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Sunday, February 24. 2013Great Expectations.......Rock Island 2612 interior 2602  THIS IS THE 2612 Wow What a difference  The door needs work  THAT is an after market toilet  cleanup will be at hand  It is a little bit of a mess  Hey Where is the broom!  Missing buffers  The deck condition  Henrietta will be removed  Saturday, I reinstalled some seat backs and cushions It looks better already... Sunday, February 24. 2013Wood Shop Update - February 23, 2013I do not think I can compete with the Steam Shop news posted by Nigel Bennet, and in any event the turnout of volunteers was lower than recent weeks. Perhaps due to the evening event scheduled. On the down side we now have torn sandpaper on two of the three drums on our Berlin Sander and work will have to commence at once to dismantle the machine and replace the media. Can it be done in a day?  Many to Go With the Berlin out of service we moved to Plan B, that to continue milling stock for new roof boards for Michigan Electric 28. Paul Cronin and Bill Peterson are set up run all those slats through the shaper, and that is only PART of them.  Done WHEW! Over 100 pieces done with new grooves milled to match the tongue side. Bill and Paul look as proud as new parents. Maybe that is only the relief at completing the shaper work on the third similar shop order in the last month. Three differing profiles totaling about 2000 linear feet.  End View Here is what they look like, each only two inches wide. But there was still one more operation since these are to installed above the curved carlines on the roof and need to fit together closely. Just as the carbuilders did, we ran than all through the table saw to create an 8.5 degree bevel undercut on the groove side.  Stacking Off Finally Paul and Bill stack off the completed work for the last time. You would not think that too hard a job, but it gets old and tiresome when every day starts by picking up the over one hundred pieces and now for the last time, stacking off the completed stock.  Locks Victor Humphreys and Bill are pawing through the BUCKET-O-LOCKS to pick out door hardware for the new Chicago Great Western X 38 doors.  Glass Victor measured and cut some glass for the new CGW X 38 windows and here shows that off to to Bill and Paul.  Second Door Tim Peters was working on the second door to be restored for Chicago Rapid Transit 1024. How many doors are there on that one car? Maybe FOUR I can count right now.  Lamp Sockets Keith Letsche was repairing lamp sockets for the 1024. That includes cleaning the many layers of paint, inspecting, and repairing as needed.  Lamp Bases On a different bench Bill Wulfert, now becoming known as the King of Lamps, was doing many of the same operations to a production line of lamp bases.  Molding Finally, here is a picture of molding produced by the Pullman plant over 100 years ago. Two similar types are found in many places throughout the 1024 and of course, nothing even close is contemporary today. It presents several challenges to make and will require special tooling to be ground for our machines. All of those steps may take several weeks so it is timely to start contacting suppliers now.
Sunday, February 24. 2013Steam Department Update 02-23-2013It was a day of great progress and one very significant milestone in the steam shop yesterday. The activity was largely on 1630:
· Fitting of the small tubes progressed very well using the methods established last week, with teams working both ends at the same time. o Collin and Eric ground the projecting ends in the firebox and all of these are now ready to flare once they are sealed into the front sheet. As noted below, work on tubes in the firebox ceased for very good reasons in the afternoon; o Phil cut replacements for the two tubes that had hit problems and these were fitted and expanded. So all the small tubes, other than the few that are in between the super heater flues and must be fitted as part of installing the flues, are now in place; o Most of the ends that are to be beaded in the smokebox were also ground to length.
At times Brian and Eric were working simultaneously on this with an impressive rate of progress. Just a few on the fireman's side remain to be ground to length. o Brian is rapidly becoming our expert on the tube roller.
