...but I'll wait till manana. It's past midnight here, and there's nobody on but me...
An Amtrak four-axle GE unit...with somethin' wrong at the #1 axle. Coil spring maybe. The whole truck hadda be dropped...and moved ta where the motor could be dropped from the truck.
Three days. We don't have tools, or parts. The unit's been here over a week, and the tools and parts arrived yesterday!
Pics tamorra! Mellencamp's on Letterman right now!
-- Edited by Uke at 01:36, 2008-07-18
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Hmm. That address doesnt look right. It looks like the link pointing here was faulty.
Pulling a truck ta change a journal coil is ridiculous. But what the hell do I know? I'd say thanks ta GE, and Amtrak for handin' this one over ta Interbay. I hope we charge 'em good for it.
Five more and that's it! Apparently the day shift grunts started on this one Monday, and I'm not sure IF swing shift even touched it.
I was off Mon., Tue, Wed. When I clocked in yesterday, I talked to the main man on the job, and he told me what had gone down so far...
Rt. #1 coil spring broke in two places [3] parts, which happens now and then.
Amtrak REQUIRES all springs on the truck be changed. So they sent extras. With how this thing came apart...our guys may change out the two on that wheel only!
Now that those guys know how ta do this one, they may stay over on swing ta finish 'er up!
So you have to change every spring in the truck even though only one set was bad?
It'd be just like a semi trailer that blows out a tire. The support from that tire is gone, now the other 3 have to make up for the loss. This causes them to fail more quickly. With those steerable trucks, the axel can move around, unlike a rigid truck, so those springs take even more stress in a lateral motion. How long did it run on a broken spring? The other springs mite be on the verge of failure and maybe magna flux, etc tests wont detect it. specially on the lead truck, ya dont want springs breaking at 70 or more with passengers aboard!!
I consider myself lucky. NOT having ta deal with that Amtrak piece of... It's a GE built thing...with too many weird parts...and nothing familiar looking, except those round things. I think they're wheels...
I did grab a few more quick shots of her back together... Though I didn't see the replaced springs. One new shock... The springs musta been bolster springs...which are out of view.
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Hmm. That address doesnt look right. It looks like the link pointing here was faulty.