Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Work has continued to progress on 1630’s annual inspection.  Over the past few weeks, a number of tasks necessary to having a water-tight boiler have occurred, including the installation of washout plugs.

Blake and Blake carefully cleaned the washout plugs to ensure a tight seal.

This is the tapered washout plug and corresponding hole for the front engineer’s side corner of the mudring.

Blake installing one of the few plugs that can be reached without climbing on or under the locomotive.

Last year several plugs were unusually hard to remove, which indicates that they are getting worn. After careful measurement, Eric machined replacements.

We also reinstalled the arch tube caps.  The arch tube caps must be removed every year so that the interior of the arch tubes can be cleaned.  

Jason and Ray reinstalling one of the arch tube caps in the cab.

A few weeks ago, I showed a picture of Don repairing a defective patch on the front of the auxiliary tender.  That patch had been installed to seal two holes in the tender tank.  Last week, Don and Sam cut out the bad section of tank from the interior and patched it to prevent further deterioration.  

The holes were positioned underneath the coal bunker, meaning that Don and Sam had to lie down to reach the holes.

During preparations to recoat the interior of 1630’s tender a minor hole was also discovered.  Further investigation revealed a small section of bad metal which Don and Sam cut out and repaired.  

A slightly easier spot to weld.

We are fortunate to have such skilled volunteers willing to dedicate their time to keeping our trains rolling.

In the past few weeks, work has also continued on 428’s spring and brake rigging.  

The slot on the right shows how worn these components were when this locomotive was removed from service.

After they were filled in with weld, Ben remachined the slots to the specifications that Baldwin intended.

Finally, for the past two weekends the track department has been conducting its annual track inspections.  Several steam department volunteers joined them to assist in this important task and to gain familiarity with our railroad.

They sure picked a warm day to do it.

Minor repairs were performed as they went.

The track crew on March 2nd.