Illinois Railway Museum Blog

The dog days of summer continue.  Many people have vacations or other better offers so turnout at the shop is lower than usual.  I had to leave in the early afternoon so hopefully others things were achieved later in the day. 

Anyway, I think we turned a corner this weekend.  We have just about completed the stripping and measuring and are now working on repair and rebuilding tasks.

Work focused on 1630:

·         Jeff, Collin and I measured the radius profile of the back head to provide Bob the last data for the form 4 calculation.  I need to finish a few more diagrams to identify exactly where measurements were made on each part of the boiler and Bob has a mass of calculations to complete and document but we now have all the physical measurements to complete the documentation;

·         the holes for riveting the patch into place have now all been prepared;

The rivet holes have now been drilled

·         Jeff and Collin marked all the points where we need Dennis to make good small marks in the tube sheets before fitting the tubes;

·         The big exercise now getting under way is the repair and safe ending of the super heater flues

o   Phil sand blasted the material that will be cut to provide the safe ends;

Phil prepares for sand blasting action

Preparing the material for the safe ends

o   all of the flues were inspected and those with an existing weld too close to the end were identified and cut to ensure that there will be an adequate length of clear tube at the end for expanding into the tube sheet;

o   each flue was marked up with the position into which it will be refitted (the spans vary a little so from here on all the measurements and amounts to be added will be specifically calculated to fit the tube to it chosen location);

o   a start was made on cutting the small diameter safe ends for some of the flues.

Collin and Ralph preparing safe ends

Bob and Ed worked on reassembling and firing up the rivet furnace.  It was test fired during the afternoon so hopefully we are now ready for riveting 428's cab.

Tom tests the rivet furnace

Glenn inspected and lubricated the boom hoist mechanism on the Bay City crane.  As the most frequent operator of that crane I have a vested interest in this activity.  The boom hoist has always been very tricky to engage and disengage smoothly so any improvement in this area will be a major benefit.

Don't forget the Steam Department benefit next Sunday.  You can still order tickets but will need to pick them up on the day.

Nigel