stencil on RS11 air tank

[NW Mailing List]

Mike 

It would be the railroad and shop code. 

Based on the fresh paint, and emblems, perhaps an N&W location, or Alco as new.

Probably “N&W” and either SC for Shaffers Crossing, RS (I think) for Roanoke Shops. I cannot seem to find my list (or remember what the file name is) for others.

Best
Ken Miller

> On Jun 20, 2023, at 11:54 AM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> Thank you Abram! That is really interesting. His first reply after seeing the email I forwarded: "You guys speak in medieval on that board? Hahaha" 😃
> 
> Based on Abram's comments, he believes he has the top and bottom lines correct.  Here's what he has created for his O decals.  
> Does anyone have any idea what might go in the center line where he has XXX XXX?
> 
> DECAL ART
> <image.png>
> 
> ORIGINAL AIR TANK PHOTO
> <image.png>
> 
> If anyone is interested in the files once complete, I can provide his contact info. My email is mrector333 at gmail.com
> 
> <image.png>
> 
> 
> Mike Rector
> 
> 
> On Sun, Jun 18, 2023 at 7:22 PM NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> Comrade Mishko Rectorkovski doth ye ask :
>  
> >>
> Can anyone help explain what text would have been located on this RS11 air
> tank?  Or does someone have a better picture that shows the stencil?
> I've searched draws in the Archives, without luck.  <<
>  
> That stenciling had to do with the required test of the main reservoirs as pressure vessels.  Mr. Gordon Hamilton obviously knows much more about thus than I do, but as I recall the ICC requirement was that main reservoirs be hammer tested at each MI  (monthly inspection) of the locomotive, looking for cracks or evidence of metallurgical failure.
>  
> Later on, someone figured out that the reservoirs could be drilled in a number of places, in a certain pattern, to some specified depth, and the hammer testing could be dispensed with.  The reasoning was that the drillings established weakened paths in the steel, along which fractures (cracks) would establish themselves and begin venting the pressure, before the vessel as a whole would explode in a catastrophic manner.
>  
> I never measured the drillings, but they were about 1/8th of an inch in depth and about 5/16ths inch in diameter, and they were spaced at about 20 inch intervals over the surface of the main reservoirs.  Under a good coat of paint and some road grime, they were almost un-noticeable.
>  
> The stenciling said something like "Reservoirs Drilled - Hammer Test Not Required."
>  
> I think there was also a line on the ICC "Blue Card" in the engine cabs which asked, "Main Reservoirs drilled or hammer tested?" followed by a line on which the appropriate answer could be written.
>  
> I hired in 1964, and memory tells me that this stenciling disappeared not long after I hired.  Which probably says that the entire fleet had been converted to drilled reservoirs and therefore identifying those engines which had been drilled was no longer meaningful.  (Engines did not run through from one railroad to another back then.)
>  
> In the earliest Westinghouse air brake systems, main reservoirs carried 70 psi (and brake pipe pressure was 60 psi.)  Later, main reservoir pressure was increased to 90 or 100 psi (I have forgotten exactly,) and finally to 140 psi.  I have now been out of the railroad-racket for 13 years, but I believe the pressure switches are now set to turn on the compressor when M.R. pressure falls to 135 psi, and shut off the compressor when M.R pressure rises to 145 psi.
>  
> And just to let you know that this was not all just another total gubbmint exercise in futility, the C&O (or CS&X Tee, or whatever it is called now) had a catastrophic failure of a main reservoir on a big 6-axle Diesel engine.  This was perhaps 2005, or thereabouts.  I saw a very dramatic photograph of the engine showing the complete blow-out of the outside of the reservoir on the horizontal axis, and had that image posted at all locations on my territory.  It was a hum-dinger.
>  
> What really annoyed us working stiffs was when they put those cussed spitter valves on the main reservoirs, to blow out water condensate.  Very annoying, but we got used to it.   And every once in a while one of the spitters would stick in open position and would not seat itself, for which the remedy was some appropriate vocabulary and a serious whack with a brake shoe or hammer.
>  
> God Bless the old RS-11's.  They were filthy dirty, slipped badly, smoked badly, blew oil from the stacks and snorted like a bull when dropping their loads and trying to recover their footing.  But they looked and sounded like real locomotives, whereas the EMD engines just purred along in unremarkable anonymity.
>  
> Sorry to let you down with only half an explanation.  But I was only a Brakeman in those days and my focus was on air hoses and switch points and waiving at the girls alongside the tracks, not the subtleties of machinery.
>  
> Cheers from the Telegraph Office in Retirement-Town.  Do drop in if you need to send a Western Union Telegram.
>  
>    -- abram burnett
> Offering Lectures, Workshops and Master Classes in Applied Turnipology
>  
>  
> ________________________________________
> NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org
> To change your subscription go to
> http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list
> Browse the NW-Mailing-List archives at
> http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/
> ________________________________________
> NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org
> To change your subscription go to
> http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list
> Browse the NW-Mailing-List archives at
> http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/