fixing a railcar

so i decided to move this stuff here instead of my intro page, though it made more sense :).


so heres a little something that im working on right now. some info first, this car derailed last year (aug 2010) and rolled over. it took all this time to inspect the car and to get it approved. its finally in our shop now and i get to fix it.

this pic is the B end, or the end with all the air brake equiptment on it. its fairly managled. you can see a cutout in the "headshield", thats just so we can inspect the welds that are under there for cracks.

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0038.jpg

this is ceramic 1/2" insulation. i glued it to the tank so it will stay put. this car has an outside skin called jacket. we had to cut out the jacket to check for dents or cracks of the actual tank.

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0039.jpg

here is a shot of the other end without insulation in yet. none of the jacket that is going back on it precut, i have to fab it all myself. we get 1/8" rolled material 6' x 12' that i have to work with.

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0040.jpg

small peice cut and hooks welded on so i can lift it with the overhead crane.

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0041.jpg

there is alot going on here, this isnt the car im on, but its on the track beside mine. as you can see i have a few pieces already cut and ready to go on the car at the far end of the pic. the yellow pedistal up front is what we put the cars on when we work on them. the small pieces of jacket on the pallet are for the car in the pic, not my car.

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0042.jpg


this is the bulkhead cutout insert from the previous pic. before i put it back in there, i had to weld a 1/4" backing strip behind it. the bulkhead is 1/2" thick. this was a fun day of welding as the guy who cut this out didnt have much experience, and my gap and fitup was nothing to be desired. if you look closly at the right side you can actually see the backing strip.

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0043.jpg

this is just the cutout from the other end of the car

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0044.jpg

and the piece thats going back in

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0045.jpg

the sky was doing some tripy things that day....

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0046.jpg

my little apprentice welding the jacket on. every piece needs to be welded fully around.... very time consuming.

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0048.jpg

side jacket is on, and you can see the top gaurd rails are all bent and broke. there is supposed to be a ladder coming down, but it got ripped off. ill have to fab all of that later. as of today though, the other side ladder needed to be fixed as well and i have already repaired that. ill get some more pics monday

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0052.jpg

here is the side almost finished

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0053.jpg

HERE is the fill pass weld on the bulkhead, the other pic was just fitup..

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0054.jpg



so thats what i do for a living. this RWD or railway damage car is actually fun from the regular maintence we usually do on the cars. lots of fab work. this was all done in the first week, i forgot to take pics of last week, but ill do that monday.

heres what the car should look like when im done...

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...GATX202901.jpg

Are the black parts painted or a phosphate finish ?

Yep, when you need a crane to fit up your parts, you know you are playing in the major leagues, great stuff.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by zoama585

Are the black parts painted or a phosphate finish ?

---

everything is just industrial paint, nothing fancy.

A end(minus the galvinized insert that isnt in yet) from the side

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0055.jpg

front pic of the end

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0056.jpg

completed A end... except for the insert.

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0060.jpg

the right side ladder, this was a quick fix as the top half was still in good condition

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0057.jpg

this is the insert, as you can see i did very little cleanup to it.

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0058.jpg

horizontal closeup

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0064.jpg

vertical closeup

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0065.jpg

this is the flux core wire we use. i remember a different post about 75/25 AR/CO2 gas, and i said i would take a pic of our wire, so here it is. i forget that post so it goes here...

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0062.jpg

just getting the frame tacked together. if anyone is curious i used 3x4x3/8 angle for the back and 3 1/2x3/8 flat bar for the front. the little sides are 4x3/8 flat.

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0061.jpg

got it on the car, dam thing was heavy.

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0069.jpg

the side support is 3x3x3/8

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0066.jpg

this end has all the air brake equiptment, so i had to make alot of supports, still lots to go on, but i think i had a fairly productive day today.

