Illinois Railway Museum Blog

A very productive day thanks to a good turnout.  We did not move 1630 as Dennis was available to do welding on the mud ring for the firebox patch.  Good progress was made on this.  The metal has now been made good around all the rivet holes from the outside.  Once the last of the holes is re-drilled accurately from the inside the metal can be made good on the inside.  (One side must be done at a time so that there is always a pilot hole to ensure that the finished rivet holes are accurately aligned).

Making good the rivet holes

Now that the sand blasting and associated dust are finished several other jobs could be progressed.

·         Collin and Jeff C thoroughly needle chipped and wire brushed the back head so that is now ready for inspection and ultrasonic testing;

Ready for testing

·         Eric and Jason cleared and checked the tell tale hole in the stays on the engineer's side.  This is a dirty and tedious but essential task as we must prove that these holes, which would leak water and provide an indication should the stay break, are all clear to the required depth;

All these were cleared and checked for depth

·         Matt finished removing the blasting medium from the firebox crown and Bob cleared it from the sides of the firebox so it is now clear in most areas;

·         We continued the detail measurement of the super heater flues and should soon be ready to start preparing the material for safe ending;

·         Jason and Eric moved on to cleaning up the inside of the tube sheet for final inspection and preparation to refit the tubes.  The sheet must be closely examined for any cracking between the tube holes then the edges of each hole must be made good where necessary and smoothed to ensure a snug fit when we use the rollers to expand  the new tubes into place.

Jason inside the boiler preparing the tube sheet

We are now scheduling the long awaited ultrasound testing that will provide the basis for the critical form 4 calculations in support of the new certification.

Work continued in a number of other areas progressed in previous weeks such as the planer and the boxes for 428.  In addition, Rick and Ed cast the firebrick for the riveting furnace that we need to complete 428's cab.  That is an important mid-term objective as refitting the cab to 428 would free up a very useful area of the shop for other fabrication work.

Jeff worked on lubrication of the Brown Hoist crane in preparation to pull 1630 out.  We will do this as soon as weather and other jobs, such as the welding and the ultrasound testing, permit.

We also managed to largely clear the area between the shop approach and barn 9.  B & G are planning to grade this once it is clear, reducing the risk of flooding and hopefully providing a more stable surface.  This area is a long standing problem as parts of it are no more than fine sand or dust not far removed from quicksand.  It proved its capability again yesterday when the forklift became bogged and we spent an hour extracting it!!.

After recovery of the forklift and nearly ready to grade

Nigel