Donate to the D&R #9 Cosmetic Restoration

Mid-Continent Railway Museum Posted on by
Created using the Donation Thermometer plugin https://wordpress.org/plugins/donation-thermometer/.$9,999‘Thanks$9,999‘Thanks100%

Mid-Continent Railway Museum has announced plans to begin the cosmetic restoration of the Dardanelle & Russellville #9 steam locomotive starting in Spring 2021. The restoration will be more than just slapping on a new coat of paint. It will involve a number of steps, each involving expenses:  grinding, stripping, and blasting of the locomotive to provide a clean, rust-free surface, repair/replacement of deteriorated wood, sheet metal, and other custom components, primer, paint, and associated supplies, and finally the creation of interpretive display materials.

To complete this project, your help will be needed!  Mid-Continent has begun fundraising for the project, with a goal of raising $9,999 to support the #9. If you wish to see Mid-Continent’s oldest locomotive made beautiful and ready for public display once again, please consider making a contribution today.

Mid-Continent Railway Museum is a 501(c)(3) non-profit. All donations are 100% tax-deductible and a donation acknowledgment letter will be provided.

If you wish to become a project volunteer, please send an email to inquiries@midcontinent.org. Volunteer sessions are anticipated to begin in spring 2021.

Fundraising progress thermometer last updated: 03/19/2021.

Fundraising Update 3/19/2021:

Mission accomplished! Our fundraising goal for this project has been achieved. Thank you to everyone that has contributed.

steam locomotive no. 9
D&R #9 in service at North Freedom, June 1969. Jim Neubauer photo.

May 2021 Dining Trains Canceled

Mid-Continent Railway Museum Posted on by

SCHEDULE CHANGE NOTICE:

All ONBOARD DINING departures scheduled in May 2021 have been canceled. The affected departures include:

  • May 8, 2021, 1:00 PM Pizza Train
  • May 9, 2021, 10:30 AM Mother’s Day Brunch Train
  • May 9, 2021, 1:00 PM Mother’s Day Brunch Train

These cancelations are being enacted by Mid-Continent Railway Museum to best comply with a recently-released Transportation Security Administration (TSA) directive aimed at reducing the transmission of the COVID-19 virus aboard railroad passenger trains and other forms of mass transit. After careful consideration, our Dining Services and Operating departments felt we would be unable to provide museum visitors aboard these trains the quality experience they paid for and deserve while also remaining compliant with the TSA directive.

We apologize for any inconvenience these cancelations cause. Customers already booked aboard the affected trains are being contacted individually and will be offered a full refund.

The cancelations do NOT affect Mid-Continent Railway Museum’s COACH TRAINS, which will continue to operate normally while observing social distancing and mask requirements.

The current TSA directive expires on May 11, 2021; however, it may be extended. In the event the directive is extended, additional changes to Mid-Continent’s onboard dining train schedule may occur.

C&NW #1385 Update – January 2021

Mid-Continent Railway Museum Posted on by

With January coming to a close it is time to check in again with Chicago & North Western #1385’s progress. Steve Pahl, MCRM General Foreman of Steam, provided the following list of work being performed or recently completed as of January 20, 2021.

Key areas of work on C&NW #1385 during January 2021.

  1. The auxiliary steam dome is currently being repaired. The auxiliary steam dome is where the safety valves, boiler vent valve, and whistle are mounted. The boiler vent valve is used for filling the boiler with water and serves as a vent when draining said boiler. The whistle, of course, is the epitome of steam railroading! 
  2. The cast iron blanks for the new piston bull rings have been water jet cut to rough dimensions and are ready to be machined to the final dimension with grooves cut for the piston rings. The center “donut hole” left over after the piston bull rings were cut out are being used as the blanks for the two smaller bull rings that are needed for each valve. That way there is not nearly as much waste in material lost.

    One of the cast iron “blanks” for the new piston bull rings, shown after being water jet cut to rough dimensions. Further machining is required. Steve Pahl photo.

  3. A valve cage is a hollow cylindrical wear element that is used as both a guide for the valve as well as the outer sealing surface for the valve so it can route both the live steam and exhaust steam to the proper places. The valve packing rings form the inner sealing surface and slide back-and-forth in the valve cage as the valve is moved.

    C&NW 1385’s new valve cages stand ready to be installed into the steam chests. Steve Pahl photo.

    There are two sets of ports that have been machined into each cage. The large rectangular ports lead to the exhaust nozzle up to the smokebox so the exhaust can be pointed up and out of the smokestack. The smaller parallelogram-shaped ports lead to the passage to the cylinder. Depending on the position of the piston valve inside the cage either the live superheated steam is routed into the cylinder to push the piston forward or back or the cylinder is connected to the exhaust passage to release the steam once it has done the work of pushing the piston. Since steam pushes the piston in both directions there are ports needed for each end of the piston travel and the need for a cage at each end of the steam chest.

