Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Work on the 1630, our Frisco 2-10-0, started before 9:00 AM on Saturday.  We began by removing two nuts from the threaded rod, at the front of the petticoat, that helps to hold it in place under the smoke stack.  After looking at the two side rods on the petticoat, and the one behind it, near the tube sheet, we determined that we would need to cut the threaded rods.  It was decided that attempting to remove the nuts from the rods would be too difficult and time consuming.  To cut the rods, straps were dropped through the smoke stack, looped, and attached to the boom on Glenn's truck. A four by four piece of white oak was pushed through the loops in the straps to hold the weight of the petticoat once the threaded rods were cut. After this was finished, the petticoat was lowered onto a wooden platform we placed over the blower nozzle. Wood was used as cribbing so that the straps and four by four could be removed. At this time, the top portion of the petticoat, which is separate, was removed. Once all this was done, the boom was moved to the front of the smoke box and reattached to the petticoat which was lifted out of the smoke box and stored.

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The bottom of the smoke box was cleaned up.  This was done so that junk would not fall down the opening once the blower nozzle was removed.  Again, the boom on Glenn's truck did the job nicely and we stored the blower.  A wooden cover was made for the hole in the floor of the smokebox so no one would put his foot in it or drop tools down it.  In front of the tube sheet were three sections of metal plate acting as a baffle, to protect the superheaters from cinders.  Once again, it was determined that cutting the nuts off would make the job a lot easier. Once this was done the sheets were removed, tagged, and stored.  Work then began a numbering the superheaters so they can be removed for testing.

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While all this was going on, Cameron and Phil removed the brick from the firebox of the 1630.  The bricks were taken to a boxcar for safekeeping.

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In the coming weeks, we must remove the lagging and jewelry items form the 1630.  We are a few weeks away form pulling tubes.  Work will also restart on removing rivets and staybolts form the portion of the firebox that must be repaired.

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Work also was done on the Shay since not everyone could work on the 1630.  The plan is to remove the trucks so new springs can be put on them.  Mike and Jim separated the u-joint between the water tender and coal bunker. Bob G. crawled between the two and disconnected the draw bar and brake rigging.  An attempt was made to separate the tender from the engine, but it wouldn't budge. At this time, we are looking at ideas to accomplish this.  Next week, the u-joint at the front of the locomotive will also be taken apart.

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In addition, Bob R. and Stu continued working on the brake rigging for the Lackawana car.  This task, of course, done at the request of the Passenger Department.  A fine example what can be accomplished with inter departmental cooperation.

 

NOTE:  Sorry for the odd formatting but I must have made this entry ten times and for an unknown reason the software will not accept carriage returns or formatting for paragraphs.