Entries by Nigel Bennett

It was a good day for working inside the shop !.  Temperatures outside discouraged anything but limited activity.

On 1630 steady progress was made on the work list:

·         Rick completed screwing the sheet metal section around the radius of the backhead.  He has now moved on to making and fitting some additional sheet metal against the front sheet of the cab, where there was a gap that exposed some insulation;

·         I removed the injector overflow (coal and footplate spray hose), which was leaking dangerously during test running.  The fittings have all been cleaned and refitted.  All we now need is a length of new hose;

·         Ralph managed to remove the steam line to the blower, remade the joint that was noted as leaking under steam pressure, then refitted the whole assembly.  So that issue should now be fixed;

·         Collin and Ralph then removed the two injector steam lines.  These are large copper pipes that need to be annealed periodically.  So we will do this and then renew the insulation that is wrapped around them;

Injector steam pipes removed

·         Jerry worked on the insulation along the boiler.  This is a slow and tricky job as we need to close all the small gaps in the sheet metal that could allow water to get in when the loco is outside in heavy rain.  He has made good progress on making the firebox sided cladding sheets, where the insulation is attached to the sheet metal.  In this shot you can also see where the injector steam pipes were removed.  This also clearly shows the reason for different way of lagging this area.  The exposed heads, that can be seen where the cladding is still missing, are rigid stays with tell-tale holes.  These must be checked annually, hence the need to remove the sheet metal and lagging frequently.

Firebox lagging progress

He also located and test fitted some special strips of banding that close the gap against the front sheet of the cab.  We had wondered why we had such a large gap there until he found the missing strips !!;

·         Phil, with Evelina and Eddie, spent a dirty and unpleasant morning in the firebox.  They managed to match the fire bricks to the gaps between the arch tubes, where they form the brick arch, and produce a diagram that tells us exactly how many bricks of each of the 5 types we need to build the arch;

DIY brick arch kit in the firebox

·         We then made a cold trip to the service box car and found the spares we needed to have a complete set in the firebox ready to build the arch.  Phil and I then checked the Milwaukee box car out in yard 13.  This confirmed that we have large stocks of 4 types of brick (which came from Eagle Pitcher in the 1970’s) but need to make a pattern for the smallest ones which fit over the arch tubes against the tube sheet;

·         Jane painted the straps that secure the air tanks.  Phil and I set up the cylinder front covers ready for her to paint so that these will be ready for fitting once Tom has completed measurement of the valve chambers;

·         Evelina worked with Dennis on wire brushing the tender coal space so that he can weld some strengthening steel in weak spots around the stoker motor;

Preparing the tender for welding

·         I reassembled the hydro test pump with the new high pressure hose so that the equalizing reservoir can be tested next weekend..

On the Shay

·         Phil worked with Dennis on fitting the last of the spring locating plugs into the bolster;

·         Ralph and I relocated all the components of the drive shaft onto a pallet under the locomotive and I started to degrease these ready for refitting;

On 428

·         Cameron completed machining the wedges;

·         One of the axles was hoisted so that accurate measurements of diameter could be obtained.  This proved very satisfactory.  The tires have ample thickness to allow them to be re-profiled.

Around the shop

·         Jane made good progress in stripping old paint from the large press in preparation for painting;

·         Bob continued testing the planer.

So a typical and productive Winter workday in the steam shop.

A sharp but, if the forecast is to be believed, brief improvement in the weather allowed us to do a series of moves of material in and out of the shop this weekend.  Spare tubes and flues were moved out of the shop into the boxcar and the fire bricks that make up the arch in 1630’s firebox were brought in from the water supply car.  This gives us more room in the shop and jobs that we can continue if we have to hunker down in the shop for a few weeks!.

·         Cameron had finished and fitted the stud during the week and we were able to ensure that it is leak free.  This enables the boiler to be opened up and thoroughly dried for the Winter and also means that the insulation can be refitted;

·         Jane was hard at work much of the day painting many different things including mounting brackets for the equalizing reservoir and a lot of infill sections for the sheet metal.  This is one of the jobs that will require quite a bit of work over Winter.  Wherever a pipe or bracket projects thru the lagging there must be a hole in the sheet metal.  It is rarely possible to simply have a hole in the big sheet metal section to tightly fit around the projection (as the sheets must be moved around to fit them).  So smaller sections of sheet metal must be fitted around the projection under the main sheets to stop water getting in and damaging the insulation.  The tests indicated a lot of areas where we need to seal small holes;

·         Jerry put in a solid day on the insulation.  He has refitted all the insulation that was removed to trace the steam leak from the lubricator line and has made substantial progress on the panels each side of the firebox. 

