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Wednesday, July 4. 2018Number 5 is AliveThe steam department accomplished a major milestone July 3 when the J. Neils Lumber Co was fired up for the first time since 1999! The FRA inspector was out watching the first fire up checking on any repair issues that that show up. There were a couple of minor problems but they will be addressed and repaired before the next fire-up. Here are some pictures of the event.  Moving the engine to the fueling facilities  The front of the Shay with a new number plate painted by J D.  The Shay is sitting next to the 1630!  Pouring water and loading coal into the tender at our steam servicing facilities. Not many museums can boast two operating steam locomotives. We can !  July 3rd was the fire up date and there was a big contingency of steam volunteers to watch it get hot.  These guys sure put in a lot of volunteer hours to make this engine FRA ready. Much praise to all of them!  You can just see a whisper of smoke coming out of the stack.  Here Brian Davies is turning the blower valve and smoke begins to appear from the stack. That was a pretty site!  The FRA inspector talking to Erick and Jason.  Look up folks! She is a steaming!  Turning a valve and make sure everything works.  The Steam dept curator Tom Schneider watches as the shay moves.  Brian in the engineers seat opens up the throttle as steam moves into the three upright cylinders.  The engineer is slowly backing up the engine.  Another view. Tom is carefully eyeing the machine for any problems and strange sounds.  Now its moving forward.  Stopping about where it started from.  If you watch carefully at the sequence of pictures you can see the movement of the cylinders and wheels.  Back to home base, in front of the steam shop! You can see the steam coming out of the engine! I don't know when both engines will be operating together for the first time! BUT.... Make sure your schedule is open for Antique Transportation day, Labor Day and or Railfan weekend in September! During these many blogs I have always asked for donations to various projects here at Irm. Well, This is the reason. Your separate donations DO make a difference. Here is the proof. Although, it took a long time, the results are worth the wait! Now to the next operating steam locomotive. Union Pacific 428 needs more money to complete that project! My next blog will be about the progress on the 428. Please help with this project ! Thanks Roger Sunday, March 25. 2018The Steam Dream is Taking Shape
The Steam Department reached a major milestone yesterday by installing the smokebox cover to the front of the boiler barrel on our Shay #5 steam engine. This is the culmination of years of work and many numerous people working towards this goal. I can't remember when the group first started working on this project but it certainly has been at least nine or ten years. Please notice at least one thing as you view these pictures. The many volunteers are relatively young. These young people are the future of the Steam Department and it bodes well for the museum in general. As I have said previously, on any given Saturday, you can come down to the Steam Shop and see at least 20 people working on various projects. Here now is what happened yesterday and last week in the shop.
 Just to remind you. This is what the shay smoke box looked like a couple of weeks ago.  This is yesterday, March 24, 2018. The smoke box cover is being installed for the very first time.  Here the gang is fastening the nuts onto the studs.  Trevor was inside the smokebox making sure the studs were in the right position. He just climbed out and happy to the light of day again. Only kidding, of course, hes smiling because the job is done!  Heres the installation gang  Another look of the shop forces. Just like the old days. A picture of the guys who participated in the work gang.  Not to be outdone Christian holds the builders number plate onto the front of the smoke box for me to photograph.  Charlie is painting the tool box underneath the 1630s tender.  Charlies Dad Paul is painting the front pilot beam of the 1630. The 1630 is getting sprucing up. We will be celebrating the engines upcoming 100th birthday this year.  This was last weekend. Working on the footboards  Not to be outdone the UP 428 is also receiving a painting job.  This father and son team are painting the flexie stay bolt caps on the 428  Here is maybe the next generation of volunteers. This is Ricks grandson. He sure had a great day. You can tell by the glint and glow in his eyes. |
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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...