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Sunday, December 2. 2012Wood Shop Update - December 1, 2012As usual there was a lot of activity in all of our shops and barns. Here is just a short peek at what was happening in my area.  Wagon Top Victor Humphreys continues his steady assault on repairs to our B&O 374065 box car. He puts a lot of mileage on while 'commuting' from the shop to the car located on track 40. This is a piece of wood to be used in floor repairs. Victor wrote a very nice article in the latest RAIL & WIRE. Please heed it and help support the work using fund R374065.  Windows Every winter the shop becomes filled with window work. Eric Lorenz has been working to replace rubber gasketing and bottom bumpers on the sash for Cleveland Transit System 4223, our PCC car which is an ongoing and active project.  More Windows Yes the shop is officially named the wood shop, and we DO make a lot of sawdust. Tim Peters seems perplexed after he was walking by and we asked him to inspect some of the new windows being made for the Chicago Great Western X 38 snowplow. Sunday, December 2. 2012Steam Department Update 12-01-2012It was a productive day at the steam shop again very largely focused on 1630. On 1630: · Matt and Stu stripped and cleaned the check valves. These critical valves are where the water is fed into the boiler (from the injectors). These will be essential to even the earliest hydro tests. Since these valves are directly attached to the boiler they must be fully pressure tight to allow any testing. (The first tests will be done when the tubes have been rolled into place to identify any that require further rolling to make a perfect seal. At this point no accessories will be connected to keep the test very simple). It was inevitable that sand blast material got into the valves. In addition, one suffered from occasional leakage when last in use. Both were cleaned and lapped. The seat was replaced on the engineer's valve so these should now be in good shape for testing and service. · The firebox patch is now ground to shape and fits well onto the mud ring. Mike and Jerry were starting to drill the first hole. Initially a bolt will be fitted. Once the patch is rigidly bolted into place the bolts will be replaced, one at a time, by rivets. This requires considerable care as the holes in the mud ring are at different angles so each must be drilled thru the patch using guides to ensure that each is an exact match to the ring. Once the bolts are in place the patch can be rigidly secured and finally adjusted to form a perfect match to the sheets. · The last (hopefully) of the tubes were swaged and annealed. We have a few extra tubes that will be held in case of need should any be damaged in fitting but, on current calculation, we now have enough prepared to fully tube the boiler. In the next few weeks, when we have sufficient people available, we will swage the tubes for Shay #5. Having all the equipment set up and people now familiar with it will make it a lot more efficient to do these now. · As mentioned last week, the decision was taken to fit copper ferrules to the front tube sheet. Although the front sheet is often not ferruled, fitting ferrules will give greater assurance of a leak free seal. Unfortunately this means removing the tubes that were previously loaded. During the day the tubes were removed from the engineers side and the first 30 were reloaded with ferrules fitted. The process was, as always, somewhat tentative at first. However, once the method was established it moved a lot faster so we should be able to have all the tubes, that were previously loaded, refitted with ferrules in place and move on to new ones next weekend.
After final cleaning the valve block for the planer was painted so that should be available for reassembly in the near future. Nigel Sunday, December 2. 2012The Case of the Disappearing DataI recently asked for volunteer help to document cars in our collection where the lettering and other important information is succumbing to the weather. I had two replies from folks that had some interest in helping but no results, and winter is coming on. This week I had a very pleasant surprise from long time member Kevin Brown. THANK YOU KEVIN!!! Kevin took it upon himself to photograph and improve our records for the MILWAUKEE ROAD 970954 covered hopper.  The Whole Picture Here is the north side of the car (the best side), and you can only see the shadow or hint of where much of the lettering once was. Kevin trooped out to Yard 14, took several images, and sent me very good prints. WOW!  Details In this view of one area, even a good photo will not allow us to reproduce the entire text and data. Look above the white dot symbol and tell me what is there. What was put in the area of the consolidated inspection blocks? Kevin was unable to get a good spot to record the ends of the car with photos. So the work is not done. As good as these photos are, there is a process to reproducing any of the lettering on a repainted car. We need good measurements for placement of the blocks of lettering. In the case of the above image, I would take a heavy black Sharpee marker and ruler and carefully trace the shadows remaining so they are legible. Then I would recommend taking a sheet of mylar, again with ruler, and trace over the Sharpee letters with pencil to have a full size hard copy of what remains. Include the size or height of each letter line, the spacing between lines, and measurements to reference points on the car for placement. With this info, I can redraw and clean up the tracing, and cut it out. This should be done for each block or large character on the car. We can work to some degree with these very good photos but it is inexact due to the angle of the pics not being 100% dead on straight. Not a criticism of Kevin, but without some help or a ladder to use, it can be difficult. Anyone out there in webland with PHOTOSHOP and the software skills could help here by 'correcting' for parallax and shoot angle. And when taking the pics it would help a lot for corrections if two yardsticks, ruler, or homemade story boards were placed at right angles, sort of framing the lettering block. The real goal is for a record as exact and accurate as possible. And Kevin put his money where his mouth is by including a substantial donation to fund R97054. The other part of the equation is that I have been assured that we have money on hand to place this car inside the next Barn. But as previously mentioned, it has not yet cleared all acquisition charges and track space, so it is not 'eligible' to go inside in a technical sense. Several donations have been received into this car fund since my first request for help to clear the red ink and we are on the way. Please do not let this car be left out in the cold. And of course this is not the only piece of equipment where DISAPPEARING DATA continues. We cannot as a Museum let this happen to other pieces, yet I have limited time and ability. It is not challenging, hard, physical labor and if you contact me in advance, I will furnish material and instruction on exactly what is needed.
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Comments
Mon, 06-17-2013 09:50
Wish I could be there to help.
Fri, 06-14-2013 16:50
Matthew, Any special event is the decision of the museum Board. My personal opinion is that it is likely that there would be a special event to [...]
Thu, 06-13-2013 18:33
Hi, I have a question, if or when she is restored and back up and running this or next year. Will their be a special event set up for the return of [...]
Tue, 06-11-2013 22:36
The whistle 1630 wore for a while that you're thinking of was a Frisco 6 chime donated by a former member of the steam shop. It was on it a few times [...]
Tue, 06-11-2013 18:03
You are talking here about something well before my time !. I have not seen her with anything other than the whistle she now carries. If she [...]
Mon, 06-10-2013 16:17
i'm curious here. Will 1630 ever wear the ATSF 6 chime she had on for a while? Better defines her, I love the deep whistle she has now but the higher [...]
Sat, 06-08-2013 15:15
Many many many many many thanks for getting the Spaulding webcam working!!!!!
Fri, 06-07-2013 16:55
The donation was to the museum as a whole. How it is used and whether any comes to steam department projects will be the decision of the museum [...]
Fri, 06-07-2013 16:53
Basically the plan is "ONLY" reassembly. As far as we know she is is reasonable mechanical shape. The big mechanical problem that stopped her (slack [...]
Fri, 06-07-2013 16:28
Nigel I read you guys got a one million dollar check donation!!! Will this be used to finish 1630 ,428, 5 and get started on the others next in line?
Fri, 06-07-2013 16:16
So does 1630 basically only need reassembly? With the boiler in particular. Does her tender or running gear need any work before she's ready for the [...]
Fri, 06-07-2013 12:00
Hello.. The voltage we are using and presumed the RR also used is 120 vac. The system is a little unique because the lite bulbs are each 60 volts. [...]