Steam Department

The major milestone was successfully achieved on Saturday.  Our FRA inspector visited, discussed and reviewed what we have done so far, and gave us the go ahead to start putting the boiler back together.

Unfortunately inspections of the Zephyr and other areas took longer than expected so it was into the afternoon before he was able to get to us.  So this rather limited progress on the boiler.  However:

·         Jason and Dan worked on the interior of the boiler with the air line and vacuum cleaner to get the surfaces to the point that the Apexior coating can be applied.  Clearing the accumulated dust is going to be an ongoing task.  I spent the evening clearing dust from the smoke box and the locomotive in general.  For as long as the weather holds and we can get any sort of air flow thru the shop you will see us with the doors open trying to get as we can completely out of the shop before the winter.  Next Saturday we will determine if any further cleaning is needed in the boiler and hopefully start applying the coating.

·         During the week Kevin made substantial progress on needle chipping the underside of the boiler and cylinders.  This will enable a thorough repaint so that, when we get back into service, 1630 should also look good.

Substantial progress on preparing the motion brackets

And the cylinders

·         Mike, Bob and others made good progress with the second test piece for the firebox patch.  In one day they managed to form the initial right angle bend using the McCabe and also start the bend to fit the sloping tube sheet , a stage which took 3-4 weeks to achieve on the first test.  So far this is as planned.  The first piece was largely experimental, testing alternative techniques.  The second is intended to prove that the selected techniques can be reliably applied to produce a patch that accurately fits the fire box corner.  If this works, we can then do the same with the real boiler plate.  Over the next couple of weeks we will confirm that the test piece can be accurately fitted to the mud ring and firebox sheets.

The plate is first reinforced

The reinforcing prevents the lower part of the patch distorting as the slope is formed.  You can see the first test piece on the right being used to judge position.

Then the large press is used to form the slope

The round stock will be used in under the patch to shape the bend.

·         Ed continued with the pipe fitting.

·         Bob cleaned up all the fittings for the throttle.  It will be quite a while before we can refit that but we want to make sure that parts such as this should fit together smoothly without the need for cleaning and re-cutting threads we when are trying to re-assemble.

·         The materials are coming together for re-tubing:

o   The contract welder made substantial progress during the week on safe ending the super heater flues.  More than 50% of the ends are now on.  Those that are attached are not yet finished as the ends are first attached with 6010 welding rod but must then have a "top coat" of the harder 7018 rod applied.  However this is moving forward and is on target for us to anneal and test them before they are need for fitting;

o   The copper ferrules that fit around the tubes at the firebox end arrived.  That was the good news!.  The bad news was that the supplier provided ferrules of 2 inch INSIDE diameter versus an order for 2 inch OUTSIDE.  Good thing we ordered with time to spare.  Fitting a 2 1/8 copper ring into a 2 inch hole could be a challenge!.

o   Hopefully we have a shunt scheduled this week that will bring our box car back beside the road where we can access it with a fork lift.  We are now ready to start swaging the first few fire tubes so we need to be able to retrieve them from storage.

·         The boiler insulation arrived and was stored ready for fitting in the Spring.

Boiler insulation in hand for installation

In other areas:

·         Machining of the thrust face was completed on the 4th and last of the axle boxes for 428;

·         We finished clearing the area between the shop and barn 9 to allow B&G to grade the area and hopefully reduce flooding risks;

Bob and Jason move parts of 101 to allow grading

·         Bob Sundelin and Tom completed the clutch mechanism for the tail stock of the wheel lathe.  This part was smashed when the lathe was first acquired and has had to be built from drawings.  There should be some real "fun" with the wheel lathe before long.  I had not previously understood how this area worked. 

Bob fits the clutch mechanism

The clutch mechanism that Bob is fitting engages a large gear (currently not in place and awaiting welding of a crack) to the shaft. 

The drive gear awaits welding

Once repaired this gear fits onto the shaft in the space to the right of the clutch in the previous picture.

This shaft is threaded into the back head assembly.  The purpose of this mechanism is to slide the multi ton back head assembly along the guides to allow loading and unloading of wheels from the machine.  The force involved with a substantial electric motor, heavily geared down, driving a shaft threaded to the load must be enormous. 

Overall view of wheel lathe (2010)

In this 2010 picture of the lathe the section that must be moved by this mechanism is most of the right side of the machine (behind the hanging chains) including the large circular face plate and the substantial green gear assembly on which it is mounted.  The uncertainty and challenge will be that, while the back head assembly has numerous grease points to lubricate the faces on which it must slide along the guides, it has probably not moved in more than 40 years.  Judging how much force can be applied in trying to free the guides without breaking anything else will be "interesting".

Nigel

Another week of steady if unspectacular progress in anticipation of the inspection next weekend.

On 1630:

·         It was good to see that the welding contractor had made a start on attaching the safe ends to the super heater flues during the week.  The process is not yet complete as each is first welded with the high penetration 6010 welding rod and will subsequently be surfaced with the harder 7018 rod.

The first two flues now have their new safe ends

For my peace of mind we test fitted the two that now have the ends attached into the boiler.  The sensitivity with this is that the finished flue is a little over 17 feet long.  Most will have sections welded to each end of the original tube and these are not just butted onto the end but tapered and partially inserted into the original tube.  The objective is that the finished flue must fit between the tube sheets with a 1/4 inch projection at each end.  Less is a disaster, meaning that the flue has to be re-welded, but excess means work as it will have to be ground off.  So a lot of measuring and calculation went into determining how long each of the three pieces should be  to give the right final length for each flue.  Much to my relief the first two are good and accurate to maybe 3/16th inch.  On this basis we re-checked all the remaining ones so all is set for the welder to move forward.

