Entries by Nigel Bennett

There was a good turnout today at the Steam Department which allowed a lot to be done.  Unfortunately, as is the way with a major inspection, some of it leads to the identification of more work than we had previously hoped.

On 1630

·         Collin and Eric made good progress on clearing the tell tale holes in the firebox stays.  These small holes, drilled along the length of the stay, are so named as they cause water / steam to leak out if the stay cracks.  As part of the inspection we must ensure that all of these holes (which tend to become obstructed with ash and other debris in service) are clear to the required depth.  This is done with rods, air jets and, in extreme, drills.  As 1630 was not in service much since this was last done progress was good and no significant issues detected so far.  This view shows the different types of stay on the firebox side with an area of rigid stays at the lower right and area of flexible stay caps above and left.

Firebox stays to be checked

·         Less positively, inspection of the caps covering the heads of flexible stays in the firebox back head showed that some are heavily corroded.  We will need to assess these in more detail but it looks as if we will need to replace a number of these stays.

·         Matt worked on methods for cleaning the inner surface of the boiler barrel.  This has a deposit that seems to be primarily iron from the water on top of the special "paint" applied at the last overhaul.  We had hoped to be able to remove the deposit and avoid recoating the boiler.  Having tried both chemical and physical methods it is clear that this will not be practical so the whole boiler interior will need to be sand blasted.  The first picture below shows the interior of the boiler looking forward.  Wire brushing has removed some deposit from the bottom of the boiler.  The second picture shows the firebox crown sheet and the stays that support it.  This clearly shows the most critical area that we must sand blast and inspect.  The curved seam at the front of the crown sheet is a high risk area for cracking and must be thoroughly cleaned and inspected.

Inside the boiler barrel

Firebox crown sheet and stays

·         Jeff set up and tested the sand blaster.  Over the next couple of weeks we will assess the cost of getting what is now a lot more sand blasting done by a contractor versus the time of doing it in house.

·         Work continued on the swager.  Getting the dies to move smoothly and reliably is proving a frustrating exercise.  We reinstalled them and largely swaged a test tube - but then they seized again.  This shows the dies on the bench.  They should (and did) bounce freely on the springs but Ralph is here having to forced them apart with a bolt.

It should slide smoothly!

Glenn and Phil completed the set up and testing of the air and power steering on the Bay City crane.  Amazing.  When  it was moved into the current position (pushed by the fork lift) it required huge effort to turn the steering wheel at all.  Now it turns when stationary with one hand!.  With this is done it will probably wait until Spring before we actually move it and address issues such as adjusting the brakes so that they release correctly.

On 428 work progressed on several areas:

·         Bruce and others worked on the detail layout for rebuilding the axle boxes.  The steel for this is now in-house and, once the layout is complete, the rebuilding can begin.  Bruce and Tom with one of the axle boxes and the material to be used to rebuild it.

Measure twice cut once!

·         Stu and Bob continued rebuilding the air pump.

·         Tom and Jeff worked on setting up the shaper for the shows and wedges.

·         Machining continued on the new packing glands.

In other areas:

·         Dave continued cleaning the Shay truck

·         Rick built the panels that will separate the steel fabrication area from the machining area; and

·         Bob, Eric and others worked on options for set up of the wheel lathe.

Nigel

A few of us have managed a couple of mid-week work sessions over the Christmas period.  The significant visible progress is that Eric and Chris did a great job on cleaning out the interior of the boiler on 1630.  After all the cutting of tubes there was a mass of debris in the boiler that they spent most of Monday clearing with brushes, rods, magnets and vacuum.  Thanks to their efforts we now have a good basis for preparing the surfaces for inspection.

A step that we need to carry out soon is the sand blasting of the firebox tube sheet.  We have the sand blast equipment, breathing helmet and supply hoses BUT - no really suitable breathable air pump.  If anyone has access to a suitable pump - (oil-less, about 10 c.f.m. at 5 p.s.i.) please let me know. Otherwise we are facing a cost of about $1000 for such a pump.

I had the chance to photograph the firebox with the defective corner cut out:

The defective corner is now out

.............. and the piece removed:

Long hidden view of the defect

Interesting that it is very much in line with the problem suspected by the specialist who attempted the temporary repair in May.  This was that, when a replacement tube sheet was fitted (believe in the late 1930's), it may have been fractionally narrow and pulled into place by the rivets causing stress cracks in the corner.  Looking now at what is the inside (water side) of the corner you can see the welded joint between the "new" tube sheet (on the right) and the original firebox.  This runs thru the last rivet hole on the left in the top row.  Sure enough you can see that the tube sheet is fractionally set back from the original firebox side.  The crack that resulted can be seen running from the second rivet in the top row.  (They look a lot worse now as a good deal of metal was ground away from the other side of the plate when removing the rivets).  These cracks would have formed over many years as water worked on the weaknesses caused by the stress in the corner of the new tube plate.

