Illinois Railway Museum Blog

It continues to absorb a lot of time to run #1630 but we have now started to see more jobs moving in parallel with the operations.Recently #1630 has run as scheduled.  Unfortunately we will now be running less frequently, generally every other weekend due to the shortage of trained crews.  Brian came up from Florida for two weeks and allowed us to run all weekend days in the last two weeks but now we have guys on vacation and it is more difficult.

Last week required a lot of effort to get ready for the weekend. 

It is becoming clear that the water is source of a significant problems.  A good deal of time has been spent on the water softener which does now seem to be operating after a fashion.  The specialist has advised that trying to fix this equipment would require significant spending with no certainty that it would be reliable.  The museum Board has therefore approved the acquisition of a new system as an alternative to trying further repairs.  The supplier has agreed to install when required so, if the existing system will hold together for the rest of the season with some TLC, we will likely install the new one for next year rather than fit it and then quickly take it apart for the Winter.

However, while all the tests show that the water is very acceptable in terms of carbonate hardness, it does seem to have a lot of other dissolved solids.  By the end of the July 4th weekend the water in the boiler was frothing badly despite frequent blow downs when running.

During the next week Brian and others completely drained the boiler and collected samples for testing.  It certainly did not look nice.  The fact that you could see bubbles form where it hit the ground and float away on the stream could explain the issues when running.

On Wednesday we washed out with clean water, refilled both boiler and tender, then loaded the tender with coal.  The coal is also an issue.  The random mix of some new (2013) and some 10 year old material in the coal stack keeps the firemen on their toes.  You never know if you are going to have a good trip or be shoveling like crazy to survive!.  With the old and dusty stuff you have to put a LOT into the box every trip. 

Anyway, the good news is that she has run reliably despite these issues and the coal pile is now down to not much more than one week’s supply.  After that we can get some new stuff and hopefully get beyond the uncertainty.

Preparing to depart

Getting under way

Pushing West to Union town

Work has progressed in a number of areas and plans for the next projects are becoming clearer.

Jeff, assisted by Phil, JD and others did great work in clearing out and reorganization the shop.  Most of the parts not belonging to locomotive snot currently in the shop has been moved out into box cars.  The re-usable tubes form #1630 have now all been trimmed, bundled and stored in the box car.  We can now get to most parts of the shop with the forklift.

Tubes from1630 ready to store

#428 cab raedy for riveting

We also met with Dave to agree the plans for the building extension to house the air compressors.  The hope is now that this will be in place by the Fall at which point we will have both a lot more powerful and flexible air supply and a substantial amount of useful space in the middle of the shop.

Aside from the Winter work on #1630 our main projects will be the Shay and #428.  Much of the work on the latter is welding and machining so most people will be working on the Shay. 

In addition, before #1630 comes in for the Winter, the objective is to get a coat of paint on #938.  This is the first of a whole lot of static display engines that sorely need such treatment.

On #938 good progress has been made on removing loose rust and debris in preparation for priming.  Kevin has put in a solid couple of day’s work on the tender chipping off old paint but he usually works mid-week and photographing!.

Hard at work on the tender frame

Needle chipping the tender sides

On Saturday, Jane was hard at work with Phil preparing the cab roof for painting.  She asked me to point out that we steam guys sure know how to put a girl on a pedestal!

Preparing the cab roof

Jane on her pedestal

On the Shay, the big issue is the stays that may need to be replaced behind the frames and motor mountings.  Tom will be confirming with the FRA exactly which stays require replacement to be acceptable.

Brian and JD have been working on the removal of stays from this area from inside the firebox.  The outcome of these discussions and trials will determine if we need to remove the motor and lift the boiler.  At the moment it looks likely that this will be the next task.

Work has progressed on preparing the front truck for re-installation.  The truck has now been painted, the springs installed and the bolster refitted.

Truck has been painted

Springs and bolster back in place

Ben put in a lot of good work on cleaning the universal joints of the drive shaft ready for painting.

Ben cleans the universal joint components

Last weekend the guys were hard at work cleaning the frames in the area that will be less accessible once the truck is back.

Cleaning ready to fit the truck

So a lot has been happening and there will hopefully be more in the next few weeks when we are able to run #1630 rather less.

Nigel