Southern Pacific 9010
The Truck Story

-- December 29, 2013 --
SP9010's geared drive and the high tractive effort it was capable of delivering was the most significant reason the locomotives were purchased.  Each truck ('bogie' outside the U.S.) had three axles driven by Maybach axle gearboxes and Gelenkwellenbau Cardan drive shafts.  All axles were thus linked and driven from a single Krauss-Maffei intermediate gearbox.  The intermediate box was  mounted to the truck frame, and driven by a Cardan shaft delivering the output of the Voith turbo transmission.  (Each truck was powered by one transmission and motor group.)

SP removed all the gearing from Chassis 19106 in late 1968 and early 1969 when converting the retired KM into an unpowered camera platform for the SP's new crew training simulator.  In 2010, PLA member Jim Evans shared some Joe Ward photos of trucks lined up under the I-5 overpass in Sacramento.  Then came a note from one of our friends in Germany, asking if we were aware that ten trucks had been shipped back from the SP scrapyard in 1969.  This was our first clue that there may be hope.

In June of 2010, we received an email from Simon Ball, the freight rail manager of Colas Rail in the UK.  He said that they owned one of the Plasser and Theurer model RM63 ballast cleaning machines that was built using Krauss Maffei trucks bought from the Southern Pacific in 1969.  Simon told us that the machine was located near Paris, France and the company was deciding its future as it was felt that the machine was no longer appropriate to their operations.  He asked if we would be interested in one or both of the trucks.  After a bit of discussion, a friend from the UK  offered to go to France and look at the machine.  He reported that they were indeed Krauss Maffei trucks but that the gear boxes had been replaced in 1992 by modern Voith units.  He also reported that one of the trucks had only 2 gear boxes.   The intermediate gear boxes appeared to be the originals.




We decided to place a bid for the truck with 3 gear boxes and several of the drive shafts.  Months went by with no word from Paris.  In May of 2013, we received an email stating that the RM63 had been scrapped and they had saved both trucks for us.   It was not until October that we could make arrangements for a second inspection trip and this time, a crew member Germany took on the task.  The trucks were there along with a few extra bits but sadly, the main drive shafts were not available.  Colas was willing to give us both trucks for the price we originally bid for one and we committed to buy them.  

Through generous donations by our supporters, including major cooperative fund raising efforts by our friends at the Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society, we raised the funds to buy and move the trucks  and contracted with Moveright International in the UK to transport the trucks from Paris to Niles Canyon, California.   Moveright had to transport the trucks to the UK in order to load them on the proper 'flats' which are containers without sides as the trucks are too wide to load in a normal container.  

On Monday December 9, 2013 the pair of Krauss Maffei trucks began their journey back to California on board the German-flagged Hapag-Lloyd container vessel Seoul Express from the port of Southampton, England.  As of this writing, the ship is docked at the New York Container Terminal, having arrived from Halifax, Nova Scotia on the 29th.

And, a few days later, we got this photo of the ship passing through the Panama Canal, courtesy of their web cam.


-- January 19, 2014 --
The Seoul Express has docked at the Port of Oakland.  It passed through the Golden Gate today at 11:02am and docked shortly after that.  We have now to wait for the customs process  and have been notified that our trucks must undergo an x-ray examination.  The container loaded with loose parts was previously unloaded at Los Angeles and will be trucked to Niles Canyon after it too undergoes an x-ray examination.  Great thanks go to Harry and Lynn for catching the ship as it entered the bay and passed under the Bay Bridge.

-- February 3, 2014 --
The loose pieces have arrived on the NCRY!!  On Thursday the 30th, a delivery truck brought all the loose parts that were shipped in the container and off-loaded in Los Angeles.   The springs will come in handy as we have two broken on the left rear side.  The drive shaft is a good bit more massive than imagined and unfortunately incomplete but we shall see what happens with it.  The side bearing plates may come in handy depending on the wear we find when the rear truck is separated from the locomotive.

And then on Monday, February 3rd, the trucks arrived.  There was a nice little crowd of welcomers on hand to see the unloading and movement of the trucks into their new home.  It was a very exciting morning for everyone there.   The truck we are going to use is now tucked in behind the 9010 where work on it can begin.  What an exciting day!!  A great deal of thanks go out to all who helped.  We begin with some guy standing in our driveway, wondering where the heck the trucks are.


-- February 16, 2014 --
The trucks each have a unique number cast into the end cross members.  We received trucks #8 and #12 which, according to records, were originally installed under the 9007.  Truck #8 has all 3 gear boxes and will be installed under the rear of the 9010.  Henceforth, I will be referring to this truck as simply '#8'.  Now that #8 has an inside home, cleaning and repairing can begin.  Dick has been asking to help for some time and has been doing a wonderful job on de-mucking the truck.  He also cleaned up the side bearings so we could have a good look at them.  We plan to remove as much grease and dirt as possible and them power wash the entire thing before starting repairs and painting.  We also have a new volunteer Ryan who has been up to his ears in truck dirt.  I need to get a photo of him at work.  Damage to #8 is very minor with the only significant items being two of the brake swing hanger limit adjusters.  One is quite bent and another is missing but, repair and replacement will not be a big deal.

