Southern Pacific GP 60

 

8-27-09 I'm posting this project to keep all up to date on my train play. First a little history on this unit: it was built by Backyard Rails Inc. sometime around 1982? I think it was #2 unit built by them for Dick Jensen of LALS. He ran it for many years every Sunday and logged up many hours of running. He then sold it to Leonard Evans and then it went to the team of Tracy Beattie and Sam Calderwood, all well known LALS members.

 

When Tracy passed away, Sam sold the unit to me and my son Wyatt. Wyatt was running a 1" Alco FA but wanted to move up to a bigger unit and I thought I'd get to run it some too as at LALS rules say he cant run this unit by himself.

 

Sam told me, and I knew this unit was going to need some work on the trans, as it sounded bad when we got it. Sam also said it was just limping along, it was going to need a lot of love, so I got it for a good low price. We ran it off and on for 6 months and then the transmission finally gave out one day.

 

Oh-well the start of a new project. The unit was built as a GP50 and lettered for Southern Pacific as number 711 because the first owner Dick J. owned a 7-11 store at the time. Now SP didn't have any GP 50 locos so I thought I would turn it into a GP 60 and make the number 9711 as this was a unit that SP had and it would still have Dick's 7-11 thing going on. It just seems like a good fit to me.

 

The transmission was an Eaton H-stat type, top of the line for 1980 but not so now. This one was running very hot and made a lot of noise at times. On bigger units like this, it cost over 800.00 to replace as they can't be fixed. I am going to put a 1.3 GPM gear pump and a log splitter valve in it as this seems to be the way most of the newer units out there are, they run well, and it cost  less then 300.00 to go this way.

 

This type of setup looks to run without the heat and noise that the old unit had. I have removed the old transmission, mounted the new pump on the motor, rebuilt the carb, put in a new spark plug, new points and a new condenser. I have started the layout for the new H lines and mock up for a newer quieter type muffler and an electric fuel pump as the old ones are known to leak and get vapor locked.

 

As you can see from the photo, she's a little rough now but one day it will look just like its big brother.  You can see in the lower photo, when new, a lot of the SP GP 60 9700 numbered units where lettered for Cotton Belt, however we are going to use the SP lettering in the later speed lettering style. We will also have the lights set as a mix of old and new setups. Yes, thats the rebuilt riding car in the background of the loco photo as Wyatt is a big fan of speed lettering he says "it looks like its going fast all the time!" 

 

Tom D.

 

 

Arrived at the track at 5:30 PM and unloaded. Boy! That was almost as much fun as the 2 hours it took to load at my house.  Anyways, got it out on the track and topped all the fuel and oils off, took the body off and fired it up.

 

First thing that was incorrect was the control arm/handle.  It was hitting the riding car when reversing and the draft gear couplers were moved too much. I will make a new handle and put in a draw bar to couple the engineer car to the locomotive. 

 

On the main line it ran well so I put my son Wyatt on it to run it around. This allowed me to stand back and see and hear how it was running. I adjusted the carb and it smoothed right out. About that time Rory Hawkins arrived after he had finished his day job. Rory got on the train and gave it a run. I then played with the detent adjustment on the splitter valve with Rory moving it to get it set so that it had a good feel. We then ran it around the track a few more times.

 

The unit seemed to smoke some and had a "pop pop" sound from the exhausts.  Funny  thing is I told Rory that I had put some ring sealing oil in it so it should fix itself.  We put Wyatt back on it and let him just run the heck out of it when I herd the exhaust sound had changed.  It got very quiet and the unit started to smoke a little more.  I thought "oh no" now here comes some work. We got Wyatt to stop, and I could feel the body sides were hot, so I pulled the body off and Rory found out that it had blown off the small muffler that I had put in just before the dump out pipe on the exhaust and the paint on the muffler rapper was burning off a little. After it sat there running for a few minutes it stopped smoking and it was running very quietly: Hmmm, like I said it fixed itself. Wow, sometimes I scare myself.

 

We then headed off down the Crenshaw Line when the cable on the throttle slipped so I adjusted it back. About half way down the line I got behind the controls and opened her up.  It is just one of these "race car things" I learned years ago on how to test a new unit, and man, this thing can really get going. I was very surprised how fast it would go. It fits on the 1/2 turn table with 6" to spare as it has a long riding car on it for a three-man crew which makes the whole unit longer than most.

 

 

I had to readjust the cable again then Rory ran it back in the dark as I blew out the headlight when making adjustments to the throttle. As we were running along, the unit got very quiet. Rory said the cable had slipped again, but it was still just running along. Man! It was so quiet and with no head light, the people on the walking path didn't know we were there just a few feet away.

 

Well, I would say it was a good test run, with only a few things to change and yes, it took way too long to load it back in my truck. Good thing Rory was there too help. So now it's off to the Orange County Fall Meet and I'm thinking it will do just fine.

The funny thing is, all this felt just like getting one of my new race cars on its first run something I learned from my dad and now have passed on to my son, Wyatt. To see how you can build or rebuild something from just a pile of parts and odds and ends.  Man! it feels so good to have a successful run after changing so many parts of this unit.
Tom D.

 

W ran the GP60 around on their nice big layout, a good test for this project. Although Wyatt was more then ready to get out there on the track and go for it as soon as we unloaded, I thought it would be best to wait for 1 hour or so for Rory too show up with his loco so we had someone to pull us back in if something didn't go right. Well, we got out and Wyatt gave it a good run, with or friend Rob L. as a ride along, and all seemed to go well at first but after 3 laps around there layout, which I think equals about 6 miles, we pulled into their yard and the GP60 stalled and would not restart, plus the unit was hot. So we went to lunch to give it some time to cool off. After a good lunch we came back and restarted the loco. We had to give it some choke to get it to go.  

 

After it ran a bit it was fine.  Hmmm, that means it had too much air in the mix to run or not enough fuel. Mel B., a member of the LA and OC clubs came over with a Kohler motor book and we looked some things up for me to adjust. He also gave me some go info he had learned from running these motors over the years as he has two locos with these motors in them. A big thanks too MEL B. for the info.

 

Wyatt and I ran 5 or 6 more laps around and Rory called me on the cell phone and we thought it would be best if we loaded up before it got too dark. Wyatt on the other hand thought it would be best to run all night and loaded up in the morning when there was way more light: Hmmm! Man that boy loves too run these locos! Anyway as we haded back down the long lead to there steaming bay the loco stalled again and would not start and was vary hot around the motor, so we pushed it back and loaded up with lots of help from the nice group of members at OC.

 

The next changes I will make are to move the Electric fuel pump back by the fuel tank where it is cooler and cut in some more cooling holes in the front of the body, more like the other units I see running around, as air cooled motors need a lot of air to cool them. The body the way it is now is not letting enough air in. I am also going to change the  hydraulic pump lines so the oil filter is on the return side of the H pump as I'm thinking the filter is slowing down how much oil can get to the pump. It also sounds to me like the pump is making a noise like it is getting air in it. this is the layout the pump maker showed to use so we will try that and give it another good long run.

 

Tom D.

 

Tom D.