Entries by Nigel Bennett

There was continuing progress this weekend although we did encounter some issues that made progress a good deal slower than we would have hoped.

On 1630:

Progress in fitting fire tubes

·         The central focus was on rolling tubes.  A further 17 tubes were successfully rolled at the firebox end.  However this was far less than we had hoped as a result of an occasional problem which causes the ferrule to move along the tube as the tube expands into the sheet.  When this happens, the tube and the ferrule must be removed and replaced.  This is very time consuming and cannot be allowed to happen often as we have only a limited number of spare tubes.

·         After a good deal of testing and investigation of possible causes we will acquire a new tube roller during the week and are hopeful that this will cure the problem.  Once we can overcome this issue progress should be a good deal faster.  We probably rolled the 17 tubes in less than an hour and the remaining six hours were spent in removing and replacing the damaged tubes a s well as trying to resolve the issue.

The area of rolled tubes slowly expands

·         Ed continued fitting the replacement pipe work along the boiler and has now completed the most difficult runs.

·         The patch is now bolted into place and we are waiting on Dennis's availability to finally heat shape it into alignment with the existing inner firebox sheets ready for welding.

·         Work continued on cleaning out the cab for refitting.  The canvas curtains are now off and will be measured for production of the replacements.  Canvas has a finite life after which it falls apart very easily.  I think we can safely say that the finite life of these curtains has been reached!!.

In other areas:

·         Stu and Bob made good progress on the planer.  Most of the major assemblies have now been cleaned and prepared.  The bed is ready for them to be refitted and the new electrical control system is being assembled.  The various connecting pipes were measured to order replacements.  Let's just hope the guys have a good plan of what connects to what !;

Stu and Bob work on the planer

Bob has started to assemble the electrics

·         The area around the new compressor was cleared ready for final positioning.  Once we have it positioned we can install the vibration isolating mounts and prepare to wire it up.

Compressor ready to mount

·         Work also started on preparing the Shay truck for re-assembly.  The bolster must be drilled as the central hole, thru which runs the mounting pin, had developed an interesting oval shape.  Purists believe that a round pin is best located in a round hole so this has been built up with weld and will now be drilled to produce a hole of the correct diameter.

Bolster set up for machining

So reasonable progress on a number of fronts.  Hopefully next week we can get tube rolling to progress more reliably and move on with that.

Nigel

It is a "second-hand" update this weekend, courtesy of Phil Cwikowski.  I did not make it to Union this Saturday as we had family visiting.  Unfortunately, absent anyone who had experience with the tube roller, we were not able to roll more tubes into 1630 but a good deal of other progress was made.

On 1630:

·         measurements were taken to fit the ferrules for the super heater flues.  It looks as if we have enough for the firebox but will need to find or make some more for the smokebox;

·         the flues are now alongside the locomotive ready for refitting when the fire tubes have been secured;

·         the scaffolding and spare tubes have now been cleared so that we have free access to the front of the locomotive again;

·         needle chipping of the cylinder covers was completed and primer was applied to protect the cleaned surfaces;

Cylinder ends exposed and cleaned

·         the valve chambers were checked for sand blast material that could have been carried over from the boiler cleaning.  The good news is that they appear clean and free of debris.

In other areas:

·         Major progress was made on the wheel lathe.  Air pressure was applied for the first time in decades to release the lock holding the back head.  With this done, attempts were made to move the back bead on its slides ........... and it moved!!.  This is critical as the back head weighs several thousand pounds and, were it jammed, it would require very heavy equipment to free it.  After this the gear for turning the shaft of the back head was investigated and this was also turned.  All of this checking is critical as these parts are normally moved under the power of substantial geared motors.  Since it has not operated in many years it is critical to ensure that these huge parts are free to move before we apply power as major damage could occur if they are jammed when power is applied.  The tricky part is judging the difference between jammed and normal resistance when it is normally moved by a large motor thru substantial gearing !!.

·         Stu and Bob returned to work on the planer and further progressed the cleaning and reassembly of this machine;

The planer bed now refurbished

·         We gathered the information to calculate the total weight of the new air compressor and motor assembly so that Rick can now identify the vibration isolators that we will need to mount it.

So progress on a number of fronts.  Hopefully next week we can continue with the tube rolling.

Nigel