"BUDA-ROSS" ELECTRIC HEADLIGHT
1. Q. What are the three essential elements in the "Buda-Ross" electric headlight equipment?
A. Steam turbine engine, dynamo directly connected on the same shaft, and self-focusing arc lamp.
2. Q. At what speed should the turbine run?
A. 2,800 revolutions per minute.
3. Q. How is the speed controlled?
A. By a centrifugal governing device.
4. Q. How does the steam enter the turbine?
A. Through a main valve which is perfectly balanced in all steam pressures directly and impinged on the buckets directly from a nozzle.
5. Q. About how much opening should this valve have?
A. About one-fourth of an inch.
6. Q. Can the lift of this valve be changed?
A. Yes.
7. Q. How?
A. By adjusting the inner sleeve of the valve with a common monkey wrench after removing cap nut on top of turbine.
8. Q. Can this be done while the light is burning?
A. Yes.
9. Q. What is necessary to do this?
A. Take a monkey wrench and screw the inner sleeve down to the right to reduce the lift, and to the left to increase the lift. In reducing the lift you reduce the speed, and by increasing the lift you increase the speed.
10. Q. Is there any other method of setting speed?
A. Yes.
11. Q. How?
A. By removing oil box on the turbine cap and adjusting the nuts on the governor studs on the face of wheel.
12. Q. Is any provision made for operating the light with low pressure steam?
A. Yes.
13. Q. What?
A. An auxiliary valve is used which operates automatically at any predetermined pressure, which is adjusted by an adjusting stem at the bottom of the engine and which can also be adjusted while the light is burning.
14. Q. What kind of oil should be used in the "Buda-Ross" bearings?
A. Cylinder or valve oil.
15. Q. What style of generator is used.
A. An iron-clad type with no outside magnetism.
16. Q. How many fields in this generator?
A. Two.
17. Q. What style field is used?
A. Compound wound.
18. Q. What kind of wire is used on these fields?
A. Deltabeston wire.
19. Q. Why is Deltabeston wire used in preference to cotton-covered wire?
A. So that it cannot be injured by short circuits, for if a short circuit occurs and afterwards is removed there is no danger done to the insulation on this make of wire.
20. Q. Where are the fields located?
A. One on each side of the dynamo.
21. Q. Why?
A. So that they cannot be injured by waste oil from the ball bearing, or by water or snow.
22. Q. How should ball bearing on dynamo end be lubricated?
A. By removing oil plug in frame just back of dynamo and introducing cylinder oil.
23. Q. Is it necessary to remove the top carbon holder from the lamp to remove reflector from case?
A. No.
24. Q. Why not?
A. Because there is no top guide to the carbon, as the carbon is guided by the clutches.
25. Q. How many levers are there in the lamp?
A. Only one.
26. Q. What regulation should be given to top lever spring No. 308 on lamp?
A. Top lever spring No. 308 should be adjusted as loose as possible and not have light go out standing still.
27. Q. If this spring was tightened until the light burned steady when the locomotive was at rest, what might occur when engine was running high speed?
A. It might cause the light to dim down.
28. Q. Is there anything else that would cause the light to dim down when the engine is running fast?
A. If the clutches should be used until the sharp edge that grips the carbon have become worn smooth or round they would allow the carbon to feed too fast and the light would burn dim.
29. Q. If the light burns satisfactory while engine is in motion, but goes out when engine is stopped, where would you find the trouble?
A. This trouble is most always found to be caused by the top lever springs No. 308 being too weak; or, an imperfect carbon, though if the dash pot plunger has become corroded until it sticks in the dash pot, the light will act the same as if the tension spring was too weak.
30. Q. Is it possible to apply the bottom electrode holder wrong?
A. No
31. Q. Why not?
A. For the reason that its support is on a center line with the electrode and the holder can be turned in any direction and the electrode is held central with the top carbon.
