Illinois Railway Museum Blog

It was a crazy week in the steam department.  Passing the hydro test last weekend opened up a mass of new work on 1630, while the 60th anniversary event provided a great opportunity to operate as well as many demands for moving equipment in preparation.  Luckily Brian Davies has been visiting from Florida so we have had steam department capability on site every day.

On 1630 many tasks are now under way and the critical ones have been progressing quite rapidly:

·         After the hydro test, the dome cover was removed,. the water was drained and the boiler ventilated.  This enabled the second important FRA inspection.  When a boiler has been subject to excess pressure (such as the 125% operating required for the hydro) it must be internally inspected to assure that it has suffered no ill effects, such as loosened braces.  By Friday it was dry and the inspection was undertaken when the inspector was on site to check Leviathan.  Everything was as it should be.  So we are now cleared to move forward to steam test.  One key thing to note is that you will see reference to pressure or hydro testing in the next couple of weeks as we finish beading the tube ends.  From here on it will always be at no more than the 180 psi operating pressure and just to ensure that we have not created any seepage at the tube ends.  We have proved the basic integrity of the boiler and it must not be over pressured, else we would need to do a further internal inspection.

·         During the week, Jerry had re-installed the support bars and grates on the engineer's side so she now has a complete and operating grate system again.  Yours truly comes in on Friday and wonders why we now have air pipes snaking up the cab steps and thru the cab instead of neatly thru the ash pan as they were before.  (Because the grates normally separate the ash pan from the firebox dummy !)

·         The dome lid was replaced on Saturday to enable testing of tubes as they are beaded.  Unfortunately some work is required on the throttle body so that could not be refitted and the lid will need to come off at a later point to refit this.

·         Jane was hard at work painting parts ready for installation.  All the bands that will hold the cladding sheets in place are now done.  Now if only we can get her the paint for the air tanks we can get those fitted again !.

Bands for cladding ready for use

·         Beading the tube ends has proceeded well. As shown later, beading requires the 1/4 inch projection of the tube to be rolled over tightly against the sheet.  In the front not all the tubes are beaded.  The super heater flues and the small tubes beside and immediately below them are beaded to provide additional longitudinal bracing to the tube sheets.  In the rear, everything is beaded to protect the seam between tube and tube sheet from the direct flame burn.

Progress was maybe not quite as fast as we had hoped but the weather conspired against us !.  Brian Davies has done most of the work but has now trained Brian Krause in the technique, which makes describing who did what complicated !!.

During the week Brian D beaded all the required tubes in the front tube sheet.  On a couple of evening he apologized for not moving as fast as he had hoped.  When I worked in the shop Friday I fully understood.  At 90+ degrees and high humidity, doing anything physical was tough.  How he did as much as he did I can barely imagine.

Front tube sheet beaded

In the picture above you can see the distinction between the tubes higher up, that have a smooth rounded profile overlapping the seam between tube and tube sheet, and those lower down, where the tube is simply expanded into place.  This is the effect of beading.

On Saturday and Sunday Brian K worked on the firebox tubes during breaks from the 60th anniversary operation.  On Sunday I observed the process and took the photographs below.

At the start, the end of the tube is expanded into the sheet and, if necessary, reduced to a projection of 1/4 inch.  The specially shaped tool in the air hammer has a small extension outside the tube and a longer one inside.

Beading - starting point

Having started to hammer the edge of the tube is rolled outward.

Beading -starting to form

Working steadily around the whole circumference of the tube, Brian forms the rounded profile all around the tube end.

Beading- nearly there

A little tidying up to ensure it is smooth all around, the rolled edge is tight against the tube sheet and another one is done.

Beading - Final smoothing

·         The other major piece of work now under way is lagging the firebox in the cab.  This apparently simple task is going to be a censored nightmare !.  First blocks of insulation have to be secured all over the surface of the firebox.  This varies from fairly large intact blocks on the lower sides, thru pieces that have to be laboriously cut to fit around stay caps higher on the sides to irregularly cut pieces, that will need to be squeezed into narrow spaces between fittings and pipes, high up on the top.  The material is an unpleasant mix of fiber and silicates that is very brittle when cut.  So getting it located and intact is a most unpleasant challenge.  Once areas are in place we then have the fun of squeezing pieces of sheet metal between the pipes and into a position where they can be secured.  This will have to be done as soon as possible since the exposed blocks of carefully located insulation are very fragile and will tend to break up on contact until they are covered.

Bob Milhaupt, who was a regular volunteer until he moved to Michigan, visited for the weekend and worked steadily at this job.  By Sunday the insulation was in place well up both sides of the firebox.  Dennis repaired one of the cladding sheets that had to be cut to remove it so we have the metal ready to install as soon as we can cover the top of the firebox.

ES Beading in progress

FS lagging well under way

·         Another activity related to the lagging was identifying the route of some pipes that have been disconnected or replaced so that we are sure they are in the correct place before lagging is put over them.

·         On Saturday the firebox door casting was lifted out of the tender so that work could begin on preparing this for fitting.  Rick managed to safely remove a couple of badly burned bolts that secure the distribution plate and all the loose fire clay.  David made good progress in removing accumulated rust in preparation for repainting.  Once the beading is complete in the firebox this casting can be re-installed.  (You can still get into the firebox with the door casting in place but it will be a LOT more difficult).

·         Another major stream of work started with Jeff bringing in from the boxcar the various pieces of sheet metal and mesh that form the table plate and spark arrestor around the blast pipe in the smokebox.  As you may imagine this is a harsh environment so the whole construction needs to be assessed to determine which pieces can be reused and which replaced.  So Dennis needs to start on this to ensure that we have it ready once the blast pipe is installed.

In other areas within the shop:

·         Phil and Cameron worked with Tom on machining the bolster for the Shay;

·         Tom continued machining shoes for the axle boxes on 428.

There was a lot of work outside in support of the 60th anniversary:

·         3007 and the Centennial were moved out of barn 9 for display.  This is a very time consuming exercise as a lot of equipment that does not move often had to be moved to enable this.  A number of people were involved in lubricating the equipment so that it could be safely moved and then assisting in the switching.  When you move pieces that are normally static great care is required as stiffness may make them much more prone to derailment.

3007 in the sun

·         It was great to see steam in operation with both 126 and Leviathan on site.  While Leviathan was fully crewed, the department provided crews for 126 thru the weekend.  This was a great opportunity to get some operating experience ahead of 1630 coming into service.  I thoroughly enjoyed a short spell firing 126.  However, when spreading a few part shovels of coal around her firebox, you became rather aware that the box on 1630, that you had just crawled out of, will present some rather different challenges !.

126 runs on the trolley loop

·         We observed the FRA inspection of Leviathan on Friday which was useful as it confirmed what the inspectors will want to see in the steam testing of 1630.

·         On Friday, 126 provided a chastening example of the exposures in operating a steam engine.  The piston rod worked loose and detached from the crosshead when switching.  This allowed the piston to be fired forward, smashing the front cylinder head casting.  Luckily Barney had a spare on another locomotive in process of restoration so, with lot of driving over night to fetch it from Indiana, she was repaired and back in service on Saturday.  But it certainly highlights how easily major damage can occur to a steam engine.  Repairing something similar on 1630 would be huge.

Damage to the cylinder head

Repaired and ready to go

So a lot of progress.  Much more must happen to enable the steam test but the objective is now in sight.

Nigel