New W&OV units at Malvern

I haven't had much time to get over to Malvern in the past few months so, between the rounds of thunder storms tonight I slipped past the W&OV engine house to see if anything had changed since the last time I was in town.

As I pulled into the parking lot I was greeted with a new ALCo, well new to the W&OV anyway.  Sitting front of the house was one of the recent purchases, an ex- Lehigh Valley RS11 #7641.  Behind that tucked inside the house and consisted with two other C420's was another Cornell Red C420 #410.  As I looked around I didn't see any sign of the ex- D&H RSC2 or the ex- MEC RS11.  After snapping a few shots and getting the camera stored away I decided to head for home.  

Just as I started pulling out of the parking lot I was waved down by Homer, the house foreman, he was just returning from what must have been a late supper. 

After exchanging a few greetings, I asked him where the RSC-2 was at?  He said they took it and the MEC RS11 down to Warren [AR] just two days ago.

He then asked if I had seen the new power sitting around and wanted to know if I'd be interested in taking a peek up close and personal?  As I glanced down at my watch, there was a bright flash that was followed by a loud clap of thunder that seemed to boom directly overhead!  At that point it started to downpour like someone just opened a flood gate. 

Homer laughed and said "Maybe another time when it's a bit dryer" and headed for the office. 

Rats!  Well at least I got one shot.

 

*****

I didn't get as much done tonight as I wanted, but I did manage to get the rest of the locomotives readied.

I made a couple of changes in Malvern tonight.  I retired the ex D&H RSC2 that has been the Malvern switcher for the past number of sessions for a newer maroon Lehigh Valley RS11 #7641 that I acquired last fall from a hobby shop in North Carolina.  I reprogrammed the unit so that it had a little less momentum than the RSC2 had.  We'll see how it handles the switching for this session.  I also replaced the MEC RS11 with a new Cornell Red C420 # 410

The other locomotive that was showing signs of troubles was the El Dorado switcher, the ex-D&RGW GP7 #4602.

It was running very rough a few night ago so I gave it a complete rebuild.  It was acting like there was something wedged into the gears of the rear truck.  Didn't find much of anything but I notice that it was filthy with some kind of black gunk around the bearing blocks and on the contact strips where they make contact with the trucks.  After a good spraying with some contact cleaner and removing some excess grease around the bearing blocks, she was running smooth again.

So about the only thing to finish before Saturday night is to tidy up the basement and clean off the workbench and we should be ready to roll.