Thursday, October 17. 2013Wood Shop Update - October, 2013I am still playing catch up with BLOG entries. Here is a short post covering early October for the restoration work in the Barn 4 areas. The new canvas roof for the Michigan Electric 28 is making strides. As a of a few weeks ago Jeff Brady, Norm Krentel, and Tim Peters were tacking the new roof on the south side of the car. The sequence (simplified) is to stretch the canvas to eliminate wrinkles, then trim the waste, fold and tuck the edges, and tack it down. All without loosing the 'stretch'. The work continues and is much farther along by now. Work continues on several areas for Chicago Rapid Transit 1024. Here, Jim Heinlein is ON THE JOB and has moved his needlechipper to the north side trucks. Gerry Dettloff and Frank Kehoe were working on the gates on the west end. As more and more parts get re-installed it becomes obvious that some adjustments are needed to eliminate interferences and get smooth swinging gates. It is beginning to look more like a finished car all the time as the first of the large new ceiling panels is lifted into place inside Cleveland Transit System 4223. Jim Leonard, Dave Rogan, and Lorne Tweed are 'reaching for the sky'. Lorne Tweed breathes a sigh of relief as the panel is supported and finished. There were some anxious moments trying to manhandle this ten foot long panel and hold it over your head. Monday, October 14. 2013
Tank Car Restoration Progress - ... Posted by Robert Kutella
in Freight Car Department at
05:42
Comments (9) Tank Car Restoration Progress - September - October 2013
I continue to lag behind on these posts since I have been involved in other projects, including the location shooting for the upcoming Chicago Fire episode on NBC. So this will serve to get you a peek at another major milestone in our restoration efforts. Great Northern X-1390 was a company service tank car in relatively good condition, that was in great need of restoration. At 20,000 gallons capacity it is our largest tank car. Starting on September 23, a contractor provided services to clean and repaint the car. None of these efforts are without DRAMA, but the job is now complete. What follows is a sort of photo essay with captions providing most of the information. Of course donations to cover the work and provide seed money for future indoor storage, you are all encouraged and welcome to send your support to fund RX1390. Thanks. (Did I say this would be a LONG report??)
I am having a difficult time getting pics formatted for easy viewing so bear with me. OK I give up and will just post the pics centered in a long line. Next - - -
Paint is next - - - The color makes a big difference. This is our first look at the orange - - - It did not take long for all the orange to glow on the dome. It was just too exciting for my shutter button went off at a moments notice We relocated the worksite to the south of south junction so the trolley power could be restored. Always safety conscious, we turned that off when the painters were working under our overhead wires. At last the car is painted, but hard to see the full impact with all the wrapping and masking still in place. Ask and you will receive. We will close with two shots of the train pulling the car along with DODX 12661. Still wet, the car is to be placed temporarily inside a Barn.
Sunday, October 13. 2013
Steam Department Update 10-12-2013 Posted by Nigel Bennett
in Steam Department at
13:46
Comments (4) Steam Department Update 10-12-2013
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
By
the time that we fitted the dome lid, Phil could be released from his prison
and allowed into the daylight.
·
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
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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 [...]