On Saturday, November 4, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Bruce Davis, Bryan Tong, Richard Doell and Paul Brown stayed busy finishing the caboose power wiring project, by adding some attachment brackets to the cables, installing box covers, and performing another live test with the generator. All wiring and outlets tested good, and the crew then installed an exhaust extension on the generator, so it could be installed with the start controls facing the outside of the car. In the meantime, Colin was working to revamp our battery connections on our Hi Rail truck. This had to be done to stop a drain on the batteries while the vehicle sits for extended times.

After a short break for lunch, the crew reassembled to work on checking the batteries on Engine 104. The unitized batteries installed in the locomotive had all cells checked with a hydrometer to help determine the condition of the battery. We also worked on the set of batteries removed last month to be able to determine if we can use those for a back up “jump” battery. All these checks showed that we need to recharge both battery sets for an extended period, which we will try to have done during the week. Stay tuned for more work to be done with the batteries next week.

I was able to catch a few pictures of the action which are attached here.

– Paul