Steam Department

This weekend we started in  earnest on the over winter work program, primarily on 1630.

The biggest overall job will be painting the locomotive.  Brian and Jane worked on understanding exactly how best to apply the paint that will be used.  It is a two part type that we have not previously used and some significant planning and preparation is required.  Two of the air tanks were removed and these will be the first items to be painted to provide experience and testing of the best methods of preparation and application.

The first part for painting

Dennis was hard at work on the plate work and mesh screens for the smokebox.  These are now approaching completion.

Dennis has nearly completed the platework

We also worked thru the items that we needed to do while we can still pressurize the boiler.

·         One key item that worked out well was the tracing of a small steam leak that appeared around the handrail stanchion juts behind the sand dome.  Steam appearing from behind the lagging is always troubling as it can indicate all sorts of things, some more troubling than others.  We had suspected (and hoped) that it might be as simple as a loose connection on the lubricator steam line.  Much to our relief it was found that this was exactly what it was.  After removing a good deal of sheet metal and lagging to locate the union, soap solution revealed a very obvious leakage where the union had not been fully tightened when a new pipe was fitted.

The leak is very clear

The bubbles show the leak and we can also see the path that the steam followed thru the insulation to appear around the stanchion.  After tightening the union is leak free under 100 psi of air pressure so we are confident that this problem is located and fully corrected.

.. and equally clearly fixed

·         Matt, Jerry and others worked on the cab lighting.  3 lights in the cab were not working during the test running.  A mixture of defective bulbs and a loose connection were found and by end of day, all lights on the locomotive were fully operational when the generator was run on air.  They did also find and correct the issue of "dim" gauge lighting on the engineer's side!.  The lights sit in little dishes that direct the light toward the gauges.  The dishes have a white enameled surface to direct the light.  The years have reduced this thru rust and smoke to a nice matt black!!.  Cleaning and repainting have fixed that issue.

Jason, Cameron and Phil spent much of the day winterizing the water supply in the boxcar.  This is a tricky job involving a lot of blowing compressed air thru the system to ensure that it is water free and then taking apart the water softening system.  The weather did not help with wind and rain making the job more unpleasant than usual.  Good job guys!.

So it was a successful day working toward having 1630 in top condition for 2014 operations.

Nigel

It is a rather brief update this week.  I made it back to the shop on Sunday after spending Saturday travelling back from New Zealand.

A lot of activity was apparent from Saturday and continued on Sunday.  After a week, 1630 no longer looks like an operational locomotive.  The main activity on Saturday was to thoroughly drain her and then winterize (primarily running on air to blow any residual water out of the system).

A number of parts have been removed to facilitate work over winter.  This is not unexpected.  The intent had always been to carry out test running to identify anything that needs to be dealt with as maintenance activity during the winter.  The main objective of my trip to Union on Sunday was to work with Brian Davies before he leaves to produce a full list of work identified during the test running.  While there is nothing particularly threatening it is a long list that will keep us busy over winter.

The work also needs careful planning as, for example, it is important to deal with everything that may require us to pressurize the boiler to allow testing before we move on to things that require removing items that allow air to escape from the boiler !.

The boiler lagging already looks substantially less complete.  The securing bands must all be removed to allow painting of the sheet metal and this was started on Sunday.

Visitors to the shop will notice that the end covers have been removed from the valve chambers.  It is not planned that work will be done on the valves this winter but it was apparent during running that the valves are leaking significantly.  While this is not essential for 2014 running, we will measure everything up for ring replacement perhaps in the following winter.

On Sunday, Brian was removing the air tanks for painting while I worked on removing sheet metal and insulation to locate a small leakage of steam from the lubricator heater line along the boiler.

In other areas, Tom, Jim and Cameron were working on the brake shoe holders for #428.  The first of these was test fitted and looked good.  So work started on the remaining 7.

Mike was working on the plumbing for the planer.  This is an interesting 3 dimensional jigsaw puzzle with a number of copper pipes, all with the same size connections, coming out of the hydraulic system into the machine.  Now is a very good time to reflect upon how nice it would have been if someone had taken some good photographs of the set-up 20 odd years ago when it was taken apart !.

So if, like me, you missed seeing 1630 as a hot steaming machine last weekend, it will be some months before you will be able to see her even looking complete again.  However, the feel in the shop is very different.  After two years fighting toward the objective of a working steam engine we now have one and must tackle the various winter maintenance tasks to make reliable operation the normal routine in 2014.

One further important piece of information –

SAVE THE DATE - The 2014 Steam Department Benefit at the Sanfilippo Estate will be on Sunday 29^th June 2014.

Nigel