Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Another report from Jim Opolony on activity in the Steam Department - -

Work started with members of the steam shop moving scaffolding in the All Door Car so that the super-heater tubes from 1630 could be stored in the car. After a number of wasp nest were eliminated, the tubes were loaded onto the shop truck and then put into the car. In addition, other items removed from the locomotive were put into the car.

Steam Team members erected a scaffold in front of the locomotive to make tube removal easier. To secure it to the engine, braces were made and placed around the legs of the scaffolding. Next, the braces were clamped to the locomotive. The pneumatic tube cutter was attached to the front of the smokebox of the 1630. After it was set up, a test was done to make sure it would cut the flues and the two inch tubes.  The test went well.  Much of what was done was largely preparatory for next weekend.  About a dozen two inch tubes were cut and one flue. The flue was cut so that it will be easier to remove tubes from the boiler.

Next week's priorities are to collapse the cut end of the flues so the flue itself can be removed from the boiler. With the cutting torch, we will cut the firebox end of the tubes so they may be removed.  After this is done, large scale tube removal will begin. 

Work also took place on the firebox.  As is known, the corner of the box must be cut out and patched. To do this eleven rivets and two staybolts must be removed.  Two rivets are out, but as with everything steam, things get harder. The pin, that goes inside the rivet gun, was not long enough to be used to continue to pound out the rivets as they came further out of the sheet. David, our machinist, made a new one to make the job go easier and faster. What must be remembered is that the rivets have been in place over fifty years. After coming out about one and one third inches, the rivet did not want to move. Work came to a stop about 8:30 at night.

In addition, David, with the help of his son and "Milwaukee Bob", also did other machining.  They worked on one of the boxes for the UP 428 and began to cut a new locomotive part.

Finally, the tender was broken free from the Shay. To do this, the back of the tender was jacked up to level it off. Years ago, when the engine was being removed from a flat car, the tender "drooped", bending the drawbar that attaches it to the engine. The pin was stuck and would not come out.  Ed crawled under the tender and removed two cotter pins.  At the same time, a jack was used to lift the pin.  The pin was removed and the tender came free.

The plan is to lift the front of the Shay and remove the front truck so new springs can be put under the engine.  The same will be done to its back wheel set.  The universal joint, at the front of the engine, will be dismantled to allow the front truck to be removed.

Work was also done on the Brownhoist crane since it experienced an operating problem last weekend.  In addition, firebrick was brought into the shop, from the Hiawatha car, so that it can be used to make patterns for new firebrick.

I will start out this report with a pic of work being done on our B&O wagontop boxcar. 

There was some rain in the morning, but Victor Humphreys was on the job as the skies cleared.  You can see that the A end and two of the side panels are nearly ready for some finish paint.

John Faulhaber and I continued on the many seat handles needed for the Sand Springs 68.  These are NEW rough castings from a foundry and require a substantial amount of cleanup up before they are ready to be installed in the car.  On the bench, are three more castings ready for the buffing and polishing steps.

Ray Schmid and Jeff Brady brought out a large shipment of new basswood planks to be used on the roof ends for the Michigan Electric 28.  They were on the table saw ALL DAY, shrouded in dust, cutting the stock down to the thin slats needed.  Basswood is the traditional species of wood used for this application. These will be bent and installed over the roof ends, and I believe they are going to attack the rear end of the car first.

Lots of other work was going on by many of the volunteers including Tim Peters, now fitting new window sills on the CRT 1797, Frank Sirinek, busy as always with Mike Stauber helping, Randy Hicks, and many I am sure I am missing here.

Tuesday night, another in the seemingly endless repeats of severe lightning infested squall lines of thunderstorms passed over IRM.  Power went out early but Edison came out and restored service.  Only to have it fail for good about 5 AM.  Calls again were made and it was determined that the primary transformer, owned by Edison, fell victim.  We believe this unit was installed at IRM about 1987 and at that time, itself was previously used.  This supplies voltage and current to EVERYTHING on site, including to our rectifier sets supplying trolley power, as well as heat, light, water system, freezers and coolers in our diner, telephone system, office services and computers, waste pumping to the drain fields, all sorts of things you take for granted.

Volunteers on site and staff members worked most of the night, some with little or no sleep, and throughout a hot muggy day to do what was possible.  Portable generators were broken out and started to provide backup for some of the critical items.  Extension cords everywhere were the order of the day.  The grounds were open FREE for walk in visitors only, no barns open, no rides.

Victor Humphreys is shown with our recently departed transformer already disconnected in the substation yard.  To their credit Edison responded in force with several line crews, despite another 50,000 customers without power in our immediate service area, from the overnight storms.  By evening a new transformer had been located, transported to IRM, a crane rented to pull the old unit (4-5 tons weight) and the new one dropped in. The lights came back on!

You cannot buy the type of help provided by our people, in very challenging conditions.  Many came to our aid from their regular 'day jobs' and all the staff responded in kind.  Thanks go out to everyone, now take the day off for some well deserved rest.

Just to make it interesting the LEVIATHAN was on site as previously reported.

Here it is on the steam leads east of Barn 9.  The tender has been reunited with the locomotive and the stack is on.  Mechanics worked under and around it making connections and hookups, adding the headlight, pilot, steam dome trim, etc.

This is the engineer's side of the engine, clearly sporting the decorative paint and brasswork behind one of the service rigs that was used to transport it to IRM.

Here is a late breaking news photo taken at IRM on August 2, 2011 by Tim Peters.  This must be a pretty impressive machine to get a dyed in the wool L car fan out of the shop on a hot summer day.

They really remove a lot of stuff to allow shipping the locomotive as a "KIT", which answers a lot of questions about making a move with such a large machine.

Be sure to click on the THUMBNAIL to enlarge the image.

Jim Opolony continues to keep us informed!

Here is what went on in the shop.

The early crew members got to the shop before 9:00 AM and began the process of removing and tagging the third row of superheaters.  This job was done by 10:00 AM.  Once again the nuts on the hanger bolts were rusted on, so they had to be heated.  This takes time since we have to avoid damaging those parts that are cast iron.  The fourth and final row of superheaters took until after 1:30 PM to get out.

Later in the day, Rod Turner of the Electric Car Department was kind enough to help us out by pushing the 1630 into the steam shop with the U.S. Army switcher.  The next step is to start removing tubes form the boiler.To do this, the necessary tools were identified and readied so that the superheater flues and boiler firetubes can be removed.