Illinois Railway Museum Blog

A rather more normal weekend allowing quite a lot to be done in the Steam shop on Saturday.

All credit to the team that made it to the shop.  The main roads were fine but the local roads toward the site were rather icy in places and the museum site is a nightmare.  Although the air temperature was above freezing, the ground is still frozen.  So, despite efforts by B&G, large areas, including all the roads and walkways around the shop were thickly covered in smooth wet ice!.  The team cautiously slithered their way from cars to the shop and stayed inside !.

I spent the morning at the Board meeting but the team got to work and a lot was achieved.

On 1630:

By the time I got back to the shop the small air tank was already back in place on the locomotive.  So we are now able to power the reverser with compressed air to allow the measurements of the piston valve rings to be made;

Eddie and his sister made good progress in preparing the walkways for painting.  Jane is setting up to prime these next weekend;

The paint sprayer has arrived but unfortunately the correct nozzle for the material we have to spray was not available until next week.  Anyway, we have the machine and will hopefully be able to do the first test run next weekend;

We are hoping to avoid having to reapply all the main lettering so Jim was hard at work masking the cab lettering;

Jim masking the lettering

Phil and Jane removed the blower ring from the smokebox so that Dennis can start on fitting the new plate work for the spark arresting system;

Phil at work in the smokebox

Phil and Jane remove the blower

The pressure hose for the injector overflow / cab wash down (what I as a Brit would call the slacker pipe) arrived and was fitted;

New cab wash hose in place

Jim and Jane primed the first of the main air tanks;

Eric loosened the nuts on the smokebox front and hand rail.  We are preparing to add more gasket material to this joint as the seal was not as good as we would like during the test run;

Jason and Collin finished cleaning and reassembling the steam regulator for the air pump.  Jason decided not to refit it but rather to duct tape the pipes to which it is fitted.  Having produced this nice clean brass regulator he seems a bit sensitive about it being in place when people are spraying paint around it!.

On the Shay there was quite a bit of activity:

Phil finished caulking the rivets, both below and inside the smokebox.  This was a lot of work but the result is a very neat job.  Well done Phil.  Another big benefit to completing this is that the rest of us can now work around the shop without our teeth suddenly starting to rattle in our heads as he uses the air hammer;

Result of much hard work by Phil

Jason and Eric made good progress on reaming and threading the holes for the crown stays that are being replaced and were able to test fit some of the new stays.

With no further swaging planned for some years, I finally took down the swaging machine for storage.  This will allow much easier access thru the doors at the South end of the shop.  The machine and the mounting timbers were marked with paint to provide a clear pattern for reassembly when next required and then it was taken down for storage.

Swager marked for disassembly

With a bit more reorganization we will be able to fully use the door again.

and the space is clear

So a good day of progress.  Hopefully if the weather remains moderate we can get the painting under way next weekend.

Nigel