Lake Shore Live Steamers.com

Located at

Penitentiary Glen
8668 Kirtland-Chardon Rd
Kirtland, Ohio 44094

Joe Banzer, Ken Brooks, George Davidson and Dick Clark align Frank Foti's lift in front of the club engine. The work engine still has to have the frame drilled for the Eaton transmission.

George and Ken move the engine onto the lift as Joe holds it in postion. Dick is checking to make sure all the wheels are crossing the gap properly.

With the lift moved to the end of our work table, Dick is using a drill to power the gearbox for the lift mechanism. With the engine in place on the table and chocked we removed the housing.

Another view of the chassis with the housing alongside of it. We moved the housing out of the way and blocked up the chassis so we could remove the wheels and bearings as we have over 640 hours of operating time on the engine.

With the engine supported Frank Foti contemplates how to drop the axles. The front truck hanging from the bolster pin and there are two bolts on each side frame top center that need to be removed.

Ken removing the bolts from the side frame on the right of the front truck. With the side frame removed along with the bearing we found the stub axle badly worn.

The rear axle on the front truck showed similar wear and the bearing was bad also. In this view you can also see that the wheels are welded to the axle.

The view of the truck without the side frames and the chain drive from the hydraulic motor chain sprocket. View of the left hand stub axle taken through the chassis showing the wear on that one also.

With the chains and axles removed you can see the dummy brake rigging as we have air over hydraulic engine brakes. Another axle that shows severe wear from the bearings inner race.

All the axles showed some form of wear on the end stub axles. This shot was posed as Joe insisted that I was wrong that the master link on the chains for the rear truck were on the inside of the chain where you could barely see them. He told me I could give him a boot.

We had to drop the truck off the bolster pin as the rear wheelset is captured with steel braces for the parking brake. Three of the wheelsets showing the wear to the stub axles which was on both sides.

If you own one of the large engines it would be in your best interest to check the wheelsets and bearings on your unit also as this engine is only four years old. Showing the weld on the inside of the wheel.

Joe pointing to the steel bars we will have to remove to release this wheelset. At the next work session we will investigate turning down the stub axles and applying hardened steel sleeves. That's a wrap for this work session.