So anyways after last weeks derailment i figured i couldnt cause any more damage there....... well we went there pretty early and took a trip up the pitch to the second opening. that was pretty exciting. got checked out giving tours, banks and i gave our first 2 tours there today. that was pretty cool. ran the mine train in 3 times for practice, then gave a few tours. banks gets his checkout next sat. so then they were having a little problem with their other mine motor.... the one we derailed....... so i took a look at it. the speed controller had a contact that kept spinning and would jam up the controller not letting you change speed, or stop! so i took it apart for a little looksey. seems the contact had 2 brass pins to keep it from spinning since it only had one screw in the center. so i got 2 pins made out of brazing rod, drilled out the broken off pins, cleaned it all off with contact cleaner and coated everything with contact goo again. so we covered it up and called it good. well it was about then that it was time for the steam engine to go to bed and they needed the mine motor to put all the cars in the barn. so the one kid who helps out there wanted to pull the motor out. well, last week after the derailment i figured i couldnt screw anything up that bad......... well tonight we caught it on fire!
so he pulled the motor out, but all the fumes from the contact cleaner built up in the covered speed control and lit off. thump. next thing you know he yells and bails out. we pulled the power, hit the brakes, pulled off the lid and hit it with the extinguisher. it was pretty funny. the grease at the bottom of the controller caught fire. so, lesson learned make sure all contact cleaner has evaproated before working mine motor and dont drive the mine motor all the way to the end of the stripping pit...... cant wait till next weekends lesson plan!
ps, pics of all of this will be on here and the ugm site probably tomorow night, but none of the fire.