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Sunday, July 1. 2012Steam Department Update 6-30-2012Independence Day weekend and temperatures of over 90 degrees reduced us to a very small crew. However we achieved good progress on critical tasks. Working with Alex, we managed to cut all the safe ends for the super heater flues. The ends are laid out on the Shay bolster. All are matched to a specific flue. All 16 flues must have a small diameter safe end (the darker tube in the picture). 9 require safe ending at the larger end (the gray tube). The small diameter safe ends for these 9 are inside the large tubes.
Each end must be tapered to fit into the end of the flue to which it is welded. This is a safety measure so that, should the weld fracture, the flue could not completely separate and fall within the boiler due to this overlap.
The tapers are cut in the lathe. Here one is being set up for tapering
With training from Tom, I cut the taper on a significant number of them during the evening. Tom can now arrange a time for the contract welder to come in and attach the ends to the flues. We also located the pressure test rig that we will need to test each of the flues after welding. Tom has completed the new piston rod for the McCabe flanger so next week we should be able to reassemble this in preparation for forming the firebox patch.
It now looks very nice but provides a great example of the difficulty of working with old heavy equipment. Any breakage requires remaking parts in much the same way as repairing the locomotive itself. This apparently simple breakage has cost about $300 for steel and many hours of time in machining to reach this stage. We mentioned a couple of weeks back that the headlight had been refitted to 938. She now looks a lot better with the headlight in place.
Now that would be a really nice locomotive to see in operation. Anyone got the odd couple of million spare ........... !! Hope to see many of you at the Benefit this afternoon. Nigel |
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Comments
Fri, 03-29-2024 21:26
We're slackers and spend more time working on the equipment in the shop than keeping all you readers updated. We'll work on it, but I'm sure updates [...]
Thu, 03-14-2024 08:02
What happened to the Department Blog? It's been over 2 years and I still regularly check for updates, but nothing comes...
Mon, 12-27-2021 16:28
Happy New Year to all the Departments at the Illinois railway Museum! Thanks for all the good work you do in railroad preservation. Ted Miles, [...]
Wed, 10-13-2021 13:33
Was the CB&Q 1309 every transported to IRM?I’ve been reading old issues of Rail&Wire and the car was mentioned several times.
Mon, 06-07-2021 22:40
I was wondering if in the model layout display what scale would you guys be using and would you be displaying model train history as well? Just [...]
Wed, 06-02-2021 17:27
Nice to see 428's cab back on. Looking forward to when it is operable!
Tue, 06-01-2021 16:47
I hope the work will continue on the UP #428. Now that they are the museum's connection to the national railroad network; she would be very [...]
Sat, 04-17-2021 23:07
What is the status of 126, the Milwaukee Buffet car that is in S. Dakota? Any guess on when or if it will get to IRM?
Wed, 04-14-2021 21:09
Perhaps it is time to scrap the remains of the c, B & Q 7128 to make room for the Villa Real. Ted miles, IRM member
Wed, 04-14-2021 15:26
Hi IRM my name is Jason and I was wonder If you guys would be willing to save a CN Dash8-40cm they are currently being retired by CN and being [...]
Fri, 04-09-2021 19:56
Bear in mind that the Nebraska Zephyr is an articulated train set, so cars cannot be inserted at will. Although cars and/or a second engine could be [...]
Wed, 03-31-2021 11:37
I believe Silver Pony is currently on the back burner, and has been put into storage in one of the barns. The car needs a lot of work done to it's [...]