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Monday, July 29. 2013Steam Department Update 07-27-2013This was a big day at the steam shop. All activity was focused on 1630 and the first testing of the boiler completely full of water and under some pressure.
It is a fairly lengthy process to set the boiler up for pressure testing. The boiler and water need to be fairly warm (about 100 F) for testing. So aside, from pumping 2500 gallons of water from the milk car to the boiler, there is about 5 hours of circulating the water thru the gas fired pool heater to bring the whole system up to an even temperature.
Starting in the morning it was late afternoon before the whole system was at temperature. During that time we spotted and corrected minor leaks around the inspection and dome covers.
Removing the dome cover to fix the seal gave this interesting shot into the open dome. The boiler is now about as full of water as it can be.
With everything sealed we started to apply pressure to check for leaks. In general, we were fairly pleased with the way that the work we have done stood up to pressure. There were maybe 20 small to tiny leaks disclosed around tube ends. In retrospect one mistake was that we did not fix leaks around two super heater flues in the front tube sheet. These were very small sources of drips under gravity but became the limiting factor when we reached 150 psi.
The firebox patch was tight aside from a small spot in the caulked joint with the mud ring which showed a slight leak at 150 psi. This should be easily fixed by a little more caulking. A couple of rivets close to the patch showed signs of weeping. This is not surprising given the expansion and contraction associated with the welding and can be fixed by a little work with the caulking hammer.
The nuisance and minor setback was an area that we had not worked on. We found tiny pinhole cracks in the sockets of two flexible stays in the back head. These may have been there when she last ran as they are so small that we would probably not have seen any leakage from under the lagging and jacket. Certainly they would not have caused any loss of pressure in the hydro-testing.
However, knowing that they are cracked, even a pinhole, they must be replaced. This involves grinding off the inner end of the stay and, after heating the end of the stay, trying to unscrew the stay from the socket. If this fails you have the much more time consuming job of drilling out the stay at the inner end. However, it worked well. By Saturday evening both stay bolts were out, without the need to drill either. In this view you can see the empty sockets after the stays were removed.
On Sunday I started cutting one of the sockets off from the back head and, in the afternoon, Mike and Tom completed the job. So both of the sockets shown above are now gone and we are ready to fit the new sockets. Tom will then need to drill and thread two new stay bolts so they can be refitted. This will mean no pressure testing next weekend but hopefully all will be back and the leaks fixed by 8/10.
On this basis, I met with the FRA inspector on site Sunday and we scheduled the formal hydro test for 8/18, subject to a successful second stage test for leaks the previous weekend.
Just about all effort was concentrated on 1630. However, a big event was that both Bill Chyna and Glenn Parkhurst visited. Glenn for the first time since his motor cycle accident in May. Glad to say they were both in good form and Glenn is hoping to be able to join us again when he has his prostheses fitted in the next few months.
I am heading for the UK on business this week and will not be around the shop next weekend. So I am hoping to see a lot of progress when I get back in two weeks time !.
Nigel
Monday, July 29. 2013What Was That? - July 27, 2013Many of you follow IRM operating days on the webcams. In case you were watching Saturday, you probably asked yourself "WHAT WAS THAT?" On Saturday IRM hosted a group from the Great Northern Railway Historical Society as they were holding their annual convention in Chicago for the first time ever. I would be remiss if I did not publicly and loudly thank the many volunteers involved in setting this activity up, and running the special operations. There were probably over 30 individuals who contributed to the successful day including those in the Operating Department, Internal Combustion Department, many of my Freight Department volunteers, the Signal Department, more than I can mention by name or list here. We had a good time rolling out the red carpet for the GNRHS with special displays, docent led tours, exhibits, and a special MIXED train. This unusual consist (for IRM) ran a closed trip for their members and it included a photo runby at Seeman Road.  Runby Here is the train at Seeman Road on the runby for photographers. The train was led by CB&Q 9255 and a matching CB&Q caboose 13572 brought up the rear. Behind the locomotive were four freight cars, five passenger cars, and three cabooses open for riders. Before and after the special trip that same consist ran our trips for the public. Something new, something different, and the public flocked to the cabooses.  At the Platfom The special is loading now, ready to depart in only a few minutes. Behind the loco the first two freight cars were of course from the Great Northern; hopper 70104 and tank car X 1390. All aboard!!  Eastbound Special Crossing Seeman Road and heading east, the train makes a very pastoral scene as it passes through the Illinois croplands. We had a well behaved photo line setup, and also our members flagged the local traffic on the road and warned us of approaching vehicles.  Wiring I was very busy with the visiting group but managed a few pics of the hardworking volunteers, still at their restoration work. Eric Lorenz was adding more wiring to the front end of the Cleveland Transit System 4223. Amazing how many wires, cables, and harnesses need to be made up before the ceiling goes in.  Plowed and Primed A good sized crew worked on Chicago Great Western X 38, completing paint removal, cleanup and priming of most of the side panels on the north side of the plow. Tom Bernacki is up on the roof, having worked up there on the needle chipper while Jim Leonard was a jack of all trades for the day's activities. Victor Humphreys, Bill Peterson, Ray Pollice also helped us along. Less than two weeks of good weather and some extra work days, led to this fairly fast transformation. Thursday, July 25. 2013CGW X38 Update - July 24, 2013This will be another short report since I was busy on the work and meeting with two potential contractors for an upcoming possible project. Things were also complicated since we operated our CGW 601 caboose in train service the last weekend, and on Sunday a window got broken in the cupola. That needed immediate repair since it will also be in train service this coming Saturday. Thanks to Buzz Morisette, Victor Humphreys, and Henry Vincent for cleaning up and making emergency repairs on Sunday, and then reglazing and reinstalling the window yesterday. The Wednesday Special Project group, led by Joe Luciani, is making good progress on restoration of the interior of our ICG steel caboose, but sorry, no pics. So, on to the Chicago Great Western X 38 snowplow.  Prime Condition A lot has been done in the last few days due to an immense amount of needle chipping on the north side by Kirk Warner and some extra time spent by Jim Leonard on Tuesday. Here, Victor Humphreys is completing the priming of much of the flat side panels near the rear of the plow.  Trapped Simon Harrison had completed a lot of his day's project work and dropped by outdoors to say hello. WELL - we put him to work well and truly, wire brushing a triangular shaped side area underneath the curved plow wings. And then priming some hard to reach areas. THANK YOU Simon, come back and visit often!!  Moving Along Dave Rogan chipped a lot of areas on the underside of the front plow roof., never a comfortable position to work. Look closely here and you will see one corner of the two new front windows that Buzz installed. And Jim Leonard completed some more chipping on the front roof top, and we got that primed before leaving.  Drawing a Crowd Work is always interesting. It fascinates me, I could watch it all day. Victor is standing by to apply primer, Simon and Paul Cronin are busily cleaning more area, and John McKelvey and Henry Vincent came by to look, and discuss their work. Thanks to Henry who constructed a bridge ramp today to allow safer access to the Pullman car John McLoughlin this coming weekend. |
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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 [...]