The other major work in these sessions was unplanned!.  Initial testing of the swager disclosed several problems.  The large dies that actually compress the pipe proved to be jammed.  Several of us spent a day removing, carefully cleaning and polishing the guides and refitting these.  Sounds easy but each weighs about 100lbs and they are linked by 4 inch long 1 1/2 inch steel guide rods that must be a tight fit - but not jammed!.  Good thing there were not too many around to hear the language on the occasions when we put them together, found they still jammed, and had to get them apart again!.  Still, they are now back in place ......... and it is clear that there are also issues with the air control valve.  So that is the next step.

Nigel Bennett

There was a very good turnout this Saturday.  Unfortunately the timing of the holidays means that the next two weekends are likely to be very limited.  A few of us who have time off are planning mid week sessions so if anyone is available, drop me a note.

I had to leave early this Saturday but, even so, saw a number of milestones reached and more was achieved after I left.

On 1630:

·         Collin broke the tube end removal record by single handedly removing 61 tube ends, including many large ones, by early afternoon.  This completed the job of removing all the tubes we plan to remove for this inspection.  (As previously mentioned we currently plan to leave the central group of super heater flues in place as they do to obstruct access to the boiler barrel for inspection).  This success highlights one of the sad facts of life in the museum environment.  None of us are experts so we have to learn on the job.  A lot of the tasks get a great deal faster as you learn the tricks but it may be years before they are required again.  Had all the tube end removal been at the rate the guys can now do it, we could probably have done it in half the time.

This week I got into the firebox AND remembered to put the memory card in the camera !!.  So the shots below give a good idea of the work and the conditions in which the guys operate.

In the morning all the fire tubes were out on the fireman's side.  The ends of 6 flues remained, which were removed during the day.

Progress in the firebox

Cutting the excess metal from the end plug of a fire tube.

Cutting a tube

The same exercise on a super heater flues clearly shows the cut being made.  You can also see how close Collin must be to the cut in the confined space of the boiler.

First cut the flue

With the excess metal removed and the tube still hot you use the air hammer.  You can see the top of the tube forced in and starting to pull free of the tubesheet.  Now the side is being hammered to finally push it out.

Then use the air hammer

And, if all goes well, it suddenly pops out and lands in the firebox.

and hopefully it pops out

·         Now we move on to the cleaning and inspecting the boiler shell and firebox.  Jason did some test cleaning of the barrel.  This is important as we need to understand the condition of the boiler coating.  This was applied at the last inspection 15 years ago and has not had many days of usage.  If it is intact, and the mineral deposits can be removed without damage, this will substantially reduce the amount of sand blasting that is required.  First tests looked encouraging.  The coating in the areas tested seemed in excellent condition.  However, we need to identify a reliable way of removing the mineral deposits, which are pretty tough.

·         We also started the set up of the sand blasting gear that is certainly required for the firebox.  This will be another "nice" job.  A helmet respirator (which arrived last week) will be essential for this activity.  Now we have to plan and test the air supply.

·         When I left, Dennis had started working with the corner patch team to cut out the section to be replaced.  Ralph tells we that this was completed during the evening.  Another major milestone.

·         Set up continued for swaging the tubes.  The furnace was moved into the area and initial cleaning and testing of the swager was carried out.  This identified a couple of parts that need to be replaced before it can be operated.  Hopefully I can get these next week and test during the week.

·         The last of the materials for storage were moved out to the boxcar and Jeff hopes to get the boxcar switched this weekend so that we can access the tubes, which are currently on the South side of the car.  (This will be essential if we are to be able to get batches of tubes in for swaging during January).

A major milestone was reached on the Bay City crane.  Glen fired up the traction motor in place for the first time in 20-25 years.  (It failed when being driven to the museum in the 1980's).  Now it is back in place, cooling, muffler and transmission set up and runs very smoothly.  Some of us were in favor of putting it into gear and seeing it move.  However Glen is a little more "conservative" and believes in having the means to control and stop a beast this size before setting it in motion.  So the power steering and air pumps will be fitted and tested before it goes anywhere!!.

It really is running

Well done Glen!

On 428, machining continued on the coupling rods and piston bushes.  The steel has now arrived for building up the axle boxes but this depends on Dennis's availability to weld this into place as he has work on 1630 and the Shay ahead of this.

Happy holidays and thanks to the team for a lot of hard work.

Nigel