·         This also allowed us to evolve a safe and effective means of "loading" the flues into the boiler.  This is not trivial as they are both heavy and 17 feet long.  The fork lift proves ideal for this as we can lift the flue to the required height and then slide it from the forks to the tube sheet.

·         Work was started on bending and fitting the new pipe work along the side of the boiler.  The first one being replaced feeds the cylinder lubricators.  Good progress was made on this and it was in part a learning exercise so that subsequent work should move faster.  Although small diameter overall, this is heavy duty (schedule 80) pipe as it carries steam pressure.  So it is by no means easy to bend.  The conclusion so far is that it can be bent with reasonable accuracy by hand with no tendency to collapse if you use the acetylene torch to heat the exact area you want to bend to red heat.

Ed fitting the new pipe runs

Here you can see behind Ed where the pipe had to be formed to fit around the riveted seam of the boiler barrel.

·         The cleaning and thread clearing on the super heater bolts was completed.  We now have the required 27 clean, lubricated and ready for immediate use when we come to fit the elements, hopefully in the Spring.

·         Mike, Ralph and others continued forming the test patch for the firebox.  This was heated and formed to fit into the sloping face of the front tube sheet, which is the most tricky part of the bending, where the patch is not a simple curve but must be bent in three dimensions.  Based upon this work was started on the second test piece that will be used to prove the process of forming before the actual boiler sheet is done.

·         Hopefully some more progress was made after I left early to attend the Board meeting.  That was an interesting session that left me with no doubt on the importance to the museum of getting 1630 into service in 2013 !!.

In other areas:

·         Machining of the 4th axle box for 428 was progressed.

Ralph sets up the last box for machining

·         Rick removed the rust form the compressor housing and primed it.  Hopefully we can paint this during the week and avoid further deterioration ahead of the winter.

·         Bob milled the engine mounts for the new motor that the track department are fitting to the tamper.

Nigel

A brief update this week.  Labor Day weekend meant a small number at the steam shop this Saturday but steady progress continued on 1630 and other areas.  Much of the work was continuation of tasks previously described so no new pictures this week.

On 1630 a major step is that we now have a firm date for the FRA inspection.  This is scheduled for Saturday 9/15.  If this is satisfactory a number of major tasks on the boiler can kick off immediately and we are focused on getting prepared for these.

·         Collin spent the day doing a final "pre-inspection" ensuring that all parts of the boiler shell are fully clean, visible and free of any damage or cracks.  This involved some needle chipping to remove small residual areas of scale and a great deal of vacuuming to remove odd residual pockets of sand blast medium.  All the remaining tools and oddments, used during activities over the last several months, were removed so access is free and clear.

·         We also cleared the footplate, smoke box and walkways of equipment that is no longer required so she is tidier and more accessible than for several months past.

·         I checked out the supply of the Apexior coating, that we will apply to the interior of the boiler after inspection.  This is a lovely material, which I now know sticks to skin just as well as it does to boiler plate!.  Over the years it separates, producing a material with the consistency of tire rubber.  Anyway, after a lot of checking and a long time on the paint shaker, we now have a little over 2 gallons of the material in good condition.  This is enough for the area of the boiler interior so we are ready to go as soon as we have the all clear.

·         Another really tedious task was the sorting of the copper ferrules for the tube sheet.  The good news is that Tom has confirmed spares are readily available.  The bad news is that these apparently simple little rings will cost $6.50 each!.  Needless to say, not many of the large number we have are the right size.  I found another 25 and can console myself that the effort of sorting did at least save us $150.  However, we still need 150 more so that is a cost of around $1,000 that we had not been expecting.  Now if anyone has a boiler with 1 3/4 inch tubes and needs ferrules ........ IRM steam department may be in a position to cut a deal !!.

·         We continued working thru the tube expanding tools to ensure that all are clean and ready for tube fitting.

·         The job of cleaning the super heater element bolts continued and is now nearing completion.

·         Work continued on bending the firebox patch.  The template is now securely bolted to the mud ring and the next step will be to heat it and form it to the complex curve of the tube sheet.

On 428 the third axle box was loaded on to the turret lathe and much of the babbit was removed from this box.

In other areas:

·         Jeff worked on the plan and material requirements for installing the larger compressor and air supply system in the South end of the shop.  This is a project that may well be one of the investments of funds from the 2012 benefit concert.  It was on the list of possible projects but is moving up the priority list as the existing compressor seems to be using rapidly increasing quantities of oil.  Since much of what we do relies on the air supply, this is a great concern.  The project would also have safety and efficiency benefits as we are currently running 100 plus feet of hose whenever we use air in the South end of the shop.

·         We were able to assist the Track Department with the loan and set up of our magnetic drill (shown in recent pictures of removing bolts from the smoke box) as a simple way to make holes for the bolts required to extend the frame of their tamper to fit a larger motor.  The steam shop cannot conceal a vested interest in this project !!.  The track out to the wheel drop is in serious need of tamping to avoid risk of damage to the pit walls so we hope to see this machine in action soon.

So overall a lot going on as we set up for the inspection and all the major work that this will enable.

Nigel