Work Session Status Week Ending 02/08/2020

February 10, 2020

A nice AT&SF Steam Video for your enjoyment. It’s about 17 min. long:
Santa Fe How to Operate a Steam Locomotive

Since our last steam-up we have been addressing some minor items to do which are listed on the current punch list.

The compressors are one of those items. The top cylinder heads were both leaking. After disassembly it appears that many years ago, during reassembly, the copper gasket was not annealed nor were some of the burrs. All this has been corrected and reassembly has begun.

The fireman’s side blow down pipe does not perfectly mate up to one of the unions so work has begun to fix that problem. Due to the unavailable 2″ union 90° ells some adapter work will be performed.

The fireman’s blow down valve set has been resurfaced as it was leaking by and down into the muffler. All three are now complete with new packing.

The electricians were doing some rewiring on the dynamos as I was told a couple of connections needed to be swapped.

In other areas we began final clean-up on the 27″ diameter steam cylinders. Engineer’s side is complete and a temporary coating of oil was applied. The cylinder was then scaled off. After both are complete preparations will be done to install the huge pistons and connect them to the cross-heads. Cylinder heads and packing will follow.

There will be a New Member Orientation on February 29th at 0900 in the Reefer Conference area. If you’d like to attend please contact our Chief Safety Officer, Jon Spargo, at the following email: Kc5ntw@sdc.org

For some record-keeping, Madam Secretary, has requested if you have not paid your membership renewals that you do so as soon as possible. If you’re unsure if your membership was not paid you can ask at the above email.

Hope to see everyone that can work at the site this week, and as always . . .

Keep on Steamin’,
Rick Kirby
CMO, NMSL&RHS