stencil on RS11 air tank

Tue Jun 20 11:54:30 EDT 2023

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: image.png]

ORIGINAL AIR TANK PHOTO
[image: 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: 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
>
>
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