Once the grinding of the engineer's side was complete he started again with the tube roller and worked steadily to the point that we are now substantially more than 50% complete in rolling tubes in the smokebox. Everything on the engineer's side and much of the lower area is now done. · With installation of the small tubes nearing completion, Phil made good the paint (actually a specialized boiler treatment) on the 16 super heater flues to ensure that these are ready for installation. · Phil also spent a couple of hours on the sand blast cabinet in the car shop cleaning up some of the rivets needed for the patch. ........... which brings us to the major landmark of the week; · Dennis returned after a couple of weeks absence, due to illness in the family, and work restarted in earnest on the firebox patch. The tube fitting team moved out to allow full access to fit the patch. o The patch was bolted into place, the last two rivet holes were drilled and bolts fitted thru them.
o After more cleaning, degreasing and tightening, the patch was finally secured in place and Dennis was preparing to weld when I left for the Soiree.
o I later received pictures from Phil. By the end of day the patch was fully welded into the inner firebox sheet !!.
o This is a huge step forward in correcting the problem that caused the locomotive to be pulled from service. It mean that we now have one more really tricky job to do before the repair is complete. All the bolts currently holding the patch must be replaced by rivets, which are 7/8 diameter and about 6 inches long. This will be a "fun" exercise but, once this is done, we will be close to the point where this part of the boiler is ready for hydro testing. In other areas: · Dennis completed welding the gear for the back head mechanism on the wheel lathe. Once the holes are drilled out and bolts fitted we should be able to assemble this part of the lathe and test it.
· Bob continued work on the planer; · Dave machined new parts for the spring hangers on 428; and · Jeff was able to install the first sections of the new compressed air supply to the South shop.
So, overall a very significant day for the steam shop. No update next week as I am going to the UK on business. However, a lot is now in progress so I hope that there will be a lot more to report in two weeks time. I am hoping that there may be the opportunity to see some steam activity in the UK while I am there. Nigel Friday, February 22. 2013Wood Shop Update - February 20, 2013And in the wood shop area, as is our custom, we produced a lot of sawdust and chips. Production is at such a high level, the collection barrel needs to be emptied more than once every day the machines are running.  Painting Victor Humphreys is our 'go to guy' for painting and he does a fine job. Here are the new cupola cab windows for Chicago Great Western X 38 getting the first coat of maroon.  Fitting Dave Rogan does careful work in fine tuning the mortise and tenon joints for the second CGW X 38 door. We make it a practice to completely assemble and dry fit the door before gluing, and on occasion, fine adjustments need to be made.  Worth It And at the end of the day it is worth it. The second door is in the glue press curing as Dave makes a final check. The first door is done to this stage and can be seen in the background.  Trimming John Faulhaber and Rich Witt are trimming a new roof board for the Lake Shore Electric 810. The new boards are being installed from the top down towards the tack molding.  Sanding John is on the belt sander now making the final fit fpr this piece. Nothing ever comes out exactly perfect when working on an eighty year old car body, so the last piece is a custom work of art.  Results Count And here is the car, outside in Barn 4. Three or four rows of roof boards are done, and the new tack molding has been installed. Wednesday morning it was about plus 7 F and these guys were on the scaffold first thing. At least they were out of the wind!  Door Repair Henry Vincent has completed the new pieces for the repair on this door for Chicago Aurora & Elgin 36. He has moved forward and is sanding old paint off, and preparing the mating surfaces for new finish before final assembly.  Speaking in Tongues Well, more properly, speaking OF tongues. A good sized crew worked again throughout the day on new roof boards for Michigan Electric 28. I think the goal is for something in excess of 1200 linear feet to be made. That is not a trivial effort. Here are the first boards off the shaper showing the new tongues.  Crew Paul Cronin is acting as catcher getting the stock as it comes off the shaper, and Buzz Morisette is feeding the machine. Not the only two working this project, others helped, but were not in this image. Jeff Brady and Norm Krentel were outside in the barn, working on the top roof sheathing. Progress was also made with the new Boston & Maine windows - beading, planing, and ripping. Friday, February 22. 2013CTS 4223 Update - February 20, 2013I have a number of images for one project today, Cleveland Transit System 4223, a PCC car. Lorne Tweed took several of these so I will split this weeks news into two BLOG entries  Switch Cabinet Dave Diaz is painting a new switch cabinet for the car. It has been fabricated new, and a lot of prep work has gone into adding the needed attachments and holes for mounting under the front dash of the car.  Left Rear The next few images were taken inside the car, left side rear. We have all the panels and trim for the car, but they have been out of it for many years. It is like trying to do a jigsaw puzzle without benefit of the picture on the box. Wise advice to budding restorationists: Take a lot of pics, mark each piece where it came from with a paper tag, and write the id on each piece. Surely one of those pieces of information will be lost to memory or time.  