Updates, changes, observations - almost two years of Motorcar operation with BAR 62

Despite a lack of updates on this blog, BAR 62 hasn't spent almost two years in silence. 62 has been on the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad several times since the restoration was finished and has performed very well each time she's gone out. A few things have changed. The roof-mounted chrome horns that were on both 62 and my Dad's 18 car have been discarded. Although 'Marine grade' evidently they don't hold up to the vibration and thumping the occasional rough track joint can provide. Replaced with more generic automotive type horns mounted near the front of the engine much lower in each car - these horns have become the standard that we are now using. They work, are inexpensive and are locally available.
Speaking of vibrations - somewhere in these pictures, I'm sure there is a picture of a brand-new horn button that was installed on 62. Although the longer, stiffer, structure of BAR 18 (my Dad's M14) seems to dampen the vibrations, 62's horn button spring did not survive more than three months before every time the engine fired, the switch would close briefly and the horn would blow softly. It was replaced with one with a much stiffer spring.
All for now!
See you on the rail in 2016!

The 63rd Post - How Appropriate - Father's Day 6-15-14

Although I just noticed it - this is the 63rd post on this Blog. Being as its about BAR Motorcar 62, having 62 posts on background and restoration seems appropriate. 

On Father's Day, Dad and I secured permission from our fellow members of the Brooks Preservation Society, operators of the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad to operate between Burnham and Unity Maine. Being members of BPS - we are covered by liability insurance and are part of the organization leasing the track from the State of Maine. 

Here we go - Dad's 18 and my 62 car splitting the 16 foot trailer - Morning of 6/15/14

Burnham Junction, Maine - MP 33 of the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad

The Two cars - on the rail and preparing to head East. 

While we were in Unity yard, we shot this video:

Neither Dad nor I had any mechanical problems with our cars during the run and it was a great chance to give the cars a shakedown run and test some things. 

See you on the Rail!

Wrapping up the details - 6-10-14

As I've mentioned previously, as we get further and further through this restoration, the large projects are mostly done so the the remaining details are what take up the time.

On the 62 side - the windscreen now has glass in it! 

Over on the 18 side - Dad is mounting his horn on the roof

And here it is mounted

We also have completed the wiring on Dad's car - the 18. The horn, ignition, lights, brake lights are all tested and working. 

Back on the 62 - the Horn is now mounted, but we didn't get a chance to finish the wiring. 

The big thing left to do on Dad's is to fire it up - mine all that remains is to wire in the horn!

More to come!

Thar She Blows - 6-8-14

Its been a while since I got a fresh update on this blog and some progress has been made on both the 62 and the 18. 

Dad's been busy picking away at projects big and small. One large project that had to be addressed was the rear wheel wobble on the crank side. Thanks to Dad's friend Jim and some serious machining skill and knowledge, the crank side wheel is now without a wobble. Dad installed the brake switches on both cars and adjusted and tested the switches.In the process, he found that there was no brake lever return spring on the 18 - there is now!

We also were told that we needed to have a horn permanently mounted on each car for regulatory requirements on one railroad that we intend to operate. So much for my plan to use sports horns!

Here is the 9" air horn style electric horn that is now mounted on the operators side of the 62.

With the exception of wiring in the horn and attaching the button to the control panel, the only remaining task to put the 62 on the rail is to have the glass installed in the windscreen. 

On the 18 front - Dad's custom bracket shop has been opened again and as you can see the the tail light is mounted on the front of 18. The headlight is also mounted, just not shown.

Meanwhile on the back, as you can see the lights are mounted.

All four lights on the 18 were wired, tested and verified to work. The brake light circuit was also tested and verified to work. 

Dad's horn also needs to be mounted, along with the horn button and a few other wiring tag ends need to be tied up. Other than that - all we need to do is test fire the 18 and we'll have two operational Bangor and Aroostook Motorcars. 

Putting the Brakes on - 5-28-14

A while back, when starting to put the brakes back on, I discovered that I didn't have them all. Missing one wheels worth of brake parts, I put in an order almost immediately to Dean at Fredericksburg Shops. Once the new shoe, hangers, spring arm and block arrived, Dad put them together and I went over to help with assembly.

Here is the Crank side, mostly done. Unfortunately I determined that I had to remove the front shoe and swap it to the operator's side to make the shoe line up correctly. Whoops. 

Here is the fully assembled shoe from Dean - turned out I guess I got the wrong shaft measurement off the M19 and ordered the wrong size hole in the hangers. Whoops. Dad's drill press made quick fixing of my error. 

Eventually, finishing by lantern light, we got all four wheels assembled, and adjusted to provide braking in the first notch. 

On the BAR 18 front - Dad's car - I found this picture:

On MaineMemory.net - in the Oakfield Historical Society Collection. Dad is convinced that the Bangor and Aroostook M14 pictured is his car. #18. We've found bolt holes that match the location of the drink cup dispenser and his car does have the box for holding a lantern on the front. In addition, it does have the large tool boxes and holes where the wipers would have been. 

Dad has found one of the running boards to be bad - so he replaced it. Upon flopping the board over, we see these two half hinges:

Note the position of the steel covering up the brake rigging - it matches up with the location of the hinges on this piece of running board. 

Is the car pictured BAR 18? We may never know - but its a good guess!

More to come!

Wiring up Dad's BAR 18 - Memorial Day - 5-26-14

As the work on BAR 62 starts to get more sporadic - Dad's car, BAR 18, has become the focus of some more work. Today, the chore was wiring up the ignition system. 

My initial reaction was to strip the wiring completely and start fresh, however the existing wiring was found to be relatively new, in good condition and usable. One thing neither Dad nor I liked was the location of the battery - near the fuel tank - making it very difficult to charge without removing it and very difficult to remove. We relocated the battery and the flat mount buzz coil I've mentioned earlier to a battery box mounted on the operator's side near the windscreen. This time, due to space, the battery box was mounted parallel to the car, unlike the 62. 

Here the box is mounted and the wiring is pretty much done - for the ignition at least.

Here is the previously installed cutoff switch, which I was able to reuse - note the newly installed toggle switch near it - this will be for the Head / tail lights. 

Here is the original ignition cutoff switch - still mounted - and re-used.

In addition to the conversion to a completely 12 volt system, I eliminated the positive ground on the timer and coil and ran a negative ground setup. Works fine as the coil buzzed as it should!

 More to come!

Progress and problems - 5-18-14

After the recent successful startup of the 62, and starting work on the 18, I figured my 'oh what the heck I'll fire the 62 up and give it another test run' wouldn't take too long. 

Best laid plans....

We swapped spark plugs and eventually got the car started.

I took the advice of someone on the RailroadMotorcarMaintenance group and jacked up the rear of the car to allow the belt to be tightened and the rear wheels to spin freely. It was during this that we noticed a problem - the crank side wheel is wobbling badly when it turns. We'll be addressing this soon. We suspect the axle has a tweak in it. 

On another note, this represents the first time that the 62 and 18 have been photographed together. 

After the test run, we tied up some more wiring, removed some old wiring clips that were in the way and generally made it more tidy. 

After the test run - both went back into the garage as we wait for future work..

More to come!