Special work days redux, December 7 and 8.

We're having another go at exploring the cylinders and valves on the weekend of December 7 and 8. Santa trains will be running so it will be a fun and busy time. Plan is to disassemble the rods and heads on Saturday the 7th, pull the pistons and valves on Sunday and inspect the bores and assorted hunks of metal. This is the last completely unexplored area of the locomotive, and I know we'll all be a lot happier to have it become a known quantity. Any interested readers are welcome to drop in and help out. Updates will be posted later on........and hopefully many pictures.

Recent developments include a platform for access through the steam dome into the boiler, and beginning work on local corporate fund raising. I have no idea how the recent board elections turned out nor any idea as to how its resolution might impact the Project 110 progress. I'll pass along more news if I get any.

Dave

Looks like the 7th and 8th will be filled with activity, both operating the Santa trains and on 110. The new BOD is getting active, some very good and needed expenditures have been authorized for the movement in of previously owned stock including an Alco S1 and an air conditioned car, among other things. Storage tracks are under construction.

The main rods are already disassembled for the 110 work planned for the weekend. Tools and supplies are being prepared. Any interested reader is welcome.

Dave

Confirming our plans to work on 110 despite the weather report, which is cold and wet and nasty.......Santa trains will be running with 17 in steam, and extra trips scheduled due to high ticket sales and an upcoming newspaper article. If you are thinking of dropping in, please bring a warm raincoat and good boots.

Dave

Despite the weather, we had great crowds for the Santa trains this weekend, but some ticket holders chose not to attend.  Forecasts are favorable for next weekend, so hope we will see even better numbers. We had a visit from our FRA inspector, with no problems noted on 17.

With 110 on a piece of track with a muddy drainage ditch on the right side, only the left side of the valve and cylinder half-saddle could be taken apart. I'll post some photos of what we discovered as well as some inside shots of the firebox and boiler in the next few days for review and commentary.

As of now, given the issues of fighting the work site as well as the weather, the decision has been made to lay in about 30 feet of culvert and bury it along the right side so we can get lifting equipment in for disassembling that side. We're also going to remove the boiler from the frame and send it to the boilermakers for repair (as yet to be specified) and new tubes. We will search for a local industrial building in which we can overhaul the frame and running gear. I will mention that the running gear is worn, and we found one axle was welded to the wheel center at the outside, but nothing appears to be in unrepairable condition so far. The boiler has two locations with some loss of steel: the smokebox at the bottom of the front tube sheet and a couple rivets, and the rear tube sheet water side which shows erosion along the top knuckle and spot pitting reaching down to about the level of the bottom of the barrel itself.

The left cylinder was worn to a remaining counterbore at the bottom of 25 thousandths, 90% loss of the original, and loss at the top was about 150 thousandths. We will need to bore out and insert a liner. The valve sleeves have worn cumulatively about 125 thousandths, but there's good meat left to bore concentric to the center of the gland and fit a new ring set, which will also ease steam flow somewhat. Plans could change if we find anything particularly nasty going on on the right side, but we've seen no indications so far.

Some odd piston rod packings made of a core of flexible reinforced plastic covered by a woven fiber tape were found in the gland.  I don't know if this was a proprietary product or a home grown kludge.

Photos will follow. I will also mention the beginning of a locally based corporate fund raising effort based on introductory letters and friends of friends, and in my absence I had been appointed chairman of the Acquisitions Committee. This is more an organizational and administrative housecleaning function with some development of long term vision to follow than active solicitation, as there's a focus for 2014 on actually bringing in a lot of equipment we own, and have owned for some time, but have had stored off site for various reasons. I think Acquisitions will morph into Acquisitions and Collections Management, since there's another large gap there, and it seems a reasonable fit.

Dave