Re: C & S 1008 Update: Bearing Brasses and Big Find this Summer!

A bit more on the recent progress. As usual, we have had the assistance of a number of people along the way.

Followers of the project may recall that we found two C&S 26" diameter wheelsets among the Ashby collection "spare parts". Somewhat later, Richard found a shop in the L.A. area that could handle the job of re-finishing the journal surfaces. They even had experience with some historic RR driver machining, such as those on the Emma Nevada from the Ward Kimball collection at the Southern California Railway Museum (formerly Orange Empire).


Since then, we acquired a set of five, correct Master Car Builder 4 x 7 brasses and wedges that were also found among in the Ashby spares. We needed a set of the somewhat unusal 4 x 7 size brasses to fit the journal boxes that fit in the pedestals. This is also the size called out for the C&S bobbers in the folio drawings. Phil Johnson of the Loop helped us obtain these pieces and the two C&S wheelsets.


Stathi Pappas graciously assisted by pouring new babbitt and using his horizontal mill to machine the diameter to match the axel journals. Here is one of the bearings in the mill, with another in front of the mill table that shows how the as-poured material looks.


Here is an example of a finished bearing brass.


Finally, a truly big find. Throughout this project we've been a bit dumbfounded on how to create an authentic-looking recreation of the small caboose sink. This is another part that is rare in the real world. Existing sister cabooses 1006 and 1009 have theirs, but no others have been located. But this summer, Jeff Taylor at CRMM said he'd found an old sink (in a storage car) that looked like the one in 1009. Richard and I visited the museum this summer, and talked with Jeff about it. He then took us to extract the thing out of where it had sat for decades. Well, that was a shock - - it is an example of the exact same sink! There is even a cast in "C&S" with a casting number on the pedestal base. So - amazingly, in trade for a donation, that problem was solved! Where that sink came from and how it has been sitting at the CRMM for many years remains a mystery


More updates on a more frequent basis will come. This fall, we'll doing final assembly of the chassis, and using all the frame and hardware parts that have been gathered and made over the past eight years of so.

Bob of AZ