not remove the bracket plates so we did and patched them to match the photos.  After Bill made the bearing sleeves and gusset plates, everything was welded together to form the new brackets.  He machined the shaft ends so the sprockets are keyed to the shaft and  secured with aircraft nuts.

In other news, we now have 25 of the 36 radiator elements built, tested, installed and tested again.  In addition, the top tank sight glasses that were made to be cosmetic have been re-made to be functional.  Thanks to Bill and his expertise with our milling machine, they no longer leak.  The red liquid seen through the sight glass is an anti-corrosive compound from Nalco that we use in our locomotives.

After locating the drive pulley assembly in line with the Maybach crankshaft and centered on the floor, I welded its feet to the floor.   Bill insured that the two pulleys were parallel with each other and the grooves aligned so the belts would track correctly.

We acquired a drive shaft from a Spicer drive on a passenger car.  It was originally used to drive the battery charging generator but will have a new life driving our compressor and hydraulic pump.  Bill overhauled the shaft and is sending it out to be shortened and balanced.  This will be the last major piece of the compressor saga.  We subsequently discovered that the shaft would not balance because the internal splines were worn out.  So, we bit the bullet and bought a new shaft but the shop was able to use the old flanges which eliminated any re-machining of our driving plates.  

Meanwhile back in the compressor room, we had to move the compressor out of the way in order to weld its mounts to the floor.  I welded some small pieces of square tubing next to the mounting feet in order to locate them.  The compressor was moved, the floor prepared for welding and the compressor was re-positioned and checked for alignment.  When all seemed good, I tack welded the mounts to the floor,  unbolted the compressor from the mounts and moved the compressor out of the way.  Then started a couple hours with the MIG, the mounts and the floor.

While the compressor was out of the way, I cleaned and painted the inside wall below the pair of shutters.  Once all the welding was done, the compressor was put back, bolted it down to its mounts and the belts were tightened.  A few days later the cylinder heads, valves, intercooler pipe assembly and unloaders were installed.  Bill  made an adapter plate for the engine crankshaft accessory drive coupling which we installed followed by the custom made drive shaft.  Finally, the unloader control line was connected.  All that is left now is connecting the air output line.  Oh yes, and making nice legal covers for the belts and shafts.  There is a short video of the compressor being turned by the engine HERE.

The outlet of the air compressor normally goes to the pipe seen in photo #1.  This pipe leads to the roof-mounted cooling pipes.  Because the engine hood is off,  we temporarily connected the compressor to the cooling pipes frame connection.

The last time we started the Maybach engine, Bill noticed that there was a vibration in the dynastarter.  Some investigation led us to believe that it was caused by the rubber coupling between the dynastarter and the transmission.  We found that the dynastarter coupling hub was running around .035 out of round.  We have no technical data on the setup of the coupling but theorized that the coupling bolts may have been unevenly tightened, causing the rubber coupling parts to deform.  We loosened all of the bolts, jiggled the coupling hub around a bit and then torqued all of the bolts to 23 foot pounds, the correct torque for the bolts.  Upon checking the hub with the dial indicator, we found that the hub was now only .009 our of round so we put the dynastarter back on the transmission and started the engine.  The vibration was now nearly gone and when we revved the engine slightly, the vibration went completely away.  We decided to leave well enough alone for now and will continue to check the vibration as we test the locomotive.

Dee has been very busy with the needle gun, other various tools and paint.  She has completed the cleaning of all 8 of the friction damper (shock absorber) mounting areas, has painted the areas and re-installed all 8 of the dampers.  This was a lot of work and she has done a wonderful job.  She is now working on the cleaning of the left front truck, preparing it for painting.

We have also installed more radiator elements.  On 02/13/18,  we needed 5 which were 1 in the primary cooling system and 4 in the secondary system.  Today (02/20/18) Rich A. delivered 2 and one was dutifully installed in the blank spot seen in photo #1.  We have now installed all 28 elements in the primary system.  Once this is hydro-tested one more time,  I will move the vent piping to the secondary system and start testing it.

We decided to connect the 4 four real shutters on the number 1 cooling hood.  The shutters were originally controlled by the hydraulic fluid pressure going to the cooling fans but since there are no fans (and no #1 hydraulic system) we connected the shutter air supply through a simple valve mounted on the door frame.

Work has not stopped on the hand brake.  Among other things, the upper chain guide roller assemblies were cleaned and the guide surfaces were narrowed slightly because of the difference in the width of the original metric chain roller and the  #60 chain we have.  After assembly, they were re-installed under the cab floor, where they are pretty hard to see.

The replacement lower chain tension device was welded into place on the frame.  The original was removed by the SP.  The chain will not be installed until the brake mechanism is mounted on the truck.

After a final successful hydrostatic test of the 28 primary cooling system elements, I moved the vent piping from the primary to the secondary cooling system.  Five of the eight elements are already installed and an initial hydrostatic test was 100% successful so we now need to wait for the last 3 radiators.

On Tuesday March 20, we completed an extensive and very expensive part of the project.  Rich Alexander delivered the last of our 36 radiator elements.  Bill, Rich and I pose with a hastily made sign marking the event.  Rich Anderson helped out by drying the element (it was a rainy day) and painting it.    After the install, Bill and I congratulate ourselves on the moment.  On Thursday the 22nd, we did the final hydrostatic test of the cooling group, holding 25 psi of water pressure for an hour with no leaks.  

We are also repairing 3 of the 4 hydraulic lines (2 on each side of the engine) that connected the pump system to the radiator cooling fans.  These lines were cut by the Southern Pacific during the camera car conversion.  One of the cut lines carrys nearly 3000 pounds of hydraulic pressure so after joining the line with a repair end, the coupling was brazed on both ends.  Due to the length of the pipe and the desire to have the brazing material flow down into the threaded coupling. I hoisted the piping into the air with our scissor lift so it would be vertical.  Dee helped on the project with her usual fine job of cleaning and painting.

Bill continues his work on the new hand brake mechanism.  Because the complex part of the system is located above and in front of the center driver in the truck, he decided that the mechanism should have a cover.  We wonder if this exposure to the elements may have been part of the reason for the demise of the original handbrake installation.

We had not thought about painting the engine block at this point but Dee convinced me that she could take on the job and get it done in a timely manner.  Needless to say, she did.

Each of the six radiator sections had a cover that prevented dirty air from passing from under the locomotive and through the radiators.  All but one of ours were missing so we had Melrose Metals make 6 new.  We are also cleaning and painting all of the water piping that connects the engine to the cooling hood.  By the way, the small hinged cover in the second photo is for access to the transmission dip stick.

Although I kind of like the look of the blue silicone hoses, they don't look right with the Maybach engine.  Dennis Mann came up with the brilliant idea of wrapping them with black friction tape which improved their appearance massively.,