Steam Department

This Saturday we had a surprisingly good turnout.  Steam Department volunteers must have felt the need to work off the turkey.

On 1630 work continued steadily. 

Collin and Phil worked on the firebox end tube plugs.  Another 40 are out.  The technique is now well developed but there is a limit to how long you can you can work at this.  Since you have first to gas cut the tube end to a suitable length for removal the atmosphere in the confined space of the boiler when you use an acetylene cutting torch does become "a little warm".  Still, the fireman's side is now largely clear.

Mike and Bob removed the stays from the firebox corner.  All the rivets and stays are now out so they are now working on cutting out the damaged corner plate.  Not simple as the replacement tube sheet fitted in the 1930's was welded into place.

A great deal of reorganization of the shop was achieved that will provide Dennis with a better area for welding, under lifting gear that can move and position heavy parts, as well as free the space in which we can both swage the fire tubes for 1630 and set up the rig to pressure test the super heater elements.

Space to work

The new fork lift enabled us to move the large timbers being seasoned for the Shay up onto racking so freeing a lot of floor space.

Timber for the Shay

The Shay saw considerable progress.  A "A" frame outside the shop was broken down and reassembled over the truck - one of those jobs that sounds easy until you are trying to align bolt holes in the legs and beam, both of which are heavy enough to need 2 people to move!!. 

Preparing to lift

Anyway, we achieved it and then it was possible to lift the bolster off the truck.

Lift in progress

So now the springs that are to be replaced are free and clear.

Target of the operation

Small snag - the truck must also be examined for damage or cracks which means removing 50 years of hardened grease and muck.

Cleaning project

Meanwhile Rick was completing the cover over the vertical lathe to protect this during the winter.

Protection for the lathe

We were also able to progress a number of machining tasks.

Thanks everyone for a very productive day's work

Nigel

Two good weekends of progress since the last update.  While I was not at Union on 11/14 at least I had a chance to see working steam.

When can we have one?

This is a 1934 Stanier mogul built by the UK London Midland & Scottish Railway in the UK and one of 2 locomotives running 11/14 on the Severn Valley Railway.  A very interesting comparison to our #26.  She looks a lot smaller but this is actually due to the height restriction (12ft 6in vs 14ft).  Actually she has a slightly greater tractive effort despite bigger wheels and a fairly advanced superheated boiler for a substantially better continuous horsepower.

On 1630 we are now hopefully reaching the end of the "destructive" phase.  Eric, Collin and Jason have established a good technique for knocking out the ends of both the small tubes and now the larger superheater flues.  The large ones were really tough as the metal is thicker so hammering on its own does not collapse them.  Careful grinding is needed to weaken the ring before hammering will work.  Great care is needed to avoid damage to the tubesheets.  Anyway, they have the process refined to the point that the ends are popping out fast now.  The front tubesheet is now clear of all cut ends, large and small, while a substantial number of both types were removed from the back sheet yesterday - no photographs of the back tubesheet, your scribe was too stiff and lacking in dedication to crawl into the firebox with a camera at the end of day!!.

Interesting to compare the view now with that a few weeks ago.  All the ends are now gone.  A small number of flues and smaller tubes can be seen still in place in the center.  It is hoped that the inspection can be completed without removing these.

Front sheet now clear

Every one of these was hammered out by the guys using an air hammer inside the boiler ... and this is by no means all of them as the pile would have blocked the lower holes.

Result of a lot of work

Brian did a great job cleaning off the last of the rust and insulation from the back head so we are now ready to start the thickness testing.

Ready for testing

Just to remind ourselves what has been achieved.  This is the same area as it was (and what we have to reconstruct !!)

Before stripping

and after removing the cladding and insulation.

Stage 1

Mike, Bob, Ralph and others have continued the painful process of driving out the rivets to allow the firebox corner patch to be fitted.  They are now working on the last one.  Bet they are going to be real dissappointed when there are no more of these to do !!.

