Illinois Railway Museum Blog

A much more successful day yesterday at the steam shop. 

On 1630:

·         We continued with loading the super heater flues.  Suitable homes were found for the shorter flues and we should not need to do further welding.   All but one are now in place.  This one was fitted but removed to allow access to the adjacent (top right) hole for fitting the ring.

All bar one in place

·         For reasons that are not clear,  the top right hole is over size and needs a steel ring to reduce the size to fit a flue.  Tom had turned the ring on the lathe a couple of weeks ago and today we fitted it.  This was not easy as the tube had to be passed thru and beyond the sheet and then the ring expanded into the hole.  The expanders are designed to work on the end of a long tube rather than a narrow ring, so positioning this while expanding was tricky.  However, this was achieved successfully and the tube is now seated into the hole with the new ring around it.

Ring in place on top right flue

·         Ferrules were fitted into the front tube sheet around all but 3 of the flues that will require them.  So this is largely complete, although some of the ferrules still need to be ground flush before we can roll the tubes into place.  The ferrule can be seen, around the tube, in the hole immediately below the empty hole in the picture above and compared to the one to its right which is still to be ferruled.

·         Set up is now well under way for rolling the super heater flues into place.  As compared to the rollers used for the small tubes, those used for the large tubes require a BIG air motor weighing about 60 pounds.  This cannot  be hand held in use.  For the rear tube sheet a staging is now in place on which the air motor will be set to drive the roller expanding the flues into the sheet.

Staging for the air motor in firebox

·         On the front of the smokebox mounts are being set up to hold the large gearbox thru which the air motor will drive the roller expanding this end of the flues by means of a long shaft with universal joints.

Setting up to mount the gearbox at the front

The gearbox was earlier set up directly on the smokebox ring to assist in rolling the ring.  However, for the tube rolling it will need to be mounted further forward on the brackets.

The gearbox used to drive the roller

·         Most of the smaller pieces of cladding that have been primed were moved back on top of the machine shop and large sections that must now be cleaned and primed were brought down.  These will be cleaned outside, now that the weather has improved, as there is a great deal of rust and remnants of insulation material that must be removed.

·         Unfortunately the contractor repairing the riveting hammers has had trouble obtaining materials for the seals so these are still not back and the riveting is on hold.

·         The patch screw is now in place in the firebox corner.  (Despite the name this does not actually secure the patch in our case).  This is a special screw threaded into the mud ring to secure the outer sheet to the mud ring at the corner.  Once in place its head looks like another rivet.  The need arises because of the sharp bend at the corner.  The inner surface is much shorter than the outer so rivets tightly spaced on the inside would be widely spaced in the outer sheet.  These blind ended patch screws are set between rivets on the outside.  Once in place, they look like rivets.  This one was damaged and is now replaced.

Elsewhere:

·         Big progress thanks to the diesel guys.  They switched the tender out into yard 13.  It made an interesting combination with #9255.  This was quite a long switch movement as it had to be pulled out with chains to the trolley loop, where #9255 could then run round the loop to get to the end that has a  coupler.  It then had to be run out thru the depot to reverse direction on the "Y" before it could be brought back around the loop to be propelled into yard 13.  After all this the box cars could then be spotted where we could get to them.  Thanks guys !

Added water capacity for #9255

·         With the box cars accessible again, Jeff and the team were able to move material around in the all-door car and get to the tubes for the Shay.  These are now in the shop ready for swaging.  This is half the total tubes for the Shay.  The rest are on stands on the other side of the area, so all the tubes are now in the swaging area.

Shay tubes in swaging area

It is startling to compare the Shay tubes with those for 1630.  This is one of the half dozen additional tubes we need to swage for 1630. amazing.,  I knew the Shay tubes were smaller but had not visualized the difference being this extreme !.  Not only are they shorter, but there are far fewer of them.

Boy are they smaller !

·         Bob has now wired a good deal of the control panel for the planer.  During the week, Kevin had largely completed needle chipping it ready for painting.

Continuing progress on the planer

So, good progress this week although the delay in being able to rivet the patch is becoming a serious concern.

Nigel