Entries by Nigel Bennett

This weekend we started in  earnest on the over winter work program, primarily on 1630.

The biggest overall job will be painting the locomotive.  Brian and Jane worked on understanding exactly how best to apply the paint that will be used.  It is a two part type that we have not previously used and some significant planning and preparation is required.  Two of the air tanks were removed and these will be the first items to be painted to provide experience and testing of the best methods of preparation and application.

The first part for painting

Dennis was hard at work on the plate work and mesh screens for the smokebox.  These are now approaching completion.

Dennis has nearly completed the platework

We also worked thru the items that we needed to do while we can still pressurize the boiler.

·         One key item that worked out well was the tracing of a small steam leak that appeared around the handrail stanchion juts behind the sand dome.  Steam appearing from behind the lagging is always troubling as it can indicate all sorts of things, some more troubling than others.  We had suspected (and hoped) that it might be as simple as a loose connection on the lubricator steam line.  Much to our relief it was found that this was exactly what it was.  After removing a good deal of sheet metal and lagging to locate the union, soap solution revealed a very obvious leakage where the union had not been fully tightened when a new pipe was fitted.

The leak is very clear

The bubbles show the leak and we can also see the path that the steam followed thru the insulation to appear around the stanchion.  After tightening the union is leak free under 100 psi of air pressure so we are confident that this problem is located and fully corrected.

.. and equally clearly fixed

·         Matt, Jerry and others worked on the cab lighting.  3 lights in the cab were not working during the test running.  A mixture of defective bulbs and a loose connection were found and by end of day, all lights on the locomotive were fully operational when the generator was run on air.  They did also find and correct the issue of "dim" gauge lighting on the engineer's side!.  The lights sit in little dishes that direct the light toward the gauges.  The dishes have a white enameled surface to direct the light.  The years have reduced this thru rust and smoke to a nice matt black!!.  Cleaning and repainting have fixed that issue.

Jason, Cameron and Phil spent much of the day winterizing the water supply in the boxcar.  This is a tricky job involving a lot of blowing compressed air thru the system to ensure that it is water free and then taking apart the water softening system.  The weather did not help with wind and rain making the job more unpleasant than usual.  Good job guys!.

So it was a successful day working toward having 1630 in top condition for 2014 operations.

Nigel

It is a rather brief update this week.  I made it back to the shop on Sunday after spending Saturday travelling back from New Zealand.

A lot of activity was apparent from Saturday and continued on Sunday.  After a week, 1630 no longer looks like an operational locomotive.  The main activity on Saturday was to thoroughly drain her and then winterize (primarily running on air to blow any residual water out of the system).

A number of parts have been removed to facilitate work over winter.  This is not unexpected.  The intent had always been to carry out test running to identify anything that needs to be dealt with as maintenance activity during the winter.  The main objective of my trip to Union on Sunday was to work with Brian Davies before he leaves to produce a full list of work identified during the test running.  While there is nothing particularly threatening it is a long list that will keep us busy over winter.

The work also needs careful planning as, for example, it is important to deal with everything that may require us to pressurize the boiler to allow testing before we move on to things that require removing items that allow air to escape from the boiler !.

The boiler lagging already looks substantially less complete.  The securing bands must all be removed to allow painting of the sheet metal and this was started on Sunday.

Visitors to the shop will notice that the end covers have been removed from the valve chambers.  It is not planned that work will be done on the valves this winter but it was apparent during running that the valves are leaking significantly.  While this is not essential for 2014 running, we will measure everything up for ring replacement perhaps in the following winter.

On Sunday, Brian was removing the air tanks for painting while I worked on removing sheet metal and insulation to locate a small leakage of steam from the lubricator heater line along the boiler.

In other areas, Tom, Jim and Cameron were working on the brake shoe holders for #428.  The first of these was test fitted and looked good.  So work started on the remaining 7.

Mike was working on the plumbing for the planer.  This is an interesting 3 dimensional jigsaw puzzle with a number of copper pipes, all with the same size connections, coming out of the hydraulic system into the machine.  Now is a very good time to reflect upon how nice it would have been if someone had taken some good photographs of the set-up 20 odd years ago when it was taken apart !.

So if, like me, you missed seeing 1630 as a hot steaming machine last weekend, it will be some months before you will be able to see her even looking complete again.  However, the feel in the shop is very different.  After two years fighting toward the objective of a working steam engine we now have one and must tackle the various winter maintenance tasks to make reliable operation the normal routine in 2014.