Cameron and Brian did a difficult but essential job that had become urgent.  With winter approaching it is essential that there is no water in the super heater elements now stored in the box car that could freeze and crack the element.  The shape of these elements (16 feet long with each tube bent to make 4 passes along this length) makes it very difficult to get water out.  So each one had to be man handled and blown thru with compressed air.  Good job guys!

We are now starting to set up tasks to prepare for the reassembly.  The actual assembly is some way out but we want to ensure that parts are ready ahead of time where we can.  One major job is "swaging" (shrinking the diameter) of the new tubes at the firebox end ready to fit when we start to retube the boiler.  This means setting up a production area where the ends of 200+ tubes can be heated to red heat then quickly put into the swager where a compressed air cylinder shrinks the end of the tube against a die to the correct size.  Substantial progress has been made in clearing the area at the South end of the shop for the swager and furnace to be mounted in the next couple of weeks.

Swaging area under construction

The pallets are ready for Jeff to move out to the boxcar on Sunday and then we can think about setting up the swager.

So this is a swager

Hopefully before too long we can demonstrate what this does!.

There has also been major progress on the Shay.  Last weekend Tom and the team achieved what has been the target for quite some time, jacked the front of the loco and pulled out the truck.  So yesterday it stood with a large gap where the front truck fits.

Think something is missing !

The truck now sits in front of the locomotive and work has now started on cleaning it to allow the bolster to be removed and the springs to be accessed.

Working on the truck

This gives a good idea of how the Shay is constructed.  The front of the locomotive sits only on the bearing in the "cup" that can be seen in the middle of the bolster at center of the truck.  The weight is transfered from the bolster to the frame and wheels by the springs that are currently hidden under the bolster.

Altogether a good couple of weeks progress.

Nigel

This will teach me to send in information!.  Think I drowned Bob in input for a couple of weeks so now I have to do it myself.  Probably very fair and thank you Bob for loading my last two efforts.

I don't think I have the ability to load pictures yet so this one will be text only.

Lots of activity today though much of it was not directly on 1630 but rather taking advantage of the great weather to get set up for productive work when the weather is not so favorable.

On 1630 itself:

• Jason and Collin continued the removal of the tube ends.  All the small plugs are out at the front and Collin started flame cutting the firebox end plugs to a length at which they can be hammered out more easily.  This end is a bit more difficult as the tubes had to be flame cut (you can only use a rotating cutter at one end) and, when doing this, the key objective is to ensure that you do not cut too close to the firebox and cause damage.  Now any excess must be removed if we are not to have an excessive amount of metal to hammer out.
• We also set up to remove the super heater flue ends.  These are a real pain as the metal is thicker and cannot simply be hammered to collapse out of the tuibe sheet.  They will have to be carefully weakened with and angle grinder before they can be hammered out.
• Bob did a great job cleaning up the back head for testing.  This is a filthy job as the excess insulation and rust must be wire brushed in the confined space of the cab.  A solid days work and one more day should see that done.
• Ralph worked on removing the rivets to enable the firebox patch.  One more out, two to go.

Major activities during the winter will be cleaning and testing the superheater elements and swaging the new tubes (heating and compressing the ends of the tube so that it can be fitted into the tubeplate) to prepare for this:

• Jeff, with occasional assistance for a few others, set up storage racks in the box car so that we now have the tubes and superheaters easily accessible so that we can take a few of either into the shop as required and still have a lot of space to store other materials.
• A number of us did a major reorganization of the South end of the shop to allow the swager and furnace to be set up.

In other areas:

• Stu and Brian disconnected the front truck drive shaft on Shay #5.  This is essential to allow the truck to be removed to fit new springs.
• Dennis, our skilled welder, returned.  He was able to complete the bar we have been making for the Lackawanna car.  We were able to set up the welding area with an A frame so that he can set up to rebuild the axle boxes for UP#428.
• A number of us managed to move the planer to a position where it can be set up to run.  Bob removed the motor for cleaning / checking.  If we can get this machine into service it will be a big time saver on jobs such as axle boxes.

So a lot of progress in a number of areas.

No update from me next week as I have to go to the UK on business.