Illinois Railway Museum Blog

A brief update this week.  Labor Day weekend meant a small number at the steam shop this Saturday but steady progress continued on 1630 and other areas.  Much of the work was continuation of tasks previously described so no new pictures this week.

On 1630 a major step is that we now have a firm date for the FRA inspection.  This is scheduled for Saturday 9/15.  If this is satisfactory a number of major tasks on the boiler can kick off immediately and we are focused on getting prepared for these.

·         Collin spent the day doing a final "pre-inspection" ensuring that all parts of the boiler shell are fully clean, visible and free of any damage or cracks.  This involved some needle chipping to remove small residual areas of scale and a great deal of vacuuming to remove odd residual pockets of sand blast medium.  All the remaining tools and oddments, used during activities over the last several months, were removed so access is free and clear.

·         We also cleared the footplate, smoke box and walkways of equipment that is no longer required so she is tidier and more accessible than for several months past.

·         I checked out the supply of the Apexior coating, that we will apply to the interior of the boiler after inspection.  This is a lovely material, which I now know sticks to skin just as well as it does to boiler plate!.  Over the years it separates, producing a material with the consistency of tire rubber.  Anyway, after a lot of checking and a long time on the paint shaker, we now have a little over 2 gallons of the material in good condition.  This is enough for the area of the boiler interior so we are ready to go as soon as we have the all clear.

·         Another really tedious task was the sorting of the copper ferrules for the tube sheet.  The good news is that Tom has confirmed spares are readily available.  The bad news is that these apparently simple little rings will cost $6.50 each!.  Needless to say, not many of the large number we have are the right size.  I found another 25 and can console myself that the effort of sorting did at least save us $150.  However, we still need 150 more so that is a cost of around $1,000 that we had not been expecting.  Now if anyone has a boiler with 1 3/4 inch tubes and needs ferrules ........ IRM steam department may be in a position to cut a deal !!.

·         We continued working thru the tube expanding tools to ensure that all are clean and ready for tube fitting.

·         The job of cleaning the super heater element bolts continued and is now nearing completion.

·         Work continued on bending the firebox patch.  The template is now securely bolted to the mud ring and the next step will be to heat it and form it to the complex curve of the tube sheet.

On 428 the third axle box was loaded on to the turret lathe and much of the babbit was removed from this box.

In other areas:

·         Jeff worked on the plan and material requirements for installing the larger compressor and air supply system in the South end of the shop.  This is a project that may well be one of the investments of funds from the 2012 benefit concert.  It was on the list of possible projects but is moving up the priority list as the existing compressor seems to be using rapidly increasing quantities of oil.  Since much of what we do relies on the air supply, this is a great concern.  The project would also have safety and efficiency benefits as we are currently running 100 plus feet of hose whenever we use air in the South end of the shop.

·         We were able to assist the Track Department with the loan and set up of our magnetic drill (shown in recent pictures of removing bolts from the smoke box) as a simple way to make holes for the bolts required to extend the frame of their tamper to fit a larger motor.  The steam shop cannot conceal a vested interest in this project !!.  The track out to the wheel drop is in serious need of tamping to avoid risk of damage to the pit walls so we hope to see this machine in action soon.

So overall a lot going on as we set up for the inspection and all the major work that this will enable.

Nigel