the 8 ball

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   The 8 ball is a little 4 wheel switcher locomotive that is owned by the Southern California Live Steamers. It has been laid up, not running in the barn for many years. Boy this has familiar sound to me. Phil C. asked me if I would take a look at it as he and Rudy fixed some stuff on it and had gotten it running in the past. He said it was a fun little locomotive to run and pulled fairly well, so I took it to the DCC (Downing Car Company) shops to have a look see? 

Wyatt and I disassembled it and plugged a leak we had found  coming from the shifter  rod hole. We cleaned up the body, made some new railings, took the cab apart  and cleaned it, and made some adjustments. We then took it back out to the club and Wyatt ran it around for a few hours. We then found that it still had a small oil leak in the gear box but we may have to live with it as it looks like the gear box is not made to sit on its side and has a small drip when you shift gears. Someone in the past had made a pan to hold the dripping oil and it seems to work OK, although not right. 

After stopping and letting it sit, it would not restart. So back to the DCC shops it goes. After a lot of looking around I got some new gaskets for the carb and rebuilt it. Now it seems to run good but, only after playing with throttle, I'm not sure its right.  I am going to get the boys at the club look at it and see if we can come up with a plan to get it to work correctly. 

There was no number on the locomotive  so we came up with the number 8 for the little locomotive, as Phil C. said, "it was a  fun little oddball locomotive to run" so I thought we will just make it the "8 Ball" locomotive. Phil was right, this little locomotive is just a gas to run! It feels like running a go-cart to me, and all of the folks that have run it get a big smile on there face when there running it around. I painted little 8 balls on the cab sides and put a 8 Ball shifter knob I found at the parts store on it and now we have the little "8 Ball" locomotive running at the club. 

Tom D 

Edited by PhilC - Jul 20 2009 at 7:48am

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tom d Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: Nov 15 2008 Location: lakewood,ca Status: Offline Points: 156	Post Options Post Reply Quote tom d Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: the 8 ball Posted: Jul 12 2009 at 10:29am
	The 8 ball is a little 4 wheel switcher locomotive that is owned by the Southern California Live Steamers. It has been laid up, not running in the barn for many years. Boy this has familiar sound to me. Phil C. asked me if I would take a look at it as he and Rudy fixed some stuff on it and had gotten it running in the past. He said it was a fun little locomotive to run and pulled fairly well, so I took it to the DCC (Downing Car Company) shops to have a look see? Wyatt and I disassembled it and plugged a leak we had found coming from the shifter rod hole. We cleaned up the body, made some new railings, took the cab apart and cleaned it, and made some adjustments. We then took it back out to the club and Wyatt ran it around for a few hours. We then found that it still had a small oil leak in the gear box but we may have to live with it as it looks like the gear box is not made to sit on its side and has a small drip when you shift gears. Someone in the past had made a pan to hold the dripping oil and it seems to work OK, although not right. After stopping and letting it sit, it would not restart. So back to the DCC shops it goes. After a lot of looking around I got some new gaskets for the carb and rebuilt it. Now it seems to run good but, only after playing with throttle, I'm not sure its right. I am going to get the boys at the club look at it and see if we can come up with a plan to get it to work correctly. There was no number on the locomotive so we came up with the number 8 for the little locomotive, as Phil C. said, "it was a fun little oddball locomotive to run" so I thought we will just make it the "8 Ball" locomotive. Phil was right, this little locomotive is just a gas to run! It feels like running a go-cart to me, and all of the folks that have run it get a big smile on there face when there running it around. I painted little 8 balls on the cab sides and put a 8 Ball shifter knob I found at the parts store on it and now we have the little "8 Ball" locomotive running at the club. Tom D Edited by PhilC - Jul 20 2009 at 7:48am

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