32. Q. What would you do if you had no bottom electrode holder?
A. Place a piece of 5/8-inch carbon in the hole through the bottom bracket having top end in focal point of reflector and tighten with set-screw; as this carbon would burn away the light would be raised and it would therefore be necessary to raise the carbon about every hour, as the carbon would burn away about one-half inch per hour.
GENERAL QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON ELECTRIC HEADLIGHTS
33. Q. Describe the passage of the current through the lamp and tell how arc light is formed?
A. It enters the lamp at the binding posts with the large hole, then to the top carbon holder, carbon, then into the electrode and holder; from there to the solenoid and back to the dynamo, leaving the lamp at the binding post with the small hole in it. The magnetism from the current while passing through the solenoid attracts magnet in a downward motion, and it in turn, by the levers on the lamp, separate the carbon from the copper, thereby forming the arc.
34. Q. Why should sandpaper be used to smooth commutator instead of emery cloth?
A. In using emery paper a piece of emery might lodge in the grooves between the commutator segments, and being a conductor of electricity, causes short. Will also get embedded in the copper and cut the brushes. Sand will not do this.
35. Q. State how you would go about to focus a lamp?
A. (1) Would adjust back of reflector so front edge of reflector would be parallel with front edge of case. (2) Adjust lamp to have point of copper electrode as near the center of reflector as possible with carbons as near the center of chimney hole as you can set them. (3) Have the locomotive on straight track. Now move the base of the lamp around until you get a parallel beam of white light straight down the center of the track, then tighten lamp down.
36. Q. If the light throws shadows upon the track, is it properly focused?
A. No.
37. Q. If the light is properly focused, that is, if the rays are leaving the reflector in parallel lines, but the light does not strike the center of the track, what should be done?
A. When the light rays are thrown out in parallel lines and they do not strike the center of the track, it denotes that the headlight case is not set straight with the engine, and the entire case on baseboard must be shifted until the shaft of light strikes the track as desired.
38. Q. What can you do to insure a good and unfailing light for the entire trip?
A. By carefully inspecting the entire equipment before departing on each trip and know that there are no wires with insulation chafed or worn off; that all screws and connections are tight; commutator clean; brushes set in brush holder in the proper manner; carbon in lamp of sufficient length to complete trip; copper electrode cleaned off and oil in both bearings.
39. Q. Why would you not fill the main oil cellar full of oil?
A. If you should fill the main oil cellar full of oil, the oil would run out of the overflow holes on the side and all over the equipment and locomotive and could do the dynamo no good but possibly harm.
40. Q. What is the most vital part of the dynamo?
A. The commutator.
41. Q. What care and attention should be given the commutator?
A. The commutator must be kept clean, free from dirt and grease; the mica must be kept filed down about one-sixty-fourth of an inch below the surface of the bars.
42. Q. How should you clean the commutator, and when?
A. The commutator should be cleaned before starting out on each trip by using a piece of damp waste, rubbing the bars lengthwise, then wipe dry with clean dry piece of waste.
43. Q. What kind of a bearing should the brush have on the commutator?
A. Brushes should be fitted to have a bearing with the same contour as the commutator, with bearing covering no less than two of the commutator bars, nor more than three of the bars.
44. Q. How are the brushes fitted?
A. Brushes are fitted by cutting a strip of No. O sandpaper about the width of the commutator surface. (Have the dynamo idle.) Place the strip of sandpaper under the brush on the commutator with the rough side towards the brush, then pull the sandpaper from right to left; continue this process until the brush has been fitted to a true smooth bearing. Then trim about one-eighth of an inch off the front edge of the brush.
45. Q. Is it advisable to ever try to fit a brush up with a file or knife?
A. No.
46. Q. Why is it important to clean the scale off the point of the copper electrode each trip?
A. To allow the point of the carbon and the electrode to touch to form a circuit; this scale being a non-conductor of electricity and with it on, the current would not pass from the carbon to the electrode and holder.
47. Q. How should the copper electrode be trimmed at the point?
A. Copper electrode should have about ¼-inch surface at contact point.
48. Q. How far should the copper electrode project above the holder?
A. One inch.
49. Q. Should the electrode be raised up to 1½ inches, what might happen?
A. If the copper electrode was run at a point so near the clutch, the intense heat of the arc might do damage to the top carbon holder and clutch.