Wall Panel There are wide wall panels to be mounted below the row of standee windows and above the ordinary passenger windows. Simon Harrison is holding the first one, working from the rear to front on the left side.  Upper Trim Simon Harrison is now fitting a piece of trim above the row of standee windows. Many of these pieces appear to be the same, but have subtle differences, different hole patterns. You really need to lay out and sort out each group of pieces.  Side Windows In the shop the seemingly endless task of preparing the side windows, passenger windows, goes on. For this car there is an upper and lower for each opening. Simon is applying a clear protective finish to the cleaned aluminum frames, in this case one of the lower sash. Monday, February 18. 2013Wood Shop Update - February 16, 2013A very busy day in the shop Saturday and a lot of hands at work!  Plow Door Work continued apace on the second new door for Chicago Great Western X 38. John Faulhaber did a lot of the fussy work of fitting the joints and I pitched in when I had some free time. The second door is ready for assembly and glue up.  Jointing The BIG job of the day, volume wise and manpower wise was making stock for new roof boards for Michigan Electric 28. So you will see a lot of pics of those steps. The goal is to have about 1200 linear feet of stock sized and planed for milling a tongue and groove on each piece. Henry Vincent, Paul Cronin, and Buzz Morisette got the ball rolling by running the remaining rough boards through the jointer to make one edge true and straight. I should note that Paul Cronin had knee replacement surgery a little over four weeks ago and he is back in the shop working. TWO THUMBS UP for Paul!  Ripping Done All the wide boards were cut to the needed two inch wide strips and Paul, Bill Peterson, Henry, and Buzz were stacking them completed around midday. But these guys are like the EverReady bunny, they just will not stop. They were ready for MORE!  Planing So we have this stack of something over 100 pieces of stock and the next step is to plane to about 7/16 inch thickness. Buzz, Henry, Paul and Bill took on that task. It is fairly simple if you have two or four pieces, but 100? A lot of handling and the consideration of where do you stack it up along the process.  Planing Buzz and Henry were feeding the stock, and Paul and Bill were acting as catchers. Every 15 minutes or so an intermission was called. We have a pretty good system to collect the dust and chips. But you have to watch the collection barrel and make sure it gets emptied!  Second Wind Henry and Buzz continue feeding the planer while Greg Kepka pitched in moving and staging still more stock to feed that voracious machine.  Second Pass Still these guys wanted more. Paul and Henry are at the infeed end of the planer for the second and final pass to produce the finished 3/8 inch thickness. Bill and Greg are at the outfeed end acting as catchers.  The Result Whew! With all that done, now what do we do with it? Bill, Henry, and Paul are stacking off the finished work while others help to clean up the work area near the planer. A BIG job DONE! With much of the center stage area of the wood shop and its machines busy, that did not mean all the other work stopped. You merely had to take a number and wait your turn.  Windows Rich Witt was measuring and laying out cuts on new beautiful mahogany stock for the Boston & Maine windows we are making. That got processed and is ready for the next step.  Fittings Tim Peters filled some of his time waiting for machines to be available by cleaning and wire brushing some castings needed in the next steps for rebuilding a door for Chicago Rapid Transit 1024.  The Skin Then Tim was back on the saw with a tricky set up for slicing a thin skin of quarter sawn white oak to be applied to one of the stiles on the above door. The skin was not particularly loud but the nearby planer was still howling away, thus the ear protection. Either that or he thought it was cold in the shop and likes warm ears.  PCC Cars Two of our PCC cars saw more work. Frank Sirinek and Mike Stauber were in the shop stripping old paint and cleaning interior panels and trim for the Kansas City Public Service PCC car.  Cleveland Too Lorne Tweed and Eric Lorenz continue work on the Cleveland Transit System 4223 PCC car. They claim they were involved in some planning and engineering work, but it looks to me more like something shady was being discussed as I caught them in the act with some drawings and plans. Sunday, February 17. 2013Steam Department Update 02-16-2013It was a productive day at the steam shop although the weather was rather unkind, given our priorities. On 1630 the whole focus was upon continuing the fitting of fire tubes. As noted last week, our first priority was on trying to make the smaller air motor work with sufficient power to drive the tube rollers and so avoid trying to handle to the large motor in confined spaces. Moving the Sullair to the North end and rigging a holding reservoir to assure minimal pressure drop as the motor works should have been simple. It took Phil and me rather longer with a few challenges such as melting the wheels out of huge blocks of ice that had frozen it to the ground !. However, Glenn's good work over the summer paid off. The compressor starts well even at 15 degrees. The effort was a success. The smaller air motor with this enhanced air supply will successfully drive both the straight and flaring tube rollers. This unimpressive looking reservoir, close to the locomotive, proves invaluable in maintaining pressure as the tube is rolled.
