Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Work progressed steadily around some rather remarkable events in the steam shop.

I arrived Friday evening, ahead of the Board meeting to paint the back head ready to fit the fire hole door, to find the middle of the shop being set up as a left luggage office for a scene in the Transformers movie.  Pity that I had not brought my camera that evening !.

Around the strange activities, I managed to do the painting and Dennis worked late, once they had finished, to complete a critical piece of welding.  A few members of the shop team were around for the filming and, by mid-morning on Saturday, all the cases and other props were efficiently removed and we were back to normal (or whatever passes for normal in the steam shop!.

The switching for the film continues to provide views of the steam collection is unusual places.

938 stands in the steam lead

Sadly I was not around to see 2903, 2050 and 265 pulled out into the open.  They were back in barn 9, albeit not permanently as there is still a coach behind them, when I arrived on Saturday.  The feedback from those involved in the switching suggests that the problem child was not 2050, as we had expected, but 2903.  Despite concerns about the condition of her springs, the big N&W articulated apparently handled the curves and switches relatively well.  2903 apparently demonstrated in several places that the curvature was a good deal tighter than her long rigid wheelbase was intended to negotiate.

 Everything continues to focus on what is necessary to get 1630 to steam testing.

·         Effort was concentrated on lagging the firebox in the cab.  This seemingly mundane activity is now recognized as critical.  Even to test assembly of the super heater elements and valve chambers we need the throttle lever and other controls in place and steam / water tight.  Since these are fitted on top of the lagging, this needs to be in place proto!.

A concerted effort by Rick, Collin, Ed and Phil achieved what we hope is the worst part of the job.  An arch made up of 5 pieces of sheet metal runs from the footplate either side of the firebox across the top of firebox around the turret.

Rick lagging the firebox side

The pieces must be wriggled around pipes and the turret, little blocks of insulation squeezed under the sheet and the sheet metal joined by threaded rods. 

Once the arch is completed in this way, it is tensioned by tightening threaded rods that attach it to the footplate.  The arch must be completed first as it secures the sections that are formed around the corners of the firebox and these in turn secure the flat sections on the back head itself.

This was a really nasty job involving squeezing bits of metal, insulation, threaded rods and small nuts into awkward crevices from confined spaces beside the firebox and thru the cab roof. 

Sheet and lagging around the turret

The guys achieved it and, by end of day the arch is pretty much complete and ready to tension. 

Arch complete on firemans side

The only known casualty was one of the cab windows that suffered a break the shape of Collin's butt and is now in the wood shop for re-glazing!!.

·         Work progressed on the boiler lagging.  Eric has been concentrating on this and is becoming good at stitching the tapered blocks of insulation to the supporting wires.  The first ring is now largely complete.  The blocks are in place.  We now need to finally secure them with banding, fill some to the small holes with insulating mud and then the sheet metal can be placed.

Taper cutting the boiler lagging

First ring largely complete

Jerry put in a lot of time during the week to ensure that all the sheet metal that was found last weekend is now painted and ready to fit.

·         Ralph set out into the field to deal with the Koehring crane, that is used to load coal.  It is really difficult to get coal into the high sided tender of 1630 with anything other than this old machine.  So the fact that it has been unused since 2010 and not in regular use since 2005 was "a concern".  Much to everyone's (including Ralph's) surprise and relief, it responded nicely to a well charged battery and some fresh gasoline and, in a few hours, not only was the motor running but he was able to test the operation of the boom and grab.

·         Jason and Collin worked on tightening the last of the tube ends after beading and prossering.  As ever, the last two or three are always the worst.  We preheated the water in the milk car so that we could move quickly to pressure testing as soon as the work was done.  The process required a number of cycles of bringing the boiler up to operating pressure, identifying the remaining small leaks, carefully dropping the pressure, working the leaks and then repeating.  However, by late afternoon the critical point was reached. We determined that the seal was good enough to go forward to steam testing.  So the long process of refitting tubes is at an end.

·         This, and the excellent members' day BBQ, energized the team and a lot of changes were apparent in a couple of hours in the late evening.  The gearbox, that has been a feature of the smokebox for more than a year, is now gone and the smokebox is wide open again. 

Smokebox now open again

Scaffolding was brought in to the shop to provide the staging from which to install the super heater elements.  Feeling we were "on a roll" despite the gathering darkness, a small group of us took the B&G forklift out to the boxcar and fetched the elements for the top row into the shop and set them onto the staging.  We are ready for a whole new activity next week.

SH elements ready to load

So continued steady progress toward the steam test.

Nigel