Steam Department

This was a productive day in the steam shop but may sound rather dull from the blog perspective.  In essence successful progress toward having 1630 running next year will depend upon doing the same repetitive tasks for much of the next month or two.

The question is often asked - will 1630 be running next year?.  The answer is that we sure hope that it will and are doing our best to ensure that it does.  One thing that will have a major effect is funding.  While we have the major materials in hand, we are now pretty much out of funds on both 1630 and 428.  There will be steps where we can save time by having some work done by specialists but we currently do not have that option.  So .................. please consider donations to the 1630 or 428 funds. 

The next major milestone is to have the boiler water tight again.  To do this we must refit about 180 fire tubes plus 16 super heater flues and fit the patch in the firebox.  Once the boiler is proved water tight we can move on the last leg which is to refit super heater elements, accessories and lagging before carrying out the hydrostatic and steam tests that will prove fitness to run.

Fitting each tube has several steps

·         the tube is first swaged, which means reducing the diameter of the 2 inch tube to 1 7/8th at the end which will be fitted into the rear tube sheet.  This is done by heating and then hammering in the dies of the swaging machine.

·         the tube is then cut accurately to a length that will allow 1/4 inch projection at the rear tube sheet and 1/4 to 3/8th at the front.  Since there is a variation of close to 1/2 inch between the longest and shortest tune, this requires matching of tubes to specific locations.

·         copper ferrules are then expanded into the holes in the rear tube sheet to make a better seal between the tube and the tube sheet.

·         tubes are then placed into position and the process of fitting can begin.  The fitting is itself a multistage process consisting of:

o   expanding the tube, using a set of rollers, so that it is a tight fit into the tube sheet;

o   rolling over the projecting end of all the tubes in the fire box and some in the smoke box

o   further expanding the tube just behind the tube sheet to provide a second level of sealing.

Each step will not be completed for all tubes in sequence as, for example, we do not have sufficient space to have 180 17 foot tubes in the shop.  So some will need to be located in the boiler before we can swage more.

Thanks to Eric Olson for the photographs below, which show the swaging operation.  Shots of this operation were hard to come by as I am busy playing with a red hot tube rather than a camera!!.

Step 1 - the end of the tube is heated in the oil fired furnace:

Heat the tube end

Step 2 - a wire brush is used to remove mill scale from the surface of the tube which the hammer might drive into the metal causing surface damage:

Clean the tube end

Step 3 - the tube is briefly re-heated, then the end is placed into the swaging hammer.  The tube must be turned steadily while the hammer is working to get a smooth surface and even reduction in diameter.  One of the learnings is that, while I have loaded the tube and am operating the swager, Jeff is turning the tube.  The tube is so darned hot where I am that you cannot grip it to turn smoothly even with heat resisting gloves.

Into the swager

Step 4 - The tube then joins the stack of swaged tubes to cool while we move on to the next one:

One more tube swaged

This week, within this overall process:

·         we completed marking the tube sheets so that we can now clearly see which length of tube is required for each hole and into which hole in the rear tube sheet the tube must run from each hole in the front tube sheet.

·         after encountering a few problems with the swaging machine, we established a good "production" process and swaged a further 20 tubes so we are now up to about 45 swaged.

·         calculated the length of tube required to correspond to the measured lengths between tube sheets and cut the first of the standard lengths.  The game plan will be to ensure thru test fitting that a standard tube of each length correctly fits a sample of the holes in the tube sheets for that length and then use these as a pattern from which to start "mass producing" tubes of each required length.

·         in addition to the work on the tubes, the patch for the firebox was bent on the McCabe and, when I left, there were some fairly positive mutterings coming from inside the firebox where Mike was offering it up to its location.  Having the patch accurately formed to the mud ring will be a big step forward on that activity.  This provided an interesting demonstration of the power of the McCabe flanger. 

This is 1/2 inch thick steel boiler plate.  The flat section of plate is clamped into the jaws:

Plate loaded and clamped

As air is applied to the main cylinder the jaws move down and bend the plate.  The startling thing when operating the machine is that there is no noticeable change in tone or speed of movement as it contacts the plate.  You have to watch carefully to see when you start the bend as the machine shows no load at all when bending this thick plate.

Bending in progress

... and in very little time you have the full right angle bend.