The insulation is now back in place

These are an absolute pain as they must be removed annually to inspect the ends of the rigid stays.  So there are areas where the insulation blocks are secured to the sheet metal rather than the boiler.  To add to the challenge, some of the sheets cover areas where part of the insulation is fixed to the boiler and part to the panel so the insulation must be cut so that the insulation must interlock when the sheet is fitted ………. while maneuvering it around and behind various fittings.  My guess is that this is a modern problem.  From memory of working with asbestos matting in the early 1970’s (yes I did that that apparently survived !) is that it had much more strength than the modern “safe” insulation, which tends to fall apart very easily;

·         Ed worked on cleaning the water glasses which were noted as not showing clearly during the test.  (The glasses have a reflective surface that provides a clear indication at night under limited illumination and so need occasional “deep cleaning”);

·         Jason and Trevor removed some wash out plugs and the inspection hatch. 

Trevor and Jason remove the hatch

The air blower was then fitted so that a constant air flow will be maintained thru the boiler for a week or so to ensure that it is thoroughly dry for the Winter;

·         Cameron had painted the equalizing reservoir during the week so Phil and I set out to hydro test this ready for refitting.  Set up for pressure testing is always slow as you have to find / make a suitable combination of fittings to link from the pump to whatever fitting happens to be on the tank that you want to test.  Having done this and connected the air and water it became clear that the main pressure hose from the pump has developed a leak !!.  Ho hum !.  That is now a job for next week once the hose has been professionally repaired;

·         The fire bricks were moved into the fire box in preparation for another fun task.  The arch is built from a number (I currently think 4) differently shaped bricks that fit between arch tubes, from arch tubes to firebox wall etc.  We need to plan out exactly how many of each are required and identify any that we are short of so that we can have a suitable supply on hand for next season.  It is likely that we do not even have a pattern for one type so will need to make the wooden pattern from which the bricks are cast using one of the existing bricks as a model;

·         Jason started removing the blower line in the cab.  This had a small leak detected during the test run so is one of a number of the pipes in the cab that we plan to adjust and refit during the Winter.

With 1630 in reasonable shape, Brian, Cameron and Phil did quite a lot of work on #428, where much of the current focus is on the brake gear:

·         Brian and Cameron have been working steadily thru the brake shoe holders.  These have now all been drilled out for fitting of the mounting pins.  As with much of this locomotive, years of wear and limited maintenance meant that holes had become substantially oval.  The repair has required filling the hole, by welding in new material, and then re-cutting the holes to the original size.  In this case 8 brake shoes , two hole per holder so 16 substantial holes to be filled and re-cut;

Drilling the brake shoe holders

·         With this done, focus is now moving to other components of the brake rigging.  The second of the main shafts was removed (from the engineer’s side) so that both can be worked on together.  This sounds easy but the things weigh more than 100 pounds and had to be extracted from its mounting under the locomotive then rolled / man handled over the track between the wheels to get to the fork lift (no pictures as I was operating the fork lift !);

·         Trevor was working on the frame that is required to support the pistons so that the heads can be built up with braze metal.

On the Shay, Jason and Trevor finally managed to remove a wash out plug from the belly of the boiler that we have been fighting with for a long time.  We do not know when it was last removed.  It is above the front truck and not easy to reach.  History suggests that, when the loco was last running, it was impossible to remove as it was far too tight to extract in the confined space above the truck.  Having finally extracted it using heat, lots of penetrating oil and very long cheater bars !, we can now understand why.  Someone long ago must have put it in wrongly threaded and solved the problem of leakage by tightening with great force.  Absolutely what you should not do with a brass wash out plug!.  Oh well, it will now be remade and fitted gently.

Bob, Ed and Jane continued work on the planer.  This is now just about fully painted and looks really great. 

Ed inspects the planer

Much of the effort was directed to pumping degreaser thru the various oil passages to remove as much debris as possible before filling with oil.  Much of the effort was directed to trying to see as much as possible of the interior passages to determine how effectively the debris had been removed!.  The same oil is used to lubricate the machine and provide the hydraulic power that moves the bed back and forth so removing debris and placing filters is rather important.  Most of the shop are now waiting with great anticipation to see the machine work.  The team seem to be non- committal about when they will bite the bullet, fill it with oil and see what happens !!.

So a day of steady progress in a number of areas.

Nigel