Mid-Continent Railway MuseumPosted on by Jeffrey Lentz
Fletch and his crew got together on a Very Hot day this last Monday. We took our normal precautions with frequent breaks under our awning, and drinking lots of water. Even with that, the sun felt like it was hovering 2 feet over our heads – LOL. But we pushed through and had a dirty, but great work session.
While we wait for the tender to get painted, we decided to start focused work on the Locomotive cab. We used grinders to get down to bare metal on half the cab roof, and some walls of the cab interior. Once the rust and old paint were removed, we applied a good quality, red metal primer. We hope this coat will provide a good level of protection on the metal skin until it gets some paint. Fletch did a lot of work inside the cab, while the rest of the crew worked on top of the cab. Now I have a better understanding of the phrase, “like a cat on a hot tin roof”.
We also got a look at the mahogany cab windows and doors that received a coat of primer from the restoration department’s last work session. They look great, and many thanks to Owen Hughes for his work. Finally, many thanks to Steve Pahl and Jay Slinde for all their help last Monday.
Once we identify our next work session, we will let you all know. Hope to see you there. – Jason Reiman
One of the next steps at SPEC Machine has been to finish the installation of the throttle rod and handle on the backhead of the boiler. Many of the new parts were shown in the December 25, 2020 update and now they have found their final home. The chromed end of the throttle rod has been mated to the long reach rod and is being fed through the boiler to the throttle proper. The half-lap and bolted connection is per the C&NW drawings and replaces the threaded coupling that was found when the throttle rod was disassembled.
Throttle rod installation in progress.
The packing gland was installed to properly position the rod so the throttle handle anchor could be properly located and studded to the boiler per the C&NW drawing.
Throttle packing gland and throttle handle anchor installed.
As another part of the 3-dimensional chess moves, the throttle handle support was mocked-up to check not only for correct placement of the handle but also proper clearance over the gauge-cocks and around the boiler stays.
Throttle handle support mock-up to check for clearances.
The original support was an “L” shape with the short leg pointed down. The new support has the short leg pointed up because the new boiler has a stay rod in the way of the old mounting. Here is a look at the completed assembly with the support studded to the backhead. The anchor does have a dog-leg in it per the C&NW drawings. It also does connect squarely at the stud end even though the camera lens distortion makes it look differently.
Throttle support.
Last but not least is a look down the top of the boiler from the throttle handle down to the throttle itself.
View of both the throttle and throttle rod.
In the next update: Installing the hydrostatic lubricator
Mid-Continent Railway MuseumPosted on by Jeffrey Lentz
Fletch’s crew will be holding a volunteer session on the D&R #9 next Monday, June 20. Start time will be 10am at the #9 (located behind Mid-Continent’s Car Shop building). We plan on working a slew of smaller tasks such as windows, and other ancillary hardware that is currently in storage. Hope to see you there.
Mid-Continent Railway MuseumPosted on by Jeffrey Lentz
The mighty Winston Churchill once said, “Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and the glory of the climb.” And this last weekend we added Joy to the #9’s journey, by moving its tender to where it will be prepped and receive its first new coat of paint in many, many years. When this will happen has yet to be determined, but it’s a big step in this Glory of the Climb. We will continue to work with the Operations Department and the painters to start narrowing down the next steps to transforming the tender.
Fletcher was finally able to join us this weekend, and he wants to give a HUGE thank you to Ed Ripp, Perry Anderson, Fred Vergenz, and all the crew working with them, for helping to get this move done. And thank you to our dedicated #9 crew for all the work this last weekend; Steve Pahl, Frank Fisher, and Mike Laabs. You guys keep this project moving forward.
As mentioned previously, our future volunteer sessions revolve around the successful coordination of all parties with a focus on getting the tender painted. As we narrow down our next move, we will put out the next dates. Thank you for following along.
Mid-Continent Railway MuseumPosted on by Jeffrey Lentz
The latest accomplishment on the 1385 boiler has been the installation of the Try-Cocks. That is the proper name of an important set of monitoring and safety devices. In previous posts the question “What’s the first 3 things to know about any boiler?”, was asked and the answer is still “Where’s your water?“, times three. It was also shown the highest point of the crown sheet was measured and marked. We are additionally required to install water level indicating devices whose lowest reading shall not be less than 3 inches above the highest point of the crown sheet.
Close study of the locomotive drawings has shown (Thanks, Ed) that the C&NW standard was to install the indicating devices to show not less than 4 inches of water, giving us an extra inch of safety margin. One of the types of indicating devices is a set of three Try-Cocks, so named because they allow the operator to “Try” the level of the water in the boiler.
Punch marks indicating location of crown sheet are visible just above the blue tape.Steve R. of SPEC Machine adds punch marks for use with locating the Try-Cock.
In the first picture the punch marks showing the water side of the crown sheet can be seen just above the blue tape. Steve R. of SPEC Machine works so quickly it is sometimes hard to catch a clear picture as evidenced by the photo of him placing a punch mark to locate the center of one of the Try-Cocks. A hole is then drilled and threaded to accept the base or “spud” of each Try-Cock.
Checking the placement and clearance of the throttle and try-cocks.
The above shot shows all three in place along with a temporary placing of the throttle handle to check clearances. This is part of the 3-D chess necessary to make sure all the components will fit before they are installed. In the circle is a marking of the water side of the crown sheet so we can be sure the lowest Try-Cock is at the proper level.
C&NW 1385 Try-Cocks. Bonnet and stems (left) are original. Spuds (right) are new.
The Try-Cocks themselves are a mixture of new and old. As seen here, the bonnets and stems are original to the 1385 but the spuds were machined from a new piece of code-compliant material. This was necessary because the new boiler has a reinforcing plate applied to the inside of the backhead in order to meet with the strength requirements of the current construction code. This means the steel in that area is much thicker than the original boiler and in order to properly reach far enough into the water space the spuds needed to be longer.
Each Try-Cock has a drain tube installed in the valve stem to direct the steam and water into the drain cup when the valve is operated to “Try” the water level. Below is how they look after final installation of the spuds, stems and drain cup. The drain cup will have a pipe that extends through the cab floor to drain the water out onto the right-of-way.
Final installation of 1385’s Try-Cocks, stems, and drain cup.
In Upcoming Updates: The throttle handle and rod as well as the engine lubricator.