-- March 28, 2014 --
Gerry, Rich and Dick took #8 truck outside for the first of many washings.  

Once back in the shop, Dick began replacing a bent brake swing hanger cross-bar and several broken safety hanger wires.  There was a broken bolt in one of the gear box top covers so we pulled the cover to remove the bolt shaft.  We were very please at the sight inside the gear box.

Meanwhile, there is work to do on the existing front truck.   Dick, CJ and Rich have all been hard at work with the needle gun, removing decades of road grime, rust and old paint.  I tackled the removal of the hand brake guide roller bracket.  Two photos don't really do justice to the 2 days it took to torch and grind off the old weld.

-- May 06, 2014 --
Gerry and Rich started dealing with the loose parts we got from France.  We discovered that one of the suspension plates has suffered some water damage.  We will be using two of the plates when we put the new truck under the rear end of the 9010 but the damaged plate will be set aside in storage as it can be re-chromed.  Gerry arranged for us to get new hoses that connect the truck brakes to the locomotive body and Dennis installed them.

After much work by CJ, Rich, Dick and Dennis, the right side of the front truck was painted.

-- July 23, 2014 --
We had previously rebuilt the brake cylinders on the right side of the front truck and now it was time to take care of the leaking cylinders on the left side.  Dick removed and rebuilt the left front piston and then Bill helped him put it back together.  No sooner had Dick finished the front truck left front cylinder than he began work on the left rear one.  And Dan has begun the repair work on the new rear truck.  It has a few bent parts here and there plus some modifications that need to be removed.

After removing a bunch of parts, Dan cut the broken parts from the top of the truck frame so I could flatten them and weld them back in place.

Dick had previously removed one of the brake swing hangers from the new truck because there was a pivot pin bushing missing.  Evidently, whoever rebuilt the truck in France forgot to put the bushing in the frame.  We located a bushing having the right diameter and after a bit of machine work, Bill installed it and Dick reinstalled the swing hanger.

-- April 10, 2015 --
My son and grandson came for a visit and as my son is a good fabricator and welder, he was soon put to work on a little truck project.  There is an adjustable limit  behind each brake swing hanger, several of which were broken or bent.  Some time ago, Dick had removed several from our current rear truck but they had never been installed on the replacement truck.  Brian took on that job.  It is certainly nice to have that finished.  He also removed a number of welded-on pads that had been used to secure hydraulic lines for the ballast cleaner.


-- June 18, 2015 --
The intermediate gear box is supposed to have a cooling system for its lubricating oil.  In addition, it should have a combination sight glass, filler and drain mounted on the outside of the truck.  All of this had been removed, probably during the construction of the ballast cleaning machine.  We elected to put it all back as the sight glass is an interesting visual feature of the trucks.  The one on the rear truck will be completely functional while the one on the front, while built to be functional, will be cosmetic only as there is no gear box.

The intermediate gear box has an oil pump with two ouputs.  One pumps lubricating oil (at a maximum of 8psi) through the bearings of the gear shafts.  The other pump forces oil through the cooling lines and back into the gear case.  The cooling lines have a vent line that goes up to the side of the gear box and a larger line that goes to the bottom of the sight glass unit.  The top of the sight glass unit has 2 vent lines, one that goes to the gear box and the other that originally went to the cooling lines but is now capped off.  This was a modification by the SP, probably due to some issue with the venting of the system.  The top 'plug' on the sight glass is for filling the gear box and the bottom 'plug' is the system drain.  The line connecting the cooling lines to the sight glass unit is the lowest part of the system.  We are fortunate in having an original drawing of the sight glass unit so we were able to make duplicates.

The following photos are of the construction of the cooling lines. After assembling the pipes, Rich and Gerry washed them out with hot water and then hot air was used to dry the pipes.  While not shown, the pipe assembly was then filled with oil to prevent rust.  Dick could be found cleaning the area where the pipes mount and then working with Bill removing the drive shaft that was in the way of working on the oil lines.  The assembly was then set in place for a trial fit and fabrication of the oil lines.  After the adjacent section of the truck was cleaned and painted, the assembly was bolted in place and the hoses connected to the intermediate gear box.  The aluminum paint on the pipes is per factory specification.

The sight glass units required quite a lot of work with lathe and milling machine.  We started with some 1 1/2 inch inside diameter schedule 80 pipe and 4 pieces of 2 inch bar stock.  Add to the mix some pieces of flat stock, bolts, primer and a lot of labor and like magic, we had our 2 sight glass units.  The units will be installed after the trucks are painted.

Meanwhile, Dennis and Rich are keeping busy with paint stripper and needle gun.  Thank goodness for all the drudgery the crew  continue to give to the project.  We have no idea of the significance of the 'D' that Dennis exposed on the equalizer.  No other letters like it have appeared anywhere else.

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