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Tuesday, February 28. 2012Wood Shop Update - February 25-26, 2011Despite the title of many of these entries, remember that while the Wood Shop DOES make a lot of sawdust, there are three distinct shop areas contiguous to the south wall of Barn 4. You will see a lot of activity and work not necessarily sawing wood!  Track Department We completed making new decking for the track department as Victor Humphreys is stacking and inspecting the finished pieces.  Windows Does that caption sound familiar? Tim Peters is somewhat hobbled, but he continues to work on the Chicago Rapid Transit 1797 project.  Light Socket Bases A man whose skills know no limits, Tim began modifying and reworking porcelain light sockets to be 'correct' for use in the 1797  Doors Here is a little side trip to show some work being done on our Kansas City PCC car. This is a regular effort, I just happened to catch some pics this weekend. Mike Stauber is working on one of the door leafs, removing paint and figuring a way to repair the rusted out sections.  Lights On the other side of the shop, Frank Sirinek was cleaning and inspecting the glass diffusers or covers for the ceiling lights on the Kansas City PCC.  Still More Lights There are a LOT of lights in the Kansas City PCC car and on Sunday, Frank was still at it. He has moved to a different work table. Did he wear out the one yesterday or just wanted better light?  Steam Victor Humphreys is making adjustments to a special clamping jig as we just assembled a new window for the fireman's side of Norfolk & Western 2050. This is an odd shape sash, and fabricating it was made somewhat tricky with the lack of right angles.  Glass OK, this is not exactly a new subject, it is WINDOW glass. Ray Schmidt has been cleaning this art glass panel for the Michigan Electric 28 for a lot of hours. There were an estimated three coats of paint on this, applied when the car was used as a cottage. And of course, that was applied to the textured side of this pressed glass.  Clear Sailing Here is better idea of the glass panel, destined to be in a paired window upper sash arrangement. By day's end it was either so sparkling clean, or Ray simply gave up on more cleaning. It was placed in the waiting restored window frame and glazing proceeded.  LSE 810 We cannot leave out George Clark and his work on the Lake Shore Electric 810. Recently reported was the work to prime and paint new siding, and here are two metal parts, a door track and side rub rail that will soon be finish painted and installed. Tuesday, February 28. 2012CTS 4223 Update - February 25-26, 2012 Electrical Eric Lorenz and Lorne Tweed are going over an electrical cabinet that lives below the front dash at the end of the car. The old one is in pretty sad shape and a lot of the framing and cabinet work will need new parts fabricated. This step is all part of the work needing to be done and getting wires pulled, before installing the new glass windshields and painting that area.  Innards Here is a better look at the switches and fuse blocks that live in the above cabinet. Sketchy schematics, lots of cut wires, missing elements and fuses. Did I mention it was dirty?  Windows Of course we need to mention windows in any such BLOG entry. Alex Randow works on these pretty regularly and he is checking the growing pile of completed sash. 17 large sash and 18 small sash are now complete.  Panels Alex also worked on cleaning up several old panels and trim work needed for the car interior. These represent items in good enough shape to re-use, and as explained previously, several items need to be re-installed before the side window areas can be completed. Note that these now shine like new metal, you would not have thought this possible if you examined them before his work. It did not happen by accident.  More Windows Keith Letsche walked in Sunday and volunteered to do more window sash. This project is mostly a Wednesday/Saturday crew and this unexpected work only adds to and advances the work. Thanks, Keith. Sunday, February 26. 2012Steam Department Update 2-25-2012There was a relatively small turnout this week but some key progress was achieved despite the fact that several people had to leave early for the Soiree and other commitments. On 1630 much of the day was spent on woodwork. It was clear from the dust production last weekend that much more effective sealing was required to allow cleaning of the tube sheets themselves. (To do this the gun must be aimed directly at the sheet and therefore the tube holes). Thru Rick's efforts we now have ply sheathing in place on both tube sheets. This allows Collin to blast directly on the tube sheet without too much escape of debris into the shop.
This shows the sheathing at the front end. Hidden progress is that the rear tube sheet is similarly sheathed in the firebox and the front tube sheet was actually blast cleaned behind this sheathing yesterday. With this in place we should now be able to complete the cleaning fairly quickly. Another job that we started to progress was the inspection and preparation of the super heater flues. These were sandblasted by an external contractor and are now thoroughly clean. However, you can clearly see the rough cut ends resulting from cutting by the torch or rotating tube cutter.
Each must be inspected for excessive pitting and then painted with the Apexior boiler coating.
Then the rough ends must be removed using the large band saw. The method and set up was established yesterday and the first tube cut.
This will now be a continuing task to do the same to the remaining 15 tubes. Once all are done we will bring in a specialist to weld on new material to bring them back to the required length ready for refitting. In other areas, Tom continued machining parts for the piston valves on 428 while Stu, Bob and Ed were cleaning the hydraulic pump for the planer. Refurbishing this machine will significantly simplify the machining of large components such as axle boxes.
