Illinois Railway Museum Blog

An interesting couple of weeks as we get used to supporting the operation of #1630 while starting various jobs that have been in the background while we focused on the overhaul.  I am struggling with when best to write a blog these days.  Much more work is taking place on Sundays and mid-week.  So my practice of writing a blog each Saturday would largely reflect work in progress with the key being to have everything complete for running the next Saturday!.

Father’s Day was, to say the least, frustrating!.  I was not at the shop on the Saturday as my son from the UK was over with his wife and our little grand-daughter.  Like a lot of other people our plans for the Sunday went awry when we got to Union expecting a trip with #1630 and found her stopped.  The crew on Sunday morning found excessive leakage overnight from a union in the cab and she was not fired up until this was fixed.  Unfortunately it was early afternoon before the union was suitably tightened and late afternoon before test runs were carried out.  At least these were successful so she was fully operational by end of that day.

This weekend (21^st/22^nd) was scheduled for maintenance and Saturday was a busy day working thru a list of minor issues that had been identified by crews over the last few weekends.

The unions on the steam pipe from the fireman’s injector starter valve to the injector were both leaking.  This was removed and the seal remade at each end.

The engineer’s starter valve was not closing cleanly and showed some leakage of steam toward the injector.  This was removed to allow the internal faces to be lapped.  One Wednesday, Tom had lapped the two faces of compound valve that is the core of the starter and was hoping to refit it once the torrential storms had passed!.  Otherwise we have a job on Saturday morning.

ES Starter valve removed for lapping

A leaking joint on a lubricator line was cleaned and resealed.

Jason stripped the main turret valve and resealed it.  This has been a nagging issue, leaking slightly and not fully closing so that valves feeding off the turret, that should be isolated overnight, still have some residual pressure and leakage as the loco cools.

Work proceeded on refitting insulation and sheet metal to the fireman’s side of the backhead that was removed to allow the leak to be traced a couple of weeks ago.

There is a surprising amount of running maintenance required on a steam engine providing a good reason why we need a weekend out of service every few weeks to cover all these “little” jobs.  One surprising routine job is cleaning grass and stalks off the FS rods.  We seem to have a crazy bird that seems intent on building a nest behind the small air tank.  Seems like a pretty stupid bird as it does not get beyond a loose heap of vegetation behind the tank each week.  This gets removed or falls off but the fact that it steams and goes away for a while does not seem to stop it trying again the next week!.

In other areas quite a lot has been going on.

The developments around the steam service area have caused a lot of changes and created some work.  A completely new route (the Schmidt cut-off) is being laid this summer to provide access to the new barns being built in the South of the property with less restrictive curves than the existing route via the trolley loop.  (Less being the operative word.  It still would not allow #1630 or larger steam engines to get into that area).  The area now looks very different with the grading for the loop well under way.  (Our box car, that houses the water supply, is visible behind the excavation and mercifully is JUST clear of the new line).

Grading for the cutoff

This will run from a new switch right beside the water supply box car so the service area will need to move further South to be clear of this.  To do this the coaling area had to be moved and we are currently using a temporary coal storage location and the Kohring normally used for coal loading is out of service for some repairs to the boom. 

Temporary coal storage

In need of attention

We have also been struggling to keep the water softener, that supports our locomotive water supply, working.  This is proving tricky, even with specialist contractors involved, as it is large old and long obsolete!.  We would far prefer to keep it alive for a couple of years as the plan is to build a proper water supply building to replace the existing grounded box car.  This would be insulated and frost proofed so that the water supply system could remain intact all year, rather than having to take it apart for the Winter.  It really would not be good to install a new system in the box car and subject it to annual dis-assembly for a couple of years!.

Phil and others started trimming the ends of the tubes removed from #1630.  These are in good condition and can be used in any loco with a shorter boiler (#26 or #16 for example).  The process of removing them leaves an inch or so of distortion at the end preventing them for stacking tightly and strapping into bundles.  Enough will be removed from the end to allow them to be strapped into bundles and stored in the all door box car to keep them in good condition for their next assignment.

Tubes prepared for future use

#938 is currently in the shop for cosmetic work.  This is an area where we have fallen badly behind as we focused on getting steam back into service.  There are a lot of locos like #938 that are not likely to run in our lifetime but need routine cleaning and painting for display and preservation.  Kevin spent a couple of hard days cleaning, wire brushing and needle chipping in preparation to give the loco and tender a coat of paint.  The cab looks a lot better after the removal of all sorts of garbage deposited by birds and raccons.

Much cleaner in #938 cab

On #428 several activities have got under way.

The area in and around the cab has been cleared in preparation for riveting.

The new footplate sheet has been laid out along with the old one to facilitate marking out and cutting to shape.

Machining has proceeded on various parts of the brake gear.

On the Shay, work has resumed on the front truck.  This is now being painted in preparation to refit the springs and allow it to be refitted to the locomotive.

Nigel.