Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Wow!.  The Winter temperatures have certainly arrived with a bang this year.  This time last year we were happily moving tubes in from the boxcar.  This weekend anything outside was done quickly and in heavy clothing.  At 20 degrees with a strong wind most work was done inside.

However, we did manage to ensure that the drop pit pump and anti-frost heating are working and move the Sullair into the shop so that it should start if required.

On 1630:

·         Matt and Jim produced new washers for the water connections between the tender and the injectors.  The filters baskets were passed to Dennis to work on the brazed surfaces.  Hopefully the combination of these two actions will provide a long term fix for these connections that have tended to leak for some years.

·         Rick made good progress on fitting the sheet metal screws to secure the radius pieces of the sheet metal on the back head.  Once this and a couple of other jobs are done we should be able to paint the firebox in the cab.  That promises to be great fun working around all the pipes and fittings!.

·         Eric did some hours of laborious needle chipping to remove paint from the driving wheels.  Kevin did a lot of this some months ago.  Now that the locomotive is in a different position, the rest of the wheels can now be cleaned off ready for painting.

Eric needle chips the drivers

·         Ed and Bob remade the copper pipe connection for the steam heat line;

·         Matt refitted the reflectors to the gauge lights.  These should now be a lot brighter;

·         The last of the three air tanks below the walkway was removed for painting.  In addition, I worked with Collin and Matt to remove the small equalizing reservoir from under the cab floor so that it can be hammer and hydro tested.  This is small but a real pain as it is surrounded by a bunch of pipes that run just below the cab floor.  In the photograph below you can just see the end of the reservoir in this view under the cab on the engineer's side.

The reservoir in situ

Here Collin is squeezed between the locomotive and tender working on the nuts that secure the reservoir to the back of the locomotive.

Collin releases the reservoir

Anyway, after much cussing and tricky maneuvering, it was extracted.  By end of day, I had successfully hammer tested and primed it.

·         Jerry made good the insulation on the fireman's side, that was removed to fix the leaking lubricator line.  He then started on the lagging of the firebox side sheets.  These are unusual when compared to all the other insulation.  As they need to be removed annually to inspected the firebox side stays, the insulation is attached to the sheet metal rather than the boiler;

·         Dennis continued work on the sheet metal for the smokebox.

·         Cameron and Brian worked with Tom to machine the new stud.

In other areas:

·         Phil prepared the bolster of the Shay by removing the last loose spring locator.  Once Dennis welds in the new locator we can start planning to put the bolster and springs back into the truck.

·         Tom completed machining the first wedge for the axle boxes on #428;

·         Brian and Cameron continued drilling the brake hangers for #428;

·         Cameron worked on the moulds that are required for the casting of the babbit bearings for the cross heads;

·         Bob and Ed worked on preparing the oil system of the planer for filling.  The challenge is the best way to get debris out of the system before filling it with the approximately 80 gallons of oil with which it will operate;

·         Brian brought in the replacement switch for the forklift and this was fitted.

So it was a successful weekend as we continue to work thru the Winter maintenance tasks.  Next weekend will provide a good opportunity to work off the effects of the turkey !.

Happy Thanksgiving

Nigel