Steam Department

It promises to be a busy few weekends ahead for #1630.  We are planned to run both weekends of Day Out With Thomas and then Labor Day weekend.

She ran well in recent weeks and I was able to see her in action and take a few pictures when I came for the Vintage transport Sunday.  My collection of photographs of her in action is limited as I am normally in the shop when she is running.

Arriving at the depot

Vintage transport

There was some pressure to get preparation work done last week / last weekend as it was suggested (as it has been several times before!) that the track contractor would be on site this week preventing #1630 being set on the service track. 

So a lot of effort went in to #1630 to ensure that everything is ready for three weekends of continuous operation.  The first two weekends will be particularly challenging as we need to be out at the depot by 10:00 to clear the way for the Thomas trains.  That will require a much earlier start time for the crews.

Aside from the usual coaling and watering, the boiler was drained and refilled with fresh water and the locomotive had a good clean.  The paintwork was washed and the rods cleaned and oiled.

Cleaning team in action

After all the work she looked a lot better.  The dust is gone from the top of the boiler but she is developing a “working” look as the condensation from the safety valves and generator slowly discolors the paint on the firebox sheet metal.

Looking much better

Good news for the firemen is that we have just about reached the end of the old coal and a new supply has been delivered.  The large part of what is now in the tender is the new batch.  So the hope is that we should be using less and burning better … which would be a big benefit to the firemen on a hot Summer’s day!!.

Good thing we believed the story this time!.  On Monday the contractor was on-site and hard at work. 

Work starts on the cut off

By early afternoon the track in front of the boxcar was gone and grading for the switch was progressing fast.  Difficult to recognize that this is where #1630 was standing in the previous picture.

The route takes shape

If work goes to plan, the switch and much of the cut off track will be in place before next weekend.

In the shop continued progress has been made on the Shay.  Over successive weeks, the under-side was first thoroughly cleaned by needle chipping and wire brushing.  Then mid-week Christian and his brother finished the cleaning and primed all the surfaces.  Finally, last weekend Jane put in hours of work in painting the whole area.  As the day progressed, it became clear that the overall area was far bigger than it first appeared.  There are all sorts of surfaces at different angles and it seemed that whenever she looked from a different angle, there was another area of primer still to be covered.  However, after a hard day’s work, she had it pretty much complete.  And very nice it now looks.  A couple of jobs on the truck and hopefully we can get it back in.

Painted underneath

The next couple of weeks may be quiet in the shop as we have intensive running and also the Thomas weekends that keep the site “rather busy”!

Nigel

It was a rather limited turnout last weekend but some key work was achieved.

#1630 was not scheduled to run as it was the diesel parade weekend.  It is now planned that she will run next weekend (7/26-27) and the one day of Vintage Transport (Sunday August 3^rd).  Subsequent dates in August are being finalized based upon availability of our small pool of qualified crew.  However, the tentative dates would have her out of service the weekend of August 9^th and running during the Thomas weekends (16^th and 23^rd).  These dates are not yet firm.

Some odd jobs were done but one critical task will ensure that photographs before and after July 19^th will be very easy to distinguish. 

Big change in appearance

After a break, Dennis returned and worked with Jerry to letter the cab.  She now has the Frisco lettering back on the cab sides.

This involved the careful application of the stencils that Dennis had sourced. 

First apply the stencil

After these were carefully placed and flattened, the covering sheet was removed.

Make sure it is absolutely flat

Strip off the backing

Some of us thought that the black on yellow lettering was rather attractive and suggested running for a while with this!!. 

This would be distinctive!

However, the purists prevailed and, after careful masking of the cab side vents, the lettering was sprayed. 

Tom at the throttle

Masked ready to paint

Dennis applies the paint

So we are now back to a more complete appearance with the cab correctly lettered.  Note that she will always look different in this running period as it has been determined that the “IRYM” identification, that she carried previously, is not required and will not be re-applied this time.

The other job was to remove and repair a bracket under the tender, that supports part of the brake linkage.  This had shown signs of looseness and movement so it was removed, corrected and re-fitted.

In what is becoming a regular Wednesday activity, a full load of coal was lifted into the tender.  Thanks again to Anthony from B&G for operating the skidder to fill the tipping bucket for raising on the forklift.  We used the shop forklift this week as the big B&G one was in use.  I will not be doing that again in a hurry!!.  It does the job just fine.  However, due to its smaller size, you are much more up close and personal with the coal tipper.  So each time Anthony fills the tipper you enjoy a nice cloud of coal dust and his amusement as he watches you disappear in the black cloud!.  You also have to be really careful to watch out for any loose lumps of coal that may fall when lifting the bucket into the tender.

A full load of coal

The other hard and messy job that is done most Wednesdays is to fully clean out the grates and ash pan then inspect the firebox.  Phil and JD have regularly been doing this and the results of their efforts are a good starting point for the Saturday crew.

Result of much hard labor

Not a good photograph but it gives some idea of the area previously covered by clinker and cinders that the guys have to clean out each week.

Work has progressed in several areas on #938

Ben did a great job on cleaning off the pipework under the cab (and incidentally finding and removing some old bird’s nests that lay above and behind them).

I spent much of the day wire brushing and needle chipping the firebox crown.  It is a pretty filthy job but rewarding when you actually get it to the stage where it can be primed.

The long and tedious job of needle chipping the tender frames continued.  One side done and the other well under way.