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0070.jpg

here is a side view

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0071.jpg

this is some of the mangled air brake equiptment that came off. new stuff will go back on. i had almost nothing to go off of when i was making the frame. one little drawing that didnt have everything on it, so i had to keep all the old stuff to reference off of. it was not fun.

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0063.jpg

same stuff

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0059.jpg

Great Pics. Now I am wondering about making a smoker out of one of those;) .

Thurmond

i forgot to take a picture after i removed all the slag, and now the car is gone. SO this is what the tank actually sits on. what i had to do was weld a stainless ring into the bowl as a wear liner. im really upset i dont have the after pic cause it turned out to be a nice weld with lots of color. but here is the during weld pic... also that thing sitting on the top is just a vaccuum for the fumes....

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0088.jpg

here is the rod i used, i like the big stuff cause i can burn it in really fast. it also helps as i can crank my heat up and burn some of the crap out of the base metal. we try to clean the metal as much as posiable, but theres always stuff left behind.

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0089.jpg


that tank car i was fixing last week has been moved out of the shop as ive gone as far as i can with the material i had. were waiting on more parts to arrive so we kicked it out. so now this is what ive been doing the past two days. its a small hopper car that was side swiped. as you can see in the first pic here, there is not too much damage. the thing on the gound is called the 'side sill'. its basically a stiffening and strength beam. it was the thing most damaged and needed to be replaced. not so easy of a job as when they make the cars, some of the side sill is welded from areas that are now covered up and there is no way to access it all to remove it. the small piece on the gound i cut off the replacement part because that is still on the car from the last sill. if you look closly you can actually see it still on the car sticking out. there was SO MUCH grinding and prep work on this, i had two of my little grunts on this all day yesturday and half of today.

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0091.jpg

so ive got the sill in place and am tacking it up. ive had to use two of our cranes to get it in place. then i had that little jack, and a forklift. wasent fun but it fit perfectly. now, the sill is 1/4", and 36' long.both the top and bottom need to be fillet welded fully, and where i cut the piece out, ive got a backing strip along the whole distance to be welded. that will be a full pen butt weld. tommorrow is going to be a very long welding day.

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0092.jpg

Cool pictures. I would love to post some of my pictures from work because there are a lot of cool projects that I get to work on. Only problem is it would not go over very well to post the pictures due to company policy.

Thanks for the pics. Almost makes me wish I had a regular job again.

And Here is how they get that way.
I am a volunteer firefighter, this was about 3 years ago in our service area.
One of the older guys in the department takes pictures / video / etc often.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuF6_ZkoToA

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DVA

Cool pictures. I would love to post some of my pictures from work because there are a lot of cool projects that I get to work on. Only problem is it would not go over very well to post the pictures due to company policy.

---

um, ya....shhhhhhh...... ha ha ha...

I found something that on line that I can show.

I found an on line article of one of the valve projects I was inspecting the other day as we perform routine maintenance on the main feedwater control valve shown in the picture. Sister valve is on the back side of the valve.

http://www.power-eng.com/articles/pr...ear-fleet.html

Cool link enjoyed the pic's.

so this is what happens when you run a gouger for 2 hours straight at 400 amps. turns out the wire from the machine was barly in the connecter, thus creating alot of heat... when i found it it was already smoking.... i still laugh

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0100.jpg

and this is the big pile of metal that i gouged off. i finished the hopper car and they brought me ANOTHER one in. this one i have alot of cutting to do, hence the pile.. thats just a few hours worth of mess.

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0101.jpg

Been there done that,Anyone that does not feel for those of us that were and are volunteers needs to be on call for a couple of months to see how demanding it can be. I was on for 7 years Quint aerial operator driver,105 foot stick and water rescue, From the looks of the area ,you had to haul water and use a porta tank that makes for a lot of work.Looks like the yellow tank might have been part of a foam applicator.We were always nervous of scenes like those as it gets hard to tell whats in the cars that are on fire. Looks like you all did a great job hats off to all from one firefighter to another.