By Bernie Orient
April 2023
In fall 2022, the motor-generator (MG) was tested with 600 volts first through the jumbo track switch resistor then at full power. A sizable air leak was discovered in a small canister at the compressor discharge. This required us to again lower and push the car to a better position, remove the MG and repair the leak. This was accomplished in one work session that included the installation of the trolley pole. It had been left off the car to attain more height with the jacks. The interior lighting renovations were complete. The tread brake pull-off springs, ordered in mid-April and delivered in early November and were installed on the trucks. The automatic air damper system was investigated. This system determines whether resistor air is to be recirculated for heating or discharged from the car. The air horn installation was completed and tested. Much of the interior of the car was cleaned. The door operation was and still is an ongoing problem. After 82 hours spent with this, we’ve replaced all of the three differential door engines at least once, adjusted the multiple linkages and trimmed back the rubber door gasketing. In order to monitor contact sequencing we assembled an 18 wire “umbilical” cable the will enable indications of which unit contactors are engaged via a light box at the dash. We investigated the ribbon resistor configuration on the accelerator drum and found that it differs significantly from that of later Westinghouse cars.
On Dec. 10, we lowered the car to the trucks and moved it to the pit. There we connected the air brake lines, motor and track brake wires. We did an adjustment on the tread brakes. We also removed the voltage regulator panel which had heated significantly. Again, we have multiple wiring diagrams for this GE product. We found two missing box covers in the Area 31 pit, cleaned, and installed them and the ones we already had to shield the new wiring from inquisitive racoons occasionally visiting the Founder’s Car House. We towed the car there on Dec. 20 to make room for restoration work on other cars plus the anticipated work on former SEPTA car 07. To date, the Maintenance Team and others have contributed 1892 hours on this restoration. The 2001 and 2022 photos depict the progression of restoration work on the car (One Score and One years).
Car 1138 restoration has only had minor advances and more setbacks the first quarter of 2023. Much of the time was spent on getting the vintage GE voltage regulator to function reliably. After several failed attempts we installed a solid-state regulator fabricated by Steve Kuznetsov. We overhauled the cable-actuated hand brake but found two of four air brake cylinders leaked. We obtained two of the three parts needed for rebuild. The missing part is a circular gasket. The doors are still not operating reliably and our usual source for leather packing cups has yet to ship.