The results were impressive. We were able to both largely complete expanding the tubes in the firebox and reach about 25% completion of rolling at the smokebox end. We now have just two tubes in the main area to refit. We decided to expand all tubes before addressing the ones where the ferrule "popped" during expansion. Only one did so this week. So we have that and the one from last week to refit before we have all fitted (aside from those between the super heater flues). Rolling the tube ends is now a rapid process but is driven by preparation for the next step, which is flaring those tubes that are to be beaded after the first hydro test. These need to be fairly accurate to 1/4 inch projection at each end and the flaring is more effective if the length is adjusted before this is done. So, next week, a number of tubes that have excess length will need to be cut back to 1/4 inch with the angle grinder before flaring. This was expected. The tube sheets are not flat so each tube length is unique and must not provide less than the required projection, so you cannot hope to get each tube correct to 1/16th as they are fitted.
Here you can see some of the tubes (for example the two just left of the lowest super heater flue) that project further and will need to be trimmed before flaring.
Hopefully in the coming weeks we can get two teams working. Once the smokebox end of a tube is rolled, the firebox end can be flared. So it should be possible to have teams working in both firebox and smokebox at the same time. The developing number of tubes with blue paint marks is an indication of substantial progress In other areas: · The move of the McCabe was completed. This location will allow it to be used without further movement but keeps it out of the way.
· Jeff managed to get the scissor lift moved to the shop despite the icy conditions. This will allow work to start next week on installing the new air system into the South shop.
A demonstration ride on the lift provided a rare opportunity for a look at work in the shop from above. Looking the length of the shop, Jerry is relocating material to make way for the McCabe and, at the far end, work continues rolling tubes into 1630.
Looking toward the West wall, the team is working on the shaper.
· Stu and Mike worked on reassembly of the planer. Sorting out how the levers should link to the hydraulic control block appears to be a challenge judging by Stu's expression!
So, overall another week of good progress. Nigel |
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Comments
Thu, 05-16-2013 21:52
Looking good Bob! I hope to come out soon once I'm done with school.
Wed, 05-15-2013 21:28
I was not around at the time. General discussion suggests that it was "pretty marginal" in a number of areas. Nigel
Mon, 05-13-2013 11:08
"THUMBS UP!"
Fri, 05-10-2013 02:15
No, it will not be necessary to hold any of the work waiting for the plow to be turned, end for end. Weather will be the major factor, but there will [...]
Thu, 05-09-2013 19:54
The CGW X-38 plow is really coming to life. Bob Kutella and Vic and crew need to be very proud of your collective efforts. I am very appreciative of [...]
Thu, 05-09-2013 15:20
The snowplow looks great! Are you going to apply the door and upper windows befor it is turned to continue work?
Thu, 05-09-2013 09:09
Max, Is there any progress to report yet, in regards to the installation of the poles and overhead wires? Have a good day, sir.
Wed, 05-08-2013 18:40
Thanks for the update! I still don't understand why Commonwealth #5 was removed from service. Do you know why?
Tue, 05-07-2013 09:28
Mr. Kolanowski.....I was just wondering if the Spaulding webcam will be up and running soon for us stay-at-homes. Thanks!2FP
Mon, 05-06-2013 23:04
Max, Has work begun yet on the construction phase of erecting the poles and putting up the wire? Wish I could be there to watch it happen.
Mon, 05-06-2013 23:02
Keep up the good work, Bob. Wish I could be there to help!!!!!!!
Sun, 05-05-2013 18:53
Ah yes, I have made such Jibs myself. If it were me, I would add in each corner an angled piece from the base to the Jib to act as sway bracing. [...]