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The BROOKVILLE ARMY RAIL CAR
Restoration Project
This railcar was built in Brookville, PA by the Brookville Locomotive Company
for the U.S. Army in 1940. It is powered by a Hercules 4-cylinder diesel, with a
Ford 4-speed transmission and Brookville "Type C" final chain drive. After the
final drive gearing was damaged in the 1960's, the unit was sold to a surplus
dealer and remained there through 2000.
1940's Brookville Army Rail Car built in PA by
the Brookville Locomotive Company for the US Army - now under restoration.
After 35+ idle years, the unit needed a complete rebuild. Chapter member John
Fishovitz has provided a garage stall at J. F. Mill and Lumber and heavy
restoration begin in January of 2006. The unit moved under its own power for the
first time in November 2011 and remaining work is primarily reconstruction of
the upper body and some mechanical fine-tuning.
Completed Work:
Frame: Damaged front channel replaced, remainder of frame cleaned and painted.
Sanding boxes and mechanism fabricated and installed. Rear bumpers and coupler
boxes cleaned, repaired, and/or fabricated as needed.
Brakes: Manual brakes complete. Vacuum brake system plumbing figured out and
reinstalled.
Motor: Rebuilt starter and generator. Replaced valves, head gasket, and fuel
lines. Mated back to the transmission (Overhauled at Dwayne Hiers Transmissions
of Pittsburgh) and reinstalled in late 2008. Electrical system completely
rewired.
Final Drive: Replacement gears (Ford 1 1/2 ton truck), bearings, and grease
seals were acquired and re-assembly started in January 2009. During re-assembly,
we could not get proper gear lash and determined that main shaft was not
properly machined. With specifications lost after the Brookville factory flood,
we had to locate another drive, arrange to borrow it, disassemble the borrowed
drive, take our measurements (our shaft was off about 1/16th of an inch),
machine our shaft, reassemble our drive, and reassemble the borrowed drive.
Drive was finished and installed in May 2011. Our thanks to the Coolspring Power
Museum for their co-operation in making this possible.
Remaining Work:
Frame Accessories: Front cowcatcher to be rebuilt, or replaced. Rear
bumpers/couplers to be attached to frame. Step brackets are ready to install.
Floor: All new wooden floor will be installed along with new seats and
under-seat fuel tank.
Front/Back walls: New walls will be fabricated using the badly rusted originals
as patterns.
Roof: Minor repairs needed at edges, sandblasting, and new roof coating.
Edited Nov. 18, 2011
Below: Jon tries out
the driveshaft on the Brookville repaired traincar.
Thank You for Your Support of Our
Restoration Efforts.
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