The bad news was, it took us three hours to get the rail-mower engine working. It had been working fine up until the previous day but it refused to fire up when we tried to start it at the Antlers Hotel set-on location. Frank Glatzl tried filing the points without results. We moved the group a half-mile down to a spot across the street from the Kingsland NAPA store (excellent resource) . I ran over to buy a replacement condenser since we thought the one on it might be bad. Then I had to get a screw to close up a hole under the condenser. But still no spark despite valiant efforts by Frank and helpful comments by onlookers. Marty Reimer joined the fray in an effort to diagnose just what the problem was. Finally, he suggested that the ignition coil had gone bad, even though it was only about 7 months old. I ran back to NAPA, bought a replacement and we tested it for spark. Yes! We had spark. We installed the coil and the engine started up. Then we powered up the mower and it worked fine. Here's some photos of the repair work underway:
Frank and Marty are working on the rail-mower above, with Bradley Nelson looking on. Note that the date on the photo is incorrect (this work session occurred on Saturday, Dec. 10).
Here's the patient motorcar owner-operators giving the repair operation close attention since nobody is going anywhere until Leland Stewart, our Excursion Coordinator and RPI President, decides when to pull the plug. Leland was most understanding. We greatly appreciated his forebearance and the chance to fix the problem and show what the rail-mower can do.
Once the rail-mower was going, Frank and I set off in my Woodings CBI towards Scobey Spur, pulling it
behind us. We moved forward at only 2-3 mph to give the mower the chance to work on the grass. The cut was rather uneven in spots due to my going too fast at first but later on it looked better as I learned to slow down when the grass was thicker. We had to stop and raise the deck to get across some crossings, so Frank would jump out and use his handle and link to raise or lower it. We stopped after crossing the LBJ Lake bridge for lunch at Spyke's, way behind on our work schedule.
At Scobey Spur we set off the rail-mower using our portable turntable, turned the Woodings on the turntable and eventually set the rail-mower on again, behind the Woodings, so it could mow in the forward position, which apparently yields better results. On the way back we stopped at a tie that the rail-mower blades had grazed on the way out and we thought we would just throw it out of the way. Turned out it was spiked down pretty well and we had to remove a spike on the other side of the rail before we got pull the tie apart and throw it overboard. We also had to stop to raise and lower the mower deck at two points where the center was high with dirt that had been deposited from the sides of a cut. Maybe we will dig that out next time and see how long it takes to fill back up.
We returned to the Antlers Hotel set-on area at Kingsland and began cutting west, toward Llano. It did a very good job on the first pass, but we were still able to make grass cuttings fly on the way back, leaving behind a greatly improved motorcar route.
All in all, a lot of drama in the morning but a successful outcome. Participants in today's work session included Leland Stewart, Frank Glatzl, Jerry Light, Marty Reimer, Bradley Nelson, Mike Harris, Lou Houck and myself. Leland and Jerry rode in Jerry's hy-rail Gator, Marty and Lou in Marty's MT-19, and Mike and Bradley in Mike's A-car. The group did a lot of brush-cutting at various points while our Woodings CBI trundled along pulling the rail-mower. It never took them long to catch up with us. One interesting angle is that the CBI is just about the best motorcar to pull a rail-mower at a slow speed, since it has a constant velocity drive transmission. My M19AA with a two-cylinder RKB was built for speed and would have overheated within a short time from trying to go so slowly, and the more common ROC engine probably would have had problems as well.
That's the story of the first successful field-trial of the RPI rail-mower and hope we can find even more uses for it in the future. Here's the CBI and rail-mower back home before taking them off the trailer. The rail-mower will need to have the debris blown off it once it dries out (a rainstorm blew in just as we left the Junction House restaurant at the Antlers after having dinner there).
There are a few additional things to do with the rail-mower. I have received a new set of points and condenser so we will install them to ensure it runs smoothly. Plus Frank diagnosed that the starter-generator is not generating, so we will change it out for a spare one I have on hand. I also plan to work on installing the mats so we can place hand tools on it and not have them fall onto the mower deck.
Last but not least, I officially delivered the rail-mower to Railroad Partners, Inc. and received a receipt from Leland Stewart, as RPI President, at the beginning of the work session. So it is now RPI property at this point and available for RPI work wherever needed. I will continue to shelter it under my carport at my place while we carry out additional improvements and prepare it for the coming mowing season.
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