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Thursday, August 2. 2012Wood Shop Update - August 1, 2012A quick break in our work yesterday showed the usual suspects at work on many projects.  Resistance Grids Pete Galayda had been reconditioning many resistance grids and is now reassembling stacks of those into 'resistance boxes'. I think seven such boxes are needed for his project, the Charles City Western 300 steeple cab locomotive. How does he do this so fast? Well, he and John Neligan (not pictured) are working every week on this and the progress cannot fail to be noticed.  Make a Drawing Rich Witt is in his new "engineering office" working on drawings and details for a new roof mounted fuse box for our PCC car, Cleveland Transit System 4223. Dave Rogan and Rich need to essentially make most of the parts and pieces new since the existing box was almost totally useless due to exposure to the elements and water damage. Thursday, August 2. 2012TMS Project Update - August 1, 2012Let's talk about brakes and stopping of a streetcar. Many grasp the concept that the motorman's brake valve sends air pressure to a cylinder. That extends a piston and rod and somehow though bell cranks and more levers and rods, move the brake shoes to grip the wheel treads and stop the car. As they say the devil is in the details. A streetcar goes around some pretty sharp curves, and if a conventional system of levers was used, the act of that truck rotating and pivoting would serve to apply the brakes unintentionally. In fact that is what happened on many early designs. The designers came up with many ways to overcome this. Basically some way to direct the force toward the center pivot of the truck, thereby isolating any unwanted forces, regardless of the orientation of the truck and the curvature of the track ti was negotiating. Which brings us to our project car, TM 972. They used a heavy circular plate, an arc or portion of a circle, hung above the rear frame member of the truck. The brake rod from the cylinder came close to that and then was connected to a harp or something with rollers or sliders that could move left or right along that arc. Thus, if correctly designed and installed, the braking for the truck would be relatively independent of its rotation. The second part of the equation is how to release the brakes. As air is released from the brake cylinder, there is nothing to make the piston return to its position of rest. So again, perhaps more levers and springs to pull the brake shoes off of the wheel treads. On our project car that system of parts was worn badly, almost to the point of failure. Clearly the company in Milwaukee was not investing in anything but absolutely minimum needed maintenance and repairs. Now that the new wheels are on, and the truck almost 100% rebuilt, the assembly work continues. In the case of the above mentioned description we find that many parts need replacement.  Spring Anchor So here is the assembly for the return spring. Four nicely machined NEW parts that fit perfectly! I am constantly amazed at the depth of knowledge and skills of our volunteers. You cannot go buy any such parts, or find an instruction manual on the internet. Yet they have the mechanical common sense to understand the design, to determine if replacement is needed, to machine new parts and thus help insure long term preservation. WOW! Sunday, July 29. 2012Steam Department Update 07-28-2012Another good week in which we were able to move a lot forward on 1630. Various tasks support the overall work plan. First we must finalize preparation for the inspection of the boiler shell. Not much remains to be done to enable this so the next focus is on the tasks that will enable us to make the boiler water tight again. For this, we are preparing all the flues and materials that we need to refit the tubes and also to complete the patching of the firebox. Finally, whenever possible, we work on ensuring that parts that can be fitted once the boiler is watertight and passes its first hydro test are cleaned and ready to be fitted quickly when required. · During the week Jeff and Jerry managed to complete the cleaning and hydro testing of the super heater elements. The conclusions were good. 24 passed the pressure test at 1000 psi with no issues and are back in the box car ready for refitting when the boiler is ready. 1 passed the pressure test but has some minor damage to the protective shield (a simple sheet metal construction that is wrapped around the element to protect the most exposed areas from erosion by cinders flying thru the flue) and only 2 failed. The last 2 will require the attention of the boiler welding specialist when he comes in to safe end the flues. · Phil and Collin cleaned up the front tube sheet in preparation for re-tubing.
· Eric did a great job clearing the medium from around the firebox. This is important so that everything is clear and visible for the upcoming inspection. The blasting medium is deceptive stuff!. We knew that there was some still on top of the firebox. The initial comment in the morning was "don't think there's much there". Having used an air line to blow it off the firebox crown and the stays at the sides of the firebox so that it settled into the bottom of the firebox water legs, Eric sucked it out with long pipes on the vacuum cleaner. By end of day we have a clear view along the bottom of all the water legs .......... and probably 80 lbs of medium extracted !.
· After a lot of adjustment to get the settings right the McCabe was used to bend a test sheet for the firebox patch. Past experience with the Shay has demonstrated the importance of proving exactly how the patch will be formed using an old piece of steel before we do it "for real" with an expensive piece of new boiler plate. Considerable progress was made. The McCabe was used to bend the sheet
........... and the radius formed proved to be an excellent match to the critical curve in the mud ring.
Having been cut to the template, the piece is a pretty good fit to the firebox and can be used to make minor adjustments to the template for the final patch. The next step is to form the piece to fit the slope of the front tube sheet.
· Ed and Jim identified and measured the pipe work to be replaced along the boiler and this can now be ordered. · Phil, Jeff and I started another job that looks like it will be a lot more "fun" than we had hoped!. A number of the bolts that project from the front ring of the smoke box to secure the smoke box door sheet are wasted and need to be replaced. In theory they can be driven out by hammering them back (towards the boiler). In practice the effect of 60+ years of heat and rust on bolts that were a tight push fit to begin with is "interesting". After 90 minutes of effort with a heating torch and air hammer we have one out. Only another 15 or so to go !!. · Bob Hunter has now finished the computations and supporting documentation for the form #4 submission. This is the engineering assessment of the boiler which confirms that, having regard both to original design and subsequent wear as now measured, it is suitable for the intended operating pressure. This is now ready for submission. Nigel |
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Comments
Tue, 06-02-2026 19:38
Always a treat when a new diesel comes to IRM! Only wish we'd get more diesel department news from week to week, I always wonder what's going on in [...]
Wed, 04-01-2026 09:01
Good job on the barn 15
Wed, 03-25-2026 18:21
Exciting to see a new barn going up! What's next, after the RAIL project is complete?
Mon, 09-08-2025 08:22
Good job on the Burlington Nortern 9976. OK.
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:56
No new news that I have heard of thus far.
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:53
I'll also be doing another update on it soon. Keep en eye out for that.
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:47
A little work was done to it for Diesel Days this year. You'll see photos floating around for the temporary short term job that was done to make it [...]
Wed, 08-06-2025 13:01
Is steam car CN 15444 going to be coming to museum several times it was to be moved to muesum
Sat, 07-19-2025 18:56
Yeah, sadly it's still there as of 7/19/2025
Thu, 06-12-2025 19:14
Its been 14 years guys, where is the unit? Like really? Did you guys misplace it? Or are repairs taking that long? At this point be might we will have [...]
Wed, 04-09-2025 17:40
Jamie Thanks for the update. She's gonna shine like every thing else you guys do! Smeds
Thu, 03-06-2025 16:28
Yes, there is a wye. Those two have been MU'ed on diesel days a year or two ago.