    The valve cage on the locomotive’s engineer side has been previously cleaned up by boring and was found to be thick enough to still have a long service life ahead and was therefore left in place. The fireman’s side valve cage was found to be in need of replacement. The new fireman’s side valve cages are now ready to be installed into the steam chest. This will be an interesting process to install. The valve cages will be shrunk using dry ice. In the meantime, a couple of rosebud oxy/acetylene torches will be used to expand the steam chest and if everything goes correctly, the valve cage should slide right in. One cage will be inserted from the front side of the steam chest while the other will be inserted from the rear.

  4. Fire doors have been painted and await installation. A “spacing” ring needs to be fabricated that will fit between the boiler and the firedoor itself. This is necessary for operational clearance. Due to the change from threaded and peened staybolts to the now welded staybolts, which was by design of the new boiler.
  5. As mentioned in the December update, the air compressors are awaiting installation. With the new boiler design, there needs to be adjustments made to the mounting brackets and boiler studs to ensure the proper placement as it appeared when MCRM purchased the locomotive. This will also be necessary for the power reverse due to the same circumstance.
  6. SPEC Machines made a tool for resurfacing and lapping the seats and flanges on the steam delivery pipes, the superheater header, and the steam chests. This ensures a tight seal for delivering the superheated steam from the superheater header to the steam chests. Work on these existing sealing surfaces is now complete. Yet-to-be-made matching “donuts” will be inserted between the branch pipe and steam chest flanges and the branch pipe and superheater header to adjust for minor manufacturing size differences and space variations between the new and old components.
  7. The smoke box has been seal welded to the boiler. This procedure finally secures the smoke box to the boiler itself. As reported last month, SPEC Machine was busy drilling and reaming the holes that connect the smoke box to the cylinder saddle. I am happy to report that the smoke box is in fact bolted down to the cylinder saddle with 50 tapered fitting bolts custom made by SPEC Machines with 50 H2 heavy nuts.  The boiler is now officially attached to the frame!  There is still some work to be completed with the smoke box; i.e., complete the grouting at the bottom of the smoke box with refractory, install smoke stack and assorted draft appliances.

50 custom-made tapered bolts now help secure the smoke box to the cylinder saddle. Steve Pahl photo.

You Can Help Get C&NW 1385 Back in Service

Mid-Continent Railway Museum Posted on by

Ever since the C&NW No. 1385 restoration was resumed in 2011 work has progressed steadily thanks in large part to the financial support of the 1385 project’s enthusiastic followers. That financial backing has allowed hired professional machinists to work on the project 5-days-a-week and allowed progress to occur much faster than could be accomplished by volunteers alone.

As we head in the home stretch we’re asking for your continued support so that the 1385 restoration can continue moving forward without delay. Please consider joining the growing list of nearly 1,000 project contributors by donating today. You can do so by visiting our Donation Page and specifying in the donation form that you want your contribution to support C&NW #1385.

Donating is easy thanks to our online donation form which accepts all major credit cards and Paypal, or you can use our printable donation form to send with your mailed contribution. Thank you for helping us get this far!

With your help this will soon be a common scene at Mid-Continent Railway Museum.

1385 Update: December 2020

Mid-Continent Railway Museum Posted on by

In the second half of December, Steve Pahl, Sr., Mid-Continent’s General Foreman of Steam Power took photos of 1385 at SPEC Machine and reported the following recent progress and items coming up in the immediate future.

Work Areas (correspond to numbers in the below list).

  1. The saddle bolt holes have been drilled and are in the process of being reamed. The saddle bolts still need to be produced.
  2. Pistons and rods have been returned with the piston rod and re-trued (cut on a lathe). The pistons themselves are ready to be reassembled.
  3. The valve slides should be ready for heat-treating in January 2021.
  4. The crosshead slide drawings are complete and are awaiting machine time.
  5. The furnace bearers along with all components are fitted and ready for final securement after the smokebox is secured to the saddle.
  6. The two 9-1/2″ air compressors shown being test in the previous 1385 will soon be mounted in their rightful location on the fireman side of the locomotive.
  7. The firedoors will be painted by early January in preparation for installation on the backhead.
  8. Superheaters have been installed and preliminary testing is completed. They still need to pass final hydro testing.
  9. SPEC Machine hopes to have the smokebox completed by the end of January 2021, in as far as it will be:
    1. Secured to the saddle with bolts.
    2. Grouted (to fill the voids between the cylinder saddle and smokebox and help make the two pieces become one)
    3. Have the smokestack installed
    4. And have the draft appliances installed, including the petticoat pipe, spark arrester, and associated components.