Steam Department

I was not sure how to post the images from yesterday and decided to put these separate under the Steam Department category.

Planing

Buzz Morisette has volunteered to make some new patterns for the Steam Department.  Here he planing some thick hardwood stock, which will serve in those patterns.

The Fussy Part

Then Buzz works to design and assemble the pieces into useful items that can be sent to a foundry for casting.  In this case there are two items, SHOES and WEDGES, which are parts that hold the driver bearing boxes in alignment, and allow some adjustment as wear happens.

In a previous BLOG entry you saw that two driver sets have been removed from our 2-8-0, UP 428.  These patterns are for new shoes and wedges for that locomotive, and will be cast in bronze alloy.  Buzz is working from a copy of an original Union Pacific drawing dated 1901!

Doing this work, Buzz uses a special item called a shrink ruler.  It looks like a regular steel scale with inch markings.  But beware you do not pick this up to make your new project in the wood shop, since all markings have been  adjusted larger by a percentage, because the metal castings shrink upon cooling and come out smaller than the pattern.  There are separate sets of such rulers depending on the metallurgy of the part - brass, bronze, cast iron, steel, aluminum, etc.

While this work is being done in our wood shop, rest assured there are crews working in the steam shop every weekend to move forward on the other rebuilding tasks.  For other wood shop activity this weekend, see the following BLOG Entry.