Illinois Railway Museum Blog

This Winter is becoming a bad joke !.   Today was the official start of Winter but we have been in the deep freeze for several weeks.  Amazing to look back and see that this time last year we were working outside on the KCS tender that had recently been unloaded.  This year we had a crew much reduced by a forecast of a substantial ice storm reaching Union in the afternoon.  In practice, although the forecast caused several  people to leave in the early afternoon, the air temperature held up better than forecast and the last of us were not driven out until 7, when the rain started to freeze on the cars.

Setting foot outside the shop was an adventure all day as the ground was well below freezing and any unsalted areas were simply sheets of ice which built up further as the rain fell.

Anyone for skating ?

However, in the shop we were able to progress steadily.

On 1630:

Jane, assisted at times by Stu, made good progress on priming the sheet metal in the cab.  The assistance was often dipping the brush in paint and passing it to her as the only way to paint some areas along the sides is to squeeze into a space so confined that there is no way to take a paint can with you;

Collin had detached the large copper pipe feeding the water column during the week and then worked with Phil on Saturday to remove the safety valves, which allowed the pipe to be removed from the front of the cab.  The safety valves will need to go away for testing / setting;

Jerry and I located the “cattle trough” that provides a water bath into which the large pipes can be quenched as part of the annealing process.  It is not clear that quenching makes any difference when annealing copper.  However it certainly causes the surface scale to come off so has some advantage;

Vince and Evelina worked on cleaning off the front platform, air pump and steps in preparation for painting.  The ideal way of painting would be to thoroughly clean the whole locomotive, remove all the dust outside and then put it into a good dust free area to paint it.  Given the reality of the steam shop and the weather, the game plan will be to thoroughly clean an area, paint that and let it dry before moving on to the next one !!;

Vince prepares the air pump

While Evelina prepares the steps

Jason, Phil and Collin removed the regulator for the air pump and, with considerable effort, managed to open the steam side of this.  A good deal of varnish, arising from lubricant subject to steam temperature, was found.  This may well explain why the regulator appeared not to run smoothly.  A good deal of soaking and polishing had it running more smoothly.  This will continue over the next couple of weeks to get it really clean;

Jim and Jerry worked on the spray equipment in preparation for the first painting tests.

On the Shay, Phil and I worked with Tom to plan the next steps on refitting the front truck.  Six large bolts need to be acquired and fitted to secure the casting in which the bolster of the truck pivots.  The holes for these need to be reamed to allow the long bolts to be fitted.  Phil will caulk the rivets that were placed several  years ago so that Dennis can go ahead with refitting the smokebox bottom sheet.

Elsewhere in the shop:

Jane finished painting the press and the planer;

Stu and Bob, with my ?able? (what sort of idiot can bend a barrel pump!) assistance filled the planer with oil.  This sounds simple but the darn thing has around 50 gallons of oil divided between two reservoirs, both of which must be filled thru filters that greatly reduce the flow and cause substantial leakage if you add oil to fast.  One reservoir took around 90 minutes to load 20 gallons of oil.  However, the machine is nearly filled and then comes the tense time of starting the motors and seeing what happens.  This is a rather serious operation as the main hydraulic circuit operates at around 2000 psi. !

So more steady progress despite the weather.

Nigel