Patch bent to shape

In other areas:

·         Ed and Bob further cleaned the valve block for the planer after a week in the cleaning tank.  The flow of "black goo" now seems to have ceased and the internal passages look pretty clean.  So hopefully that is now getting close to the point where it can be reassembled and refitted.

·         The "new" air reservoir was moved to the South end of the shop to set up for hydro testing.  This raised some interesting questions about what sort of air filter was in place when it was used by the Milwaukee Road.  Jerry removed the most incredible amount of debris from the bottom of the tank which seemed to consist of general dirt and dust held into substantial blocks by compressor oil !.

So a productive weekend in the steam shop.

Nigel

It was a satisfying day at the steam shop as we generally achieved what we planned for the day.

Before getting down to the main tasks we had a small job for the track department.  One of our less obvious roles for the museum as a whole is as "removers of unwanted bends from large lumps of metal".  Our large antique press will bend (or break !!) almost any piece of metal.  In this case it was parts of the switch mechanism from Johnson's siding that had suffered during a switching mishap.  This was very satisfying as both pieces straightened well without breaking.  The track team took them back to refit and knew we had the best of the deal as they headed back into the pouring rain and we worked on indoors.  Well done guys !.

Pressing out the bend

On 1630, the key tasks were measuring the tubes for refitting and producing ferrules.

·         For the tube measuring we had two pairs of "inside" workers, Collin and Jeff in the morning with Eric and Jason in the afternoon with Rick marking in the smoke box.  This shows the technique.

Tube measurement in progress

The wooden beam is moved from one tube position to the next by the two guys inside the boiler, pulled tight against the hooked end in the firebox, and the colored ring shows how long the tube needs to be.  The hole is then marked with the color of the first ring that projects beyond the sheet.  Tubes will be cut to 4 lengths matching the colors and fitted to the appropriately colored holes.

The other marking (A1 etc.) is identifying how the tube will be fitted between front and rear tube sheets.  The guy in the boiler marks the rear tube sheet with the same number so that we can thread the tubes into the matching holes.  This would not normally be necessary as front and rear tube sheets would have the same patterns so you could simply count across and down to match.  Somehow, when the rear sheet was replaced 70 years ago, 1630 received a rear tube sheet in which the pattern does not fully match the front.  You can see more evidence of this at the bottom center of the picture where there is a plug where once there was a tube.  The rear sheet was set up for less tubes than were originally fitted so a number of holes in the front sheet were plugged.

The complexity of matching from front to back caused some delay but, by end of day, the entire fireman's side and the area below the super heater flues was complete.  So we should be able to finish this exercise quickly next Saturday.

Firemans side complete

·         Richard did great work on the tedious job of cutting ferrules.  He worked at this all day so that we now have all that we need cut and many cleaned up on the wire brush ready to fit.

Supply of new ferrules

The ones in the box are ready for use and the ones on the right await wire brushing.

·         Glenn and Jerry made improvements to the swaging area.  This involved setting up rigid holders to keep the tube square to the machine while swaging.  At the first run, it was difficult to ensure that the tube was at right angles to the hammer jaws so this should give us better accuracy.

·         We were also relieved to find, when we arrived, that the welding contractor had completed the safe ending of the flues.  With this done we can go ahead and pressure test them before the weather gets too cold.

In other areas:

·         Stu, Ed and Bob continued the rebuild of the planer.  The hydraulic pump is now complete .... 

The planer pump is now rebuilt

.............. and the now for the valve block.

The next challenge is the valve block

This shows it in position before removal.  This critical component takes the output from the pump and feeds it to the planer to move the huge table to and fro against the cutting heads.  The initial results of removing it and soaking in the degreasing tank were disappointing.  There is a lot of muck and sludge in the valve block so they had to remove all the plugs and a good deal more soaking and cleaning will be required to bring this into a workable condition.

·         Bruce started on measuring up the axle boxes for 428 to plan the machining that must be done to create the new bearing faces.

·         Terry worked with Tom and Stu to plan the water supply changes.  Hopefully we can borrow some flow measuring equipment before the weather turns so that we can design the means to inject water treatment chemicals into the flow as we fill the locomotive.

·         We set up the B&G water tank on the department truck ready for pressure testing next weekend.  Weather permitting we will aim to test the flues and new air tank next week.

So overall good progress.

Nigel