More hard work on the tender frames

Phil cleaned off much of the boiler barrel and also moved forward with needle chipping the tender.  We had considered trying to uncover and measure the logos and identification on the tender as a basis for making stencils.  However, it is far from clear how much the side logos were original or part of work done in Texas.  We therefore decided that it will be more effective to work from photographs.  The paint was carefully removed to see if anything unusual showed up.  And it certainly did!.

Phil had carefully removed paint on the back of the tender and determined that the pattern agreed closely with photographs with the capacity at top and the locomotive number below.  He had also picked out the outline of the three large numerals 938.  However, as he worked into the body of the numerals we got a surprise.  What we had assumed was an 8 clearly had no central bar and is very definitely not an 8 but a 0.  So our tender was not originally from 938 but 930.

Not what we expected

Tom is checking the boiler number against ALCO records to confirm that the loco is 938 but stampings on various motion parts seem to indicate that it is.  So it looks as if the tender was swapped late in life.  The good photograph that we have of the locomotive clearly shows a distinctive pattern of repairs and a large bulge in the side identifying what we now know to be the #930 tender.  However, this is a very late photograph.  So now we have an interesting research project on what happened to 930 and when.  Was this just a last minute swap when 938 was tidied up for the end of steam display or did she run with this tender in later years?

So another week of steady progress. 

Nigel

It continues to absorb a lot of time to run #1630 but we have now started to see more jobs moving in parallel with the operations.Recently #1630 has run as scheduled.  Unfortunately we will now be running less frequently, generally every other weekend due to the shortage of trained crews.  Brian came up from Florida for two weeks and allowed us to run all weekend days in the last two weeks but now we have guys on vacation and it is more difficult.

Last week required a lot of effort to get ready for the weekend. 

It is becoming clear that the water is source of a significant problems.  A good deal of time has been spent on the water softener which does now seem to be operating after a fashion.  The specialist has advised that trying to fix this equipment would require significant spending with no certainty that it would be reliable.  The museum Board has therefore approved the acquisition of a new system as an alternative to trying further repairs.  The supplier has agreed to install when required so, if the existing system will hold together for the rest of the season with some TLC, we will likely install the new one for next year rather than fit it and then quickly take it apart for the Winter.

However, while all the tests show that the water is very acceptable in terms of carbonate hardness, it does seem to have a lot of other dissolved solids.  By the end of the July 4th weekend the water in the boiler was frothing badly despite frequent blow downs when running.

During the next week Brian and others completely drained the boiler and collected samples for testing.  It certainly did not look nice.  The fact that you could see bubbles form where it hit the ground and float away on the stream could explain the issues when running.

On Wednesday we washed out with clean water, refilled both boiler and tender, then loaded the tender with coal.  The coal is also an issue.  The random mix of some new (2013) and some 10 year old material in the coal stack keeps the firemen on their toes.  You never know if you are going to have a good trip or be shoveling like crazy to survive!.  With the old and dusty stuff you have to put a LOT into the box every trip. 

Anyway, the good news is that she has run reliably despite these issues and the coal pile is now down to not much more than one week’s supply.  After that we can get some new stuff and hopefully get beyond the uncertainty.

Preparing to depart

Getting under way

Pushing West to Union town

Work has progressed in a number of areas and plans for the next projects are becoming clearer.

Jeff, assisted by Phil, JD and others did great work in clearing out and reorganization the shop.  Most of the parts not belonging to locomotive snot currently in the shop has been moved out into box cars.  The re-usable tubes form #1630 have now all been trimmed, bundled and stored in the box car.  We can now get to most parts of the shop with the forklift.

Tubes from1630 ready to store

#428 cab raedy for riveting

We also met with Dave to agree the plans for the building extension to house the air compressors.  The hope is now that this will be in place by the Fall at which point we will have both a lot more powerful and flexible air supply and a substantial amount of useful space in the middle of the shop.

Aside from the Winter work on #1630 our main projects will be the Shay and #428.  Much of the work on the latter is welding and machining so most people will be working on the Shay. 

In addition, before #1630 comes in for the Winter, the objective is to get a coat of paint on #938.  This is the first of a whole lot of static display engines that sorely need such treatment.

On #938 good progress has been made on removing loose rust and debris in preparation for priming.  Kevin has put in a solid couple of day’s work on the tender chipping off old paint but he usually works mid-week and photographing!.

Hard at work on the tender frame

Needle chipping the tender sides

On Saturday, Jane was hard at work with Phil preparing the cab roof for painting.  She asked me to point out that we steam guys sure know how to put a girl on a pedestal!

Preparing the cab roof

Jane on her pedestal

On the Shay, the big issue is the stays that may need to be replaced behind the frames and motor mountings.  Tom will be confirming with the FRA exactly which stays require replacement to be acceptable.

Brian and JD have been working on the removal of stays from this area from inside the firebox.  The outcome of these discussions and trials will determine if we need to remove the motor and lift the boiler.  At the moment it looks likely that this will be the next task.

Work has progressed on preparing the front truck for re-installation.  The truck has now been painted, the springs installed and the bolster refitted.

Truck has been painted

Springs and bolster back in place

Ben put in a lot of good work on cleaning the universal joints of the drive shaft ready for painting.

Ben cleans the universal joint components

Last weekend the guys were hard at work cleaning the frames in the area that will be less accessible once the truck is back.

Cleaning ready to fit the truck

So a lot has been happening and there will hopefully be more in the next few weeks when we are able to run #1630 rather less.

Nigel