Conrail Leslie RSL-3-LR Rebuild & Restore

[NickN]

Here in the UK, the Leslie chime horns are completely unknown, as none of our trains use chime horns anyway, but even the single horns used for the two tones here are all Nathan Airchime these days, and have been for a long time. So when I saw a 3-chime set on Ebay UK I jumped on them quick, even though they needed some work, still less cost than importing a set.

It turns out that the horns were originally supplied to Conrail in the third quarter of 1979 (a C and an F on the manifold) - then given the CSX YN2 paint job at a later date, followed by the CSX YN3 dark blue. Then they were imported to the UK a few years ago.

Here follows what I did. Someone may find it useful if they're new to the collecting hobby.

This is what it looked like on the day of purchase:

[NickN]

The cosmetic problems were:

1) A black spray paint had been crudely applied to cover over the dark CSX blue.
2) Even the CXS blue had been rather hurriedly applied straight over railroad grime and grease, much of which had fallen off leaving spots of Conrail blue and spots of bare aluminium.

The other problems were:

1) Gaskets missing or damaged.
2) Diaphragms damaged (silicone ring detached or torn).
3) One rubber donut badly damaged, other two not in great condition.
4) One backcap bolt sheared off leaving most inside the chamber.
5) Overall very dirty inside.
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[NickN]

So began the lengthy process of cleaning. I wanted the sprayed black paint gone but leaving the CSX blue intact: so I opted to use Cellulose Thinners and a clean cloth (well, several), and after many hours spent this worked very well.
Where the paint had flaked off to leave bare aluminium, I decided to repaint those patches in the Conrail blue which had become visible in many other areas. All had to be done by hand and a tiny paintbrush, and of course etch primed first.
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I also had the small matter of one of the backcap bolts having sheared off. This proved to be quite a headache, as I didn't want to use helicoils if possible, but use the original hole and thread.
After some very slow and careful drilling, going up in sizes, I managed to take enough out of the hole to use a tap of the right size and recut the thread as original. Phew!
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[NickN]

The insides also had to cleaned: I lightly cleaned the aluminium surfaces with Scotchbrite pads, after using white spirit and a toothbrush to remove any grease and gunk. This part didn't take too long.
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[NickN]

Then it was time to replace the hardware: gaskets, diaphragms, donuts, bolts. One of the existing diaphragms was still ok to put back in.
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[NickN]

One important thing to note:

The diaphragm has a tiny hole in it for pressure relief to the rear - this MUST be aligned with the larger hole in the backcap opposite the 'spike'. In addition, the hole in the chamber through which the air feeds in via the orifice from the manifold, must also be aligned with those same holes. It's easy to get wrong.
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[NickN]

Finally, the new bolts (the larger ones I got stainless steel) were ready to be fixed in place. It's important to use anti-seize spray or liquid on these threads, to make it easier in future for disassembly but also to prevent corrosion.
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[NickN]

And it was all back together again! This time the smallest bell was reversed, as it should be on this one, with the largest bell on the left hand side when looking from the rear.
Now I just have to get it hooked up to some air and make sure it all works...
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[Flat Train]

great Job!

[NickN]

Thanks!