Illinois Railway Museum Blog

The break in the weekly blogs reflects a very different dynamic in the steam shop the last couple of weeks.

After the frenetic activity to get into service for Memorial Day there has been little apparent project activity in the shop.  Turnout has been less as people recover from the intense effort to complete #1630 and there is the growing realization of just how much is involved in running the locomotive most weekends.

#1630 has run well for a locomotive returning to service after a long break and major work.  The new bearings on the rear drive axle ran fairly hot the first few days but now seem to be settling in to run at more normal temperatures.

I had my first day as a student fireman yesterday.  Hopefully by mid-week I should be able to move again!.  Firing a locomotive of this size, even on light work, is hard work on a hot and humid day.  With preparation and disposal it is a solid 12 hour effort.  During the day you will fire several tons of coal and, with the large firebox, a lot of it must be accurately thrown a long way to the front corners of the firebox.  Compared to UK locomotives that I have fired you notice that she was not optimized for hand firing.  Not surprising as she has a mechanical stoker that is in place but not operational.  The major differences are that the tender simply dumps coal at footplate level rather than having a shovel  plate at fire-door height and the stoker mechanism somewhat restricts the fire-hole.  Nothing too significant with the limited work required on the museum trains but it certainly means that you sure know you have done a day’s work!.

Operating the locomotive requires a lot of time and effort.  Hopefully some of this will reduce as she stabilizes and we have less minor repairs to do each week.  After Memorial Day weekend there was a significant list of leaks at valves and unions that needed attention.  The limited turnout last weekend meant that it was only as a result of intense work by Tom and team mid-week that we were able to run this weekend.

Some jobs are clearly defined.  Leaks were identified at unions on the FS check valve and the air pump governor.  These unions were separated and remade.  This fixed the problems.  It sounds simple but each is several hours of work.  The real wildcard is ones that you cannot clearly identify. 

A troubling issue was signs of water leaking out from under the sheet metal and lagging below the footplate at the back corner of the firebox.  Hours of work were required to remove sections of sheet metal and lagging to even be able to investigate the area.  This did not provide any insight on where the water came from so she was steamed this weekend with this area uncovered.  (Big bonus for the fireman whose seat is right beside this.  So you are sitting close to a very effective radiant heater on a hot and humid day!).  Anyway the result proved to be of no real concern.  A valve high up on the firebox crown leaks steam, particularly before it reaches full temperature.  The steam condenses on the inside of the sheet metal, runs down a tortuous path along the back of the sheet metal  that leads to the back corner, where it can run down to escape at the bottom corner.  So, no concern but quite a few hours work still required to refit all the sheet metal and lagging as well as trying to reduce leakage at the valve (tricky as it seems to seal well when hot so you do not want to change that).

We really need to put in quite a lot of effort mid-week every week if the locomotive is to be ready for midday on Saturday.  Five and more tons of coal need to be loaded and the tender water tank topped up.  The firebox must be cleaned and a lot of clinker and ash removed from the grates. 

Mid-week coal loading is a new problem this year as we cannot load coal using the crane in the service area as this is removed to allow building of the new cut-off track.  With assistance from the B&G department, loading is quite efficient using the forklift and skidder.  However, since this must be done on the road crossing, we can hardly do it on a Saturday with the museum open to visitors!.

The other issue that became apparent on Saturday was the effects of having shifted the coal pile from its original location to a temporary location.  New coal acquired in 2013 has been mixed with old material that is largely dust and was apparently problematic even in 2004.  After 3 great trips, the fourth was very difficult when we hit a seam of material in the tender that looked like coal dust but showed little inclination to burn!.  Hopefully we can work thru this in the next couple of weekends and then get in new supplies.

So, going forward, we have to decide how often we operate and what we can do in the shop alongside the operation.

The objective will be to get in no more than 28 operating days thru the season.  The reason for this is simple.  A quite significant inspection is mandated under FRA rules after 30 days of service.  We ran 2 days in 2013, leaving 28 before this is required.  It would not make sense to put several weekends of work into this inspection late in the season when we can do it over winter.  After a break of nearly 10 years we have a shortage of trained crew, which also restricts how often we can run, and means that we have a trainee rostered on every operating day.

Don't forget your tickets for the Sanfilippo Benefit 29th June.  The raffle there will be the only opportunity this season to win a footplate ride!.

What is next?.  At the moment we have been fully occupied in the jobs around keeping 1630 in service and preparing her each day.  Hopefully, as we get more experienced in this, we can agree a plan on what we do next!.

Nigel