One further important piece of information –

SAVE THE DATE - The 2014 Steam Department Benefit at the Sanfilippo Estate will be on Sunday 29^th June 2014.

Nigel

Sitting in a hotel room overlooking a very windswept Wellington harbour this is about the most poignant blog entry I have ever had to make.  After a few days of silence the e-mail has been red hot in the last few hours and the messages contain extreme highs and lows.

The key news items are that 1630 was steamed today and passed its FRA inspection but on the same day we heard of the passing of Bill Chyna, a wonderful guy and a stalwart of the department for as long as most of us can remember.  I have received input from many people but I do not think I can do better than the following note from Collin:

“Today we, as a group, experienced a loss and a triumph of emotional extremes.

This morning Bill Chyna passed away. Bill had celebrated his seventy fourth birthday Saturday and was said to have enjoyed the event, spending time with family and friends. He was eating cake, so what is not to be happy about?.  Bill spent fifteen years with us, and I cannot remember a major decision he was not a part of; a project he did not contribute to. Bill was the first guy I took direction from-the beginning of many orders!-on the first day I came out to the shop. Bill's understanding of electronics and wiring proved to be an invaluable skill as we set up equipment, repaired broken tools and generally moved projects forward. Bill had an understanding of how things work that comes only with decades of experience. I recently visited Bill at Marianjoy Rehabilitation Center where he was undergoing physical therapy. He was in great spirits and probed with questions of what we were doing on 1630, how we were doing it and what our timeline was. I returned the favor by peppering Bill with questions of home repair projects on which he had considerable knowledge. Bill's passing will create a large hole in our team that will be challenging to fill.

As we will always remember him

and on what proved to be his last day in the shop

1630 was steamed up today and passed by our FRA inspector. While much work remains to be done Brian, Jason & Tom gagged and tested the safety valves, performed the orifice test and ran the locomotive back and forth to the satisfaction of the officials present. The hard work contributed by all of you over the past few years got us to this point, plain and simple. Over this winter we need to keep up the pace to complete the job but we are well positioned to enter the 2014 season full steam ahead.

The sight we have been waiting for

I think we can all say that it is a curiosity of steam that drew us out to the museum in the first place. But over time it is the people who make the whole thing worthwhile and keep us coming back. Please keep Bill's family in your thoughts and prayers.”

Well said Collin.

Nigel

A great deal of work was done in the steam shop during the week and over the weekend.  Unfortunately, on Saturday, we hit a snag that may hold us up significantly.

The information this week is provided by Phil and Brian as I am far away on vacation.  Thanks guys.

On 1630, Brian Davies is now working full time and, with JD, Jerry, Cameron, Jeff, Jason and others all spending time working with him during the week the locomotive has seen a lot of changes:

·         The air system was all back together with the exception of the compressor by Friday.  After a few fits, the brakes work!

·         Mike was working to finish that on Saturday ready for testing.  Later in the day the house air was hooked up and the air pump was tested.  At first the high pressure steam side moved once and then it froze up. The stuffing boxes were loosened and oil was put on the pistons. A second attempt was made. It worked beautifully. So, it was good to see that something be confirmed as done and working on the locomotive.

Mike puts finishing touched to the air pump

·         All of the sheet metal in the cab is on.  Some screws still need to be added.  With the exception of attaching and plumbing the stoker jet manifold, the cab is basically complete!!  Even the electric is hooked back up pending testing.

The cab is now largely complete

·         Cylinder cocks have been cleaned and inspected, and a new pipe nipple installed after one broke.  They should be good to go. 

·         Jim and Brian are added the last little bits of insulation around about the last foot of flexible stays on either side of the wrapper sheet. 

·         Sheet metal, minus the bands, was completed across the barrel. 

·         On Saturday much of the banding was fitted.

·         The final normal hydro was performed yesterday to hammer stay bolts. This proved good so no issues with these. 

·         The blow down muffler was installed.

·         Preparations have been made for the steam test including:

o   Setting up a large steam valve on the pipe coming off of the auxiliary dome lid to allow a gauge to be fitted for testing the safety valves; and

o   Making two gags that will allow individual valves to be held closed to allow the others to be tested.