Nigel Bennett Thursday, February 23. 2012Silver Pony Update Riding Piggyback Please earmark your donations to restricted fund R1108 Roger Thursday, February 23. 2012Wood Shop Update - February 22, 2011The sawdust and sparks were really flying yesterday and we would like to thank the many new volunteers helping on project work. As with anything it is important to establish hierarchy and assign meaningful (?) job titles right from the beginning. Do not take me too seriously, no one else does!  CTS 4223 The Cleveland PCC saw new volunteer Dave Rogan (APPRENTICE) return to help install interior panels with Simon Harrison ( newly promoted to APPRENTICE MANAGER). ASSISTANT INTERIM WEEKDAY PROJECT MANAGER Lorne Tweed oversaw the assignments  CTS 4223 Al Reinschmidt returned again and 'volunteered' to resume restoration of the window tracks. Lorne looks quite delighted to have a new volunt- - - (victim) while Al is seriously considering his prospects.  On Track For once not WINDOW tracks, but instead new decking for two of our four wheeled track carts. Dick Cubbage and Victor Humphreys are cutting long planks to size.  Stacked Victor surveys the planks stacked on one of our shop carts. A seemingly simple process but one that occupied two guys for a few hours. There are a LOT of pieces.  A Door Buzz Morisette was working on repairs to an interior door for what I was told is for Illinois Terminal 233. The bottom rail was mostly rotted away and a new piece of mahogany will be made.  LSE 810 George Clark continues to prepare, prime, and paint new siding for Lake Shore Electric 810. Weather just a little warmer will see a crew working in the barn to install these.  Resistance Pete Galayda met no resistance as he continued to ready a headlight resistance box to install in the Charles City Western 300 locomotive.  Truck Work Gerry Dettloff is fitting a keeper rod behind the head of a new hardened pin in this truck. The truck is from TM 972, part of the work for our TMS Project. Sadly, the next image in this sequence is not posted. The acetylene tank was empty and I migrated to other tasks, before the cylinder was replaced.
Tuesday, February 21. 2012TMS Project Update - February 18-19, 2012It really is amazing to witness the work on this project. It is significant on so many fronts - engineering, machining, metallurgy, and the massive amount of less than ordinary GRUNT WORK.  Assembly Jeff Brady is dry fitting and assembling some of the completed levers and rigging in the truck. That is correct - enough of the new bushings and pins have been fabricated and heat treated to see how it goes back together. He is inserting the new pin into a lever nicknamed a 'dog bone' due to its resemblance to such doggie snack treats.  The Dog Bones Here is a closer look at the dog bones and how they fit into the truck. There are two of these in each quadrant to next receive the brake head castings, which in turn hold the brake shoes.  Boring Each of the many parts in this truck receives attention. This once bent brake lever has been heated and straightened, as seen by the gray discoloration on the casting. The old deteriorated bushings have been removed with a hydraulic press. Here the lever is on the drill press table and about to get its holes reamed to receive the new bushings. As I said above it is truly amazing, doing this on a wish and prayer with old tools and a lot of hard work and commitment from the volunteers. Tuesday, February 21. 2012CTS 4223 Update - February 18, 2012Apologies since it seems the volunteers doing the work can accomplish results faster than I can post entries here.  Tracks Lorne Tweed is working on the smallest of the track parts, an insert with steel spring leaves behind it. Needless to say many of those are about destroyed by rusting, so here he is dong 'blacksmith' work to try to remove some bad ones.  Back in the Carbody The mild winter weather continued so Lorne Twee is assisting Eric Lorenz with installation of more of the new car interior wainscotting panels below the windows. Very nice! |
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Comments
Sat, 01-31-2015 21:30
I was reading a interesting feed on IRMList about the 428. As it was steamed up back in 2009 does that really mean it only 10 more years left before [...]
Sat, 01-31-2015 21:26
Why couldn't the firebox stay in its oil burning form? Just curious as it was run that way in the late 70`s in burning oil.
Sat, 01-31-2015 19:34
Hello again... No, I doubt very much if you will see 428 running this year. Maybe by 2017. The engine was worn out! It is a massive rebuild in [...]
Sat, 01-31-2015 19:27
Hello Raphael It needs to be inspected, Form 4 created then all info sent to the FRA. The real question is: Why spend so much time and $ getting [...]
Sat, 01-31-2015 19:17
Hello William The 101 needs lots... New tender, tubes, inspect boiler, convert firebox from oil the coal, and take readings on thickness of [...]
Sat, 01-31-2015 19:17
Hello William The 101 needs lots... New tender, tubes, inspect boiler, convert firebox from oil the coal, and take readings on thickness of [...]
Sat, 01-31-2015 17:21
Thanks to the man behind the curtain. Magically I can now view the blogs again. I wonder whether this problem stemmed from an unsuccessful attempt [...]
Fri, 01-30-2015 21:21
A little OT . I am unable to view any blog entries from any of my home network computers. I always get a Forbidden you don't have permission to access [...]
Fri, 01-30-2015 18:11
at this rate, we may see 428 operate by the end of this year.
Fri, 01-30-2015 17:46
what about ComEd 5?
Fri, 01-30-2015 13:38
What level of work is to be done on the 101 if enough is donated?
Fri, 01-30-2015 13:23
Keep them ready, boys! Viva El Steamers!