Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Welcome back to the IRM Steam Department skating rink. A few days of thaw during the week were a mixed blessing.  The snow mountains are a little reduced but not much of the water went away.  So it has now formed thick ice.  Blacktop roads around the site could be ploughed effectively and so dried out.  But the unmade roads around the shop now have an inch or more of solid ice.  Pauline’s passenger car shop blog has some great pictures of the conditions around the site.

There was a good turnout and most people sensibly kept to the shop once they had carefully slithered their way in.  Quite a lot of cleaning and painting had been done during the week and it was generally decided that we would have a “dust free” day so a lot of people concentrated on applying primer or topcoat to the lower regions of 1630.  Since we have no separate painting area or dust extraction we have to focus on cleaning and then paint all areas we have cleaned before making any dust anywhere in the shop.

With so many people involved it was difficult to keep track of the progress.  Indeed this is an interim update as I left early to go to the Soiree and I will wait to see what happened after I left.

The major focus was on the frames, both inside and out.  The confined space just behind the cylinders is probably the worst part.

Not an easy area to paint

Brian put in a lot of time in this area.  The trick, that he achieved pretty effectively, is to clamber into the space from the rear, carefully paint all around yourself and leave an exit so that you can clamber out without damaging your work.

Brian painting in a tricky place

Further back, just ahead of the firebox, there is rather more space.  Jerry is hard at work on the inside of the frames on the fireman’s side.  This gives a good indication of how fast things are moving.  The inside of the springs on the engineer’s side are now primed while the outside of the springs on the fireman’s side are already in topcoat.

Jerry at work just ahead of the firebox

Brian, Phil and I refitted the ends of the valve chambers that had been removed for measurement of valve rings for potential replacement in 2015.

Brian refitting the valve chamber ends

Later in the day, the ends and cover sheets were all fully fitted and the painters had already come by and primed the areas around them.

All back in place and primed

Jim was back at work on Sunday and sent me this picture.  The cylinder ends and all the section behind the pilot is now finished.

All back in place and primed

Jim was in early Saturday working on the engineer’s side.  Later in the day, the engineer’s side wheels, frames and motion are well in the way to completion

Engineer’s side largely complete

The fireman’s side is progressing well with much in topcoat and priming well under way.  The lubricator now looks really nice.  That was a lot of work.  A significant exercise now is quality control, i.e. looking at it from all angles and spotting any gaps.  There are so many projections, crevices and angles that this is no small exercise.

Fireman’s side well underway

Dennis worked with Jane on welding, particularly areas of the coal bunker that showed small leaks.

Jane degreased and pressure washed underneath the boiler of the Shay.

Stu, Bob and Mike worked with Rod on the planer.  When I left the hydraulics would move the table in one direction but were showing remarkable reluctance to push it back the other way.  Much analysis was continuing of old manuals and drawings to investigate possible reasons for this.

So a very productive day.

Nigel