Gags ready for steam testing

·         Unfortunately the key objective on Saturday, which was to apply hydro pressure to the front end to test the sealing of the super heater elements into the header, ran in to significant problems.  This relies upon pressurizing the whole front end (cylinders, valve chambers, exhaust passages etc. with water to about 50 psi).  This involves minimizing water leakage thru a whole lot of areas, such as the piston glands, that are not wholly tight under steam and are a lot more problematic using water.

·         A large team spent the morning preparing for the test and the first filling was carried out in the afternoon.  This indicated a lot of leakage around the piston and valve glands as well as the junction where the exhaust steam from the air compressor and stoker enter the cylinder casting. 

·         Water was them lowered so fixes could be made to seal the water better.   While some progress was made on the glands it was found that the exhaust steam connection, which is in a really awkward place under the boiler, could not be sealed in a way that allowed a pressure of anything like 50 psi to be achieved.  This is a complex threaded assembly on which the threads proved to be damaged.

·         To progress the test it will now be necessary to machine a replacement part.  At the same time further work will be done on the packing glands of the piston and valve rods.  After this we can again try to pressurize the front end and test the sealing of the super heater elements.

On 428:

·         Tom has finished most of the machining on the wedges.  All that is left to do is to drill several hole in them so that they can be adjusted when they are put on the locomotive.  Brian and Cameron made a mount that will align for the drilling of these holes.

Brian and Cameron work on the template

·         The mounting brackets for 428's air compressor received a coat of paint.

In other areas:

·         Stu, Bob, and Jane worked on painting the planer. It looks quite remarkable now that it has green paint on it. Bob also worked on assembly of some more small pipes.

Stu works on the planer

Jane paints what now looks much more like a working machine

This week we have an extremely second hand report put together in a hotel room in Australia based upon the input from Phil, Eric, Collin and the guys.

On 1630 a lot of progress was made in small key steps. It didn't seem like much but a lot of the work done will allow for major steps to be accomplished next week. The effort is focused on getting everything into place to pressure test the super heater elements and test the air system (under house air initially to ensure we have integrity before we run the air pump). 

·         In the cab:

A team consisting of Collin, Ed, Jason and the two Brians discovered that a piece of the sheet metal covering the lagging around the radius of the firebox had a small alignment problem. The piece had a hole for the steam chest pressure gauge pipe to pass through. This pipe was rotten and was replaced during the winter. The pipe was replaced in a slightly higher location that originally located and thus did not fit through the sheet metallic as planned. The sheet metal was modified and the cab sheet metal is now almost complete.

Ed works on fitting piping

The throttle was adjusted.  Jason and Brian Davies worked on this project, which is ongoing.  This is proving to be tricky as minor variations in the setting of the throttle lever cause it to foul other equipment.

Brian struggles with the throttle

The fire hole doors were reassembled and a lot of the key piping was figured out. Several more pieces of the cab jacketing were put on.

·         Cameron and David worked on reassembling the blast pipe in the smoke box. The contact surfaces were cleaned and the blast pipe and blanking plate were installed and tightened down.  So this is now sealed and ready for the pressure test.

Blast pipe in place and sealed for testing

·         The fireman’s side main air tank was installed.  It took a lot of fussing around trying to get the air tank installed but after a lot of back and forth we were able to get the air tank in and the “U” bolts on it.

·         Work continued the jacketing.  As the old jacketing is being assembled several small places between the jacketing have exposed insulation.  So, several new pieces of jacketing have been made. These new pieces will go in as filler over the small gaps.  Eric with help from Philip worked on making the new pieces of sheet metal.

·         Jerry and Jim worked on putting the insulation on the fire box. A long and slow process as many little pieces must be made in order to be fit between the flexible stay bolts.

Lagging of firebox in process

·         Mike worked on the air compressor.  Just the top valve is left to go on it.  Mike says it is in good shape as the picture shows.

View into valve seat of air pump

It now just needs to be cleaned up and then it can be reassembled and the air compressor can be tested.

In other areas:

·         Phil finished drilling the hole in the bolster of the Shay to the proper size. It is now ready for the bushing to be pressed in.

·         Bob continued to assemble small pieces of piping to the planer. It is slowly getting closer to operational condition.

So, overall there was a lot of progress toward the critical testing.  Hopefully there will be a lot more to report next week.

Nigel