50. Q. If the dash pot should be found stuck, would you put oil in it?
A. Coal oil should be used to clean and cut the dirt out of the pot and from off the plunger, but after the dash pot and plunger have been cleaned all oil should be wiped off of same, as the oil would cause the plunger to collect dirt and stick.
51. Q. If one carbon of lamp should "jig or pound", what can be done to stop it?
A. If the carbon jumps or pounds the electrode, it is evident that the iron armature is too far out of the solenoid, or the speed is too low.
52. Q. Does the pounding of the lamp occur with the old series wound machines or with the new compound wound machines?
A. The pounding of the lamp occurs with the new compound wound machines.
53. Q. If the copper electrode was fusing, how would you know it?
A. By the fact, when copper is fused a shaft of green light will be thrown off instead of a shaft of white light.
54. Q. What should be done when a green light is seen?
A. Close the throttle to turbine engine, then open slowly until a white light re-appears.
55. Q. What is the cause of the copper electrode fusing?
A. The cause of the copper electrode fusing is due to too high speed of the generator, or having lead wires connected up wrong, allowing positive current to get into copper electrode first.
56. Q. What arrangements have been made so that you cannot connect your wires wrong?
A. The positive binding post both at the dynamo and lamp have been provided with a much larger hole to receive the wire than has been made in the negative binding post, and the ends of the positive wire should always be bent or doubled back so they will just enter the receptacle in the positive binding posts, but cannot be connected to the negative binding post.
57. Q. Should the copper electrode and holder become fused until no longer serviceable out on the road, what would you do?
A. Would remove the damaged holder from the lamp and substitute a carbon, securing the substituted electrode in the bracket of lamp same as the electrode holder is held. Be sure that the end of the carbon comes up to center of reflector and does not rest on base of reflector or lamp.
58. Q. If you were running along with your light burning steady and nice, then suddenly the light began to flash badly and kept it up, where would you look for the trouble?
A. You would no doubt find one of the lead wires loose in binding post.
59. Q. If you were running along with light burning satisfactorily and suddenly your light went out, where would you be likely to find the trouble?
A. You would undoubtedly find carbon burned out, or a lead wire was broken off or out of the binding posts.
60. Q. If the light goes out while between stations, what course would an engineer pursue?
A. If investigation cannot be made within a few minutes thereafter to determine the cause, the steam should be shut off from the turbine engine until such time when cause of failure can be determined.
61. Q. Why is it essential to shut off steam and stop the equipment?
A. If failure was due to a short circuit, damage might be done to the armature or field coils by overheating.
62. Q. How does the equipment act when short circuited?
A. The engine will labor heavily and run slowly with a large volume of steam blowing at the exhaust, the carbon points and cab lights will only show a dull red light.
63. Q. How would you test for a broken circuit?
A. Would test for a broken circuit or open circuit: First, by placing a carbon across the binding posts at dynamo. If the trouble was in the dynamo, no flash would be seen, but if dynamo was all right you would get a flash; this would indicate that the trouble was on towards the lamp. Second: Go to the lamp, place your carbon across binding posts. If wire was broken between dynamo and lamp you would not get a flash. If your wires were all right you would get a flash and you would find your trouble in the lamp. No doubt, it would be a burned-out carbon.
64. Q. How would you proceed to locate the point of trouble with a short circuit?
A. Would remove (1) one of the lead wires from the binding post at dynamo; if trouble was in dynamo you would not note any difference in action of speed. (2) Would disconnect one of the cab wires; if the trouble is in cab circuit, speed would increase and lamp would burn. (3) If trouble is not in cab circuit, would go to lamp, disconnect one of the main wires from binding post; if short circuit is in the wires between dynamo and lamp, there would be no change in speed of dynamo, but if the wires are O. K. the speed of engine would increase and your trouble would be in the lamp.