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16

the seven-minute delay to "signal delays" plus the extra stop. 

But there was no use kidding ourselves now that there wasn't something radically wrong and that 0363 would ^[[not]] have to go into the shop for a check-up. Nevertheless she still seemed to function well as a locomotive as long as she wasn't pushed too hard so we decided to let her take a train back to Grand Central as long as it was a fairly easy job. She took our old friend and MERCHANTS baiter, #59, 11 cars, Engineer Sparks, with another extra stop thrown in at Greenwich this time but no monkeying with the MERCHANTS, left New Haven two minutes late and got to GCT on time. The maximum transformer temperature was 91° and that was at CHO. Soon after completing this run, she was transferred to Van Nest Shop for her check-up. We went there the next day absolutely burning with curiosity to find out what was causing the trouble. They had already opened up the transformer and had found not only the safety diaphragm broken but the Pyranol circulating pump motor shorted, ground and completely inoperative. The broken diaphragm was understandable but what caused such a complete failure of the pump motor? Then they discovered that the pump was jammed solid and the plot thickened. Further disassembly finally revealed something which probably wouldn't have been guessed as a cause by anyone including Burnham, the man who designed the transformer. They found a big towel wound around the pump rotor, jamming it completely and evidently having been the cause of the motor failure. It was assumed that when the transformer tank was cleaned in Pittsfield prior to assembly, a workman inadvertently had left this big rag or towel in one of the ducts of the transformer case where it couldn't be readily seen and it had gradually worked its way through the Pyranol liquid system until it had finally reached the pump, where it became entangled with the rotor, stopping the pump and hence the Pyranol circulation and its cooling in the outside radiators. There were some very red faces at Pittsfield over this one. A spare pump set had been ordered and this was shipped post haste to Van Nest and installed after which 0363 returned to service.

But 0363 and particularly her transformer, was an ill-fated piece of machinery. She went back to work okay but it gradually became apparent that her transformer was running hotter than it should when judging it by the other new engines now in service on either the same or similar runs. The trouble was not as pronounced as before but it was unmistakable. After a week or ten days, they took her back to Van Nest again to give the transformer a check-up. At first they could find no trouble and the mystery deepened. There was no obstruction inside the transformer as there had been before, the pump ran unhindered, the coolant circulated through the radiator. Finally they checked the rotation of the pump motor as a last resort--because it had been wired up exactly as the previous one. And they found the motor was turning CCW instead of CW. This

Transcription Notes:
ccw - counter clockwise instead of cw - clockwise, running backwards.