|
|
Sunday, December 9. 2012Covered space for steam collectionIn parallel with bringing #1630 back into operation we urgently need to improve the storage of our non operating steam locomotives. Many of our locomotives are currently stored outside where they are deteriorating. As detailed on the Illinois Railway Museum main website, the museum is currently planning an additional covered storage area. Space in this building will be provided based upon the cost of the building, which works out at about $215 per foot length. This is a substantial cost for a large steam locomotive which can be about 100 feet in length. Some of our best examples, notably the Burlington Hudson #3007, do not have dedicated covered track space. (While it is currently under cover it is occupying general department space and would potentially have to be put outside again when we have locomotives in operation). Other items that we would dearly like to get under cover, where they could be cosmetically restored for better display, are the Rock Island 4-6-2 #938 and C&O 2-8-4 #2707. Please consider donating to the fund raising for barn #14 nominating the steam department. As an added incentive, we have a number of the "Burlington Bulletin" books on the S-4 Hudsons including #3007, which we will provide to anyone who can donate $25 or more to the steam department for covered space. Nigel Sunday, December 9. 2012Steam Department Update 12-08-2012There were two very separate activities at the steam shop this weekend. Outside, the Kansas City Southern tender from Galt arrived and had to be unloaded and put back on its trucks (which had arrived separately during the week). Here the rather unusual trucks of this tender await the arrival of the tender itself.
The tender is a fairly substantial items as can be seen from comparison to the B&G building as it enters IRM for the first time.
A good deal of careful back and fore was required to position the tender (still on the trailer) centrally over the track so that the mounting points would be in the correct position to fit into the trucks.
Once in place steel beams were located under the body. The trailer had then to be raised, blocks placed under the beams, and then lowered a number of times until there was sufficient height to set jacks under the beams.
Finally the jacks were all placed and the tender could be raised off the trailer.
The trailer is free and starts to move out from under the tender.
The trucks are chained to the trailer and each other so that they are pulled under the tender, at the correct spacing, as the trailer pulls out.
The job of lowering the tender back onto its trucks so that the pins aligned and the pivot points located into the sockets in the trucks proved to be a long and tricky exercise. It was well past dark by the time this was completed so pictures of the completed tender are for next week !. On 1630, things looked bleak in the morning. We are absolutely dependent for tube loading on those of the team who can fit into the boiler. Having arranged a morning and afternoon shift, as it is more than one person can do to work in these conditions all day, Collin's car failed and he was not able to get to Union in the morning. However, while we lost the morning shift, Jason did sterling work in the afternoon. Here we see him "relaxing" between loading tubes. It is not a environment in which you can work for more than a few hours at a time.
We have now completed loading of the tubes down both sides of the super heaters. The fireman's side, looking forward, now looks pretty full compared to earlier views when we were sand blasting.
Looking toward the firebox on the engineer's side also shows the boiler filling rapidly. This also shows the positioning of the copper ferrules, which are set slightly below the surface of the tube sheet in the firebox, where the end of the tube will be beaded, but projecting into the boiler barrel, where the copper can be seen around each of the new tubes.
Mike continued work on drilling the rivet holes in the patch. The accurate alignment of these holes is proving to be a significant challenge. Nigel Sunday, December 2. 2012Steam Department Update 12-01-2012It was a productive day at the steam shop again very largely focused on 1630. On 1630: · Matt and Stu stripped and cleaned the check valves. These critical valves are where the water is fed into the boiler (from the injectors). These will be essential to even the earliest hydro tests. Since these valves are directly attached to the boiler they must be fully pressure tight to allow any testing. (The first tests will be done when the tubes have been rolled into place to identify any that require further rolling to make a perfect seal. At this point no accessories will be connected to keep the test very simple). It was inevitable that sand blast material got into the valves. In addition, one suffered from occasional leakage when last in use. Both were cleaned and lapped. The seat was replaced on the engineer's valve so these should now be in good shape for testing and service. · The firebox patch is now ground to shape and fits well onto the mud ring. Mike and Jerry were starting to drill the first hole. Initially a bolt will be fitted. Once the patch is rigidly bolted into place the bolts will be replaced, one at a time, by rivets. This requires considerable care as the holes in the mud ring are at different angles so each must be drilled thru the patch using guides to ensure that each is an exact match to the ring. Once the bolts are in place the patch can be rigidly secured and finally adjusted to form a perfect match to the sheets. · The last (hopefully) of the tubes were swaged and annealed. We have a few extra tubes that will be held in case of need should any be damaged in fitting but, on current calculation, we now have enough prepared to fully tube the boiler. In the next few weeks, when we have sufficient people available, we will swage the tubes for Shay #5. Having all the equipment set up and people now familiar with it will make it a lot more efficient to do these now. · As mentioned last week, the decision was taken to fit copper ferrules to the front tube sheet. Although the front sheet is often not ferruled, fitting ferrules will give greater assurance of a leak free seal. Unfortunately this means removing the tubes that were previously loaded. During the day the tubes were removed from the engineers side and the first 30 were reloaded with ferrules fitted. The process was, as always, somewhat tentative at first. However, once the method was established it moved a lot faster so we should be able to have all the tubes, that were previously loaded, refitted with ferrules in place and move on to new ones next weekend.
After final cleaning the valve block for the planer was painted so that should be available for reassembly in the near future. Nigel |
Blog AdministrationCalendar
QuicksearchSyndicate This Blog |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Comments
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.
Wed, 03-05-2025 14:04
7009 number boards look good. Is there a way to turn a locomotive around at IRM? In case you ever had a mind to connect 7009 and 6847?
Fri, 03-29-2024 21:26
We're slackers and spend more time working on the equipment in the shop than keeping all you readers updated. We'll work on it, but I'm sure updates [...]
Thu, 03-14-2024 08:02
What happened to the Department Blog? It's been over 2 years and I still regularly check for updates, but nothing comes...