Steam Department

Another good day in the shop although I think most people were moving a bit slower due to the 90 degree temperatures.

Work on 1630 continued as planned:

·         Despite the heat, Dennis put in many hours in the firebox and has now built up the inside face of the mud ring. 

Dennis welding the mud ring

Welding complete and ready to drill the rivet holes

Now Mike has a lot of work to carefully drill the rivet holes thru the new weld, at which point the mud ring will be ready to receive the patch.  This will be a slow and tricky job requiring the accurate drilling of small pilot holes that must be steadily enlarged as creating an accurate hole thru the weld is never easy;

·         Work continued with Bob on the form 4.  We now have a detail plot of all the measurement points and a few new ones marked up for the next UT testing session (hopefully 6/2);

·         Several of us worked on completing the diagrams that Bob will need in support of the form 4 showing the location of each thickness measurement point on the particular boiler sheet.  Boring work but at least it is good to see the book that will support the form 4 starting to come together;

·         Part of Phil's extensive sand blasting effort was the dome cover as noted last week.  Now we have the "after" view ready for inspection and testing

Dome cover after sand blasting

·         We located a length of tube suitable for safe ending the super heater flues so now we can progress with this when resources are available;

·         One unfortunate set back was that the piston rod of the McCabe flanger broke during test bending of steel for the patch.  Several of us spent quite a bit of time checking the storage for a spare but this proves to be one of the parts for which we do not have a spare.  The broken rod has been stripped out and sent for analysis.  Once we have this a similar steel rod will be acquired and machined.

Phil did a solid day of sand blasting and, aside from the dome cover for 1630, also did all four of the axle boxes for 428 and the bolster for the Shay.  This was quite an effort given the heat.  Unfortunately one photograph I missed was Phil after working most of a hot day in a cloud of black dust.  The trouble was that, like most of his sympathetic colleagues, I was too busy laughing and joking about his appearance to hold the camera!!.  Sorry Phil.

The results of his efforts can be clearly seen on the bolster for the Shay.  This now looks very different and, aside from the improved appearance, appears free of any cracks after detail inspection.

The bolster now sand blasted

In other areas:

·         Ed and Rick worked on setting up the rivet furnace to cast the new brickwork.

·         Stu and Cameron continued work on the planer.

·         Bob operated the water supply to provide treated water ready for Leviathan.

I will not be providing an update next week as I will be out of circulation for a hopefully minor operation.

Nigel