Illinois Railway Museum Blog

I had one day back at Union this Saturday before I leave for my trip to Australia and New Zealand.  I am glad to say that a lot was achieved on 1630. 

Everything was focused around fitting the throttle back into the dome.  It is essential that this be in place and adjusted so that a pressure test can be carried out on the front end.  This will ensure that the super heater elements are correctly fitted and have no leaks in the joints between the elements and the header.

·         a lot of lagging has been applied but little sheet metal was in place over it.  Since you cannot stand on the lagging (as it will disintegrate quickly if you do) placing a lot of sheet metal was essential.

Most of us were heavily involved during the morning, under Eric's guidance, to place the sheet metal on the top of the boiler.

Rick prepares cladding sheet for fitting

Eric works on fitting the sheet metal

By lunch time, as you can see below, she looked a lot more like a locomotive as she was moved outside with steel sheeting covering most of the boiler. 

Unfortunately this is not as complete as it appears!.  The steel sheet consists of rings made up of 4 sheets and linked by threaded rods at top and bottom.  Just below the walk way the top and bottom sections are joined .  Both sheets have folded ends that can be interlocked so that each side effectively becomes a single piece.  Another challenge is that, where pipes and brackets must pass thru the sheet, it is usually necessary that the hole in the main sheet is over size and one or more smaller "infill" pieces must be located behind the main sheet to fit tightly around the projecting object.  So it is one large and unwieldy jigsaw!.

At present only the upper sheets are in place with a few lower ones temporarily fitted.  A lot of work remains to properly fit and adjust all the sheet metal.  However, with the top sheets in place, we were ready to fit the throttle.

·         In parallel with the barrel lagging, Collin and Phil fitted the throttle lever and quadrant onto the back head.  Ed also threaded the remaining pipes that will enable the back head sheet metal to be completed.

·         Shortly after lunch 1630 moved out into the light of day for the first time in a while.

Wide open space as 1630 moves outside

In the daylight for a change

This, in itself, was a significant piece of work.  A number of the team were working much of the morning to clear wires, tools, steps and anything else that would be a danger when she moved.  Finally debris had to be cleared from the cross heads and lubricant applied for the move.

Thanks to Jamie for the availability of the Army switcher and to JD for operating it.   The move was achieved smoothly with one alarm.  The eye screwed into the dome cover, to allow it to be lifted, becomes the highest pint of the loco and is just foul of the shop door.  This resulted in a sudden stop and quick removal of the offending piece.

Anyway the shop looked very empty and the opportunity was taken to clean the area and recover a few small objects that had fallen over the last few months and not been found under the loco.

·         Once outside the we set about fitting the throttle.  Collin had borrowed and operated the B&G boom truck for the lifting. 

First the auxiliary hatch and dome covers were removed.

Removing the dome lid

1630 is relatively unusual in having an auxiliary hatch and in it being difficult if not impossible to adjust the throttle linkage thru the dome alone.  Tom tells us that this is arose from the original Russian specification which had a steam dryer in an extra tall dome, making access to the throttle control rod (which is under the throttle above the tubes in the boiler barrel) "tricky" unless you are n extremely thin 6 foot person with extra long arms prepared to work suspend upside down in the dome.

So Jason, Vince and Eric worked the top of the dome and Phil, who was not taking a week off as the pictures might suggest, spent much of the afternoon on the cramped space on top of the tubes.  Here he was doing the critical work of guiding parts in from below and then adjusting the control rod.

Lowering the throttle into place

The critical adjustment is to ensure that the valve sits tightly on its seat when the throttle lever is forward as far as it normally goes on the back head and that there is a lift of about 1 1/8th inch off the seat when pulled fully toward the engineer.  This is adjusted by turning a threaded section of the control rod in the boiler to increase or decrease its overall length.  To do this, Phil spent a lot of time stuck in the confined space of the boiler while the rest of us worked the throttle lever and observed the movement of the thimble in its seat in the valve body.

Here you can see the throttle in position in the dome.  The thimble is now seated in the throttle body and the shaft at the center is connected to the control rod below and adjusted.  At the top of this view you can see nuts on two bolts inserted from below.  These are securing the throttle body by means of the projection that can be seen on the right hand side of the casting in the previous picture.

The open pipe on the left is the entry to the auxiliary dry pipe that takes steam back to the turret on top of the firebox in the cab from which are fed the injectors, air compressor and all other accessories.

Throttle fitted into the dome

By the time that we fitted the dome lid, Phil could be released from his prison and allowed into the daylight.

Refitting the dome lid

·         While the locomotive was outside we had the opportunity to remove a lot of the dust and loose insulating material that had accumulated all over it.  Jerry did a great job with the air line and by the time we pushed her back in she looks a great deal cleaner.

So, by late afternoon, we were able to push her back into the shop and, as my last contribution for a while, I spent an hour fitting the 30 odd large nuts and washers that hold down the dome lid.

Now I must follow work with great interest from a considerable distance over the next few weeks and provide updates as best I can based upon input from the guys.  Hopefully I will be able to see a working locomotive when I get back to Union in November !.

Nigel