Steam Department

It is a "second-hand" update this weekend, courtesy of Phil Cwikowski.  I did not make it to Union this Saturday as we had family visiting.  Unfortunately, absent anyone who had experience with the tube roller, we were not able to roll more tubes into 1630 but a good deal of other progress was made.

On 1630:

·         measurements were taken to fit the ferrules for the super heater flues.  It looks as if we have enough for the firebox but will need to find or make some more for the smokebox;

·         the flues are now alongside the locomotive ready for refitting when the fire tubes have been secured;

·         the scaffolding and spare tubes have now been cleared so that we have free access to the front of the locomotive again;

·         needle chipping of the cylinder covers was completed and primer was applied to protect the cleaned surfaces;

Cylinder ends exposed and cleaned

·         the valve chambers were checked for sand blast material that could have been carried over from the boiler cleaning.  The good news is that they appear clean and free of debris.

In other areas:

·         Major progress was made on the wheel lathe.  Air pressure was applied for the first time in decades to release the lock holding the back head.  With this done, attempts were made to move the back bead on its slides ........... and it moved!!.  This is critical as the back head weighs several thousand pounds and, were it jammed, it would require very heavy equipment to free it.  After this the gear for turning the shaft of the back head was investigated and this was also turned.  All of this checking is critical as these parts are normally moved under the power of substantial geared motors.  Since it has not operated in many years it is critical to ensure that these huge parts are free to move before we apply power as major damage could occur if they are jammed when power is applied.  The tricky part is judging the difference between jammed and normal resistance when it is normally moved by a large motor thru substantial gearing !!.

·         Stu and Bob returned to work on the planer and further progressed the cleaning and reassembly of this machine;

The planer bed now refurbished

·         We gathered the information to calculate the total weight of the new air compressor and motor assembly so that Rick can now identify the vibration isolators that we will need to mount it.

So progress on a number of fronts.  Hopefully next week we can continue with the tube rolling.

Nigel