Illinois Railway Museum Blog

In many ways this is a depressing time of year in the steam shop.  In the Spring there is a substantial buzz as you turn the large dead mass of steel that you have worked on all Winter into an active steam engine.  The reverse process in the Fall is less fun but just as necessary.  However, aside from the regular work on 1630, a great deal has happened in the shop and it promises to be a very exciting Winter.

The end of season was celebrated with a department cook out.  Everyone had a good time.  Many thanks to Jeff who came up with the idea and organized the food.

A good time was had by all

Comfortable seating in the steam shop

Tom and Jeff share a joke

On #1630 a lot of work has been done since the last operations at the showcase weekend.  Over the last three weekends:

tender was emptied and cleaned;

boiler drained and all the washout plugs removed and stored;

brick arch taken down and removed;

smokebox, tubes and firebox washed out.  (This is a really fun job involving a lot of time in confined spaces with a high pressure hose so that you end up stiff wet and black.  I did a lot of this last year and was not sorry that I had to be in the UK when it was done this year!);

the locomotive was run on air the weekend of 10/10.  This is an important step to remove water from all parts of the mechanism and accessories.  The boiler is pumped up with the Sullair compressor then the locomotive is run back and fore a number of times to clear the cylinders, valve chambers and super heaters.  The all the accessories, injectors, air pump, generator, etc. are operated on air so any remaining water is removed.

The remaining job is to finally wash out the boiler.  Given the low temperatures this job, originally scheduled for this weekend, was delayed.  This is another job that guarantees the operators a good soaking so not at all pleasant at 45 degrees!!.

#1630 will come into the shop in a couple of weeks once work is finished on painting #938.  For this Winter we have scheduled the usual mix of annual inspection and mechanical improvement work.  This Winter is not planned to be as demanding as last (time will tell!!).  The main target, aside from the annual inspection, will be an inspection and overhaul of the valves.  Hopefully, unless something unexpected is found, this will require fitting of new rings to the valves and casting of a new babbit bearing for the fireman’s side crosshead, which is getting close to maximum allowable tolerance.

This weekend there was a very good turnout and many jobs were progressing at once.

Obviously the biggest focus after #1630 has been Shay #5 and this will continue to be the case.  Much has been achieved in the last few weeks and Brian arrived this weekend for a major work session over the next couple of weeks.

Substantial progress has been made on the smokebox.  The holes have been drilled for the rivets into the front ring.  These are now bolted into place, which makes the fit so tight that the smokebox bottom is largely watertight (as we found this weekend – see below);

Drilling done for front rivets

Now for the back

The holes must now be drilled for the rivets into the boiler barrel and then the process of riveting can begin;

Many valves, gauges, injectors and the water glasses have been fitted all in preparation for the big milestone of filling the boiler;

Backhead fittings in place

On Saturday the throttle body was fitted into the boiler.  This is a very tricky task as the large and heavy unit is a close fit on the opening in the dome and must seal where the long vertical pipe seats on the elbow of the dry pipe.  So moving the pipe as you try to position it risks damaging the critical seal, on which the throttle body sits.  After much effort it was successfully fitted and the next big step was started;

Throttle body is lifted

Final adjustments in the dome

Easing into place

Fine adjustment from the fork lift

The boiler was filled with water for the first time since 1999!!.  With a couple of stops, to address leaks as they were identified, the water level was raised into the dome.  Overall the result was very encouraging.  A major problem with #5 was a number of badly blocked stays, some of which were behind the frame or motor and would require a great deal of stripping to replace.  Huge effort has gone into clearing these but the risk is that this could have cracked some of them.  To this point we have found one stay where this has happened but it is in a nice accessible position, so no issue to replace.  Experience is that a stay broken in clearing is most likely to leak even without pressure so the fact that only this one revealed itself is a cause for growing confidence;

Water shows in the glass

Full into the dome

The broken stay was plugged temporarily with a nail and a number of tubes that showed minor leaks were rolled to seal them.  In the next couple of days the dome cover will be fitted and the water heated to test under pressure.

So a LOT of progress.  Watch this space!.

Glen and Stu were busy South of the shop and succeeded in starting and testing the traction motor of the Bay City crane.  That should now be close to being able to move under its own power again.  They also replaced a union in the fuel line of the “critter” (the 4 wheel diesel that can provide switching power at the South end of the shop).  This is a useful unit but has been very unreliable in starting.  Glen has found and fixed a whole bunch of blockages and defects in the fuel supply so that it is becoming much more serviceable.

A number of us were working on the new compressor set up.  Jeff is hoping to spend a couple of weeks on this to get it close to, if not fully, operational.

Max was running the conduit to bring in power for lighting and outlets;

The 480V supply was disconnected and made ready to move the ducting to bring it into the compressor shed;

Rick was completing the wall facing to allow the pipes for the cooler to be mounted.  The large compressor is sufficiently powerful that a 60ft cooling run is suggested.  This will be on the wall inside the shop and will provide a useful source of heat when this unit is used in the Winter;

Walling over the old door

The placement of the pipework was agreed and a detail parts list developed.  This should be delivered in the next few days so that Jeff can move ahead with the installation;

Now to plumb it in!

Dennis was working on the flanges needed to connect the compressor to the cooling array and air intakes.

On #428 Ed has substantially completed his exercise of identifying and fitting the myriad of pipes originating in the cab.  One pair of copper pipes proved extremely frustrating as they did not seem to relate to any identifiable equipment although we did have some pictures that indicated roughly where they were when the locomotive was stripped.  The most likely answer after much forensic work is that as late as 1947 the locomotive had a hydrostatic lubricator but, when retired a few years later, it had a Nathan mechanical lubricator, which it still has.  Ed now believed that these pipes are part of the feed from the old hydrostatic lubricator that were never removed as they were under the lagging.   No wonder we cannot find anything that they connect to!.

Ed fits another piece of pipe

The above picture shows both Ed’s recent task and his next one!.  After completing the pipework he will start rebuilding the reverser air cylinder.

Throughout the Summer Phil, with assistance from anyone who looks underemployed / he can rope in, has worked on de-rusting and priming the running gear of #938.  Huge progress has been made and she is looking a great deal better.  In the next couple of weeks the priming and painting will be completed so that the areas that have been de-rusted do not deteriorate again.

Phil at work on the rods

So a very busy time in the steam shop with a lot of progress.

Nigel