Work Session Status Week Ending 02/22/2014

February 24, 2014

Last week was the first full week of on site work Monday thru Saturday. For the next month we will be on site six days a week!

The BNSF grant for stay-bolt welding is allowing us to put two welders to work on the stay-bolt sleeve repairs Monday thru Friday. 90 Sleeves were welded into place. This repair is critical to our restoration timeline, although we are going to spend about twice the BNSF grant amount, this keeps us on schedule!

Additional work included more welding on the replacement radial buffer, and the cab was lifted off the engine and set on the ground so wiring and other parts can be installed in it. So the engine looks ugly again but it was necessary in order to get at some stay-bolt fixes that were covered by the cab.

The clearcoat that we applied to the rods last year did not adhere properly so two of the rods were taken out and cleanup was started.

The Walschaerts linkages originally had double row needle bearings that could not be replaced. A year long search revealed that the ones we needed simply were not available. We replaced them with an aluminum/bronze bushing that has graphite plugs imbedded in them and will require no lubrication. Installation was completed.

The long awaited crosshead shoe babbit repair problems were solved and they are now at Grand Canyon RR being milled to fit the crossheads. They will be back in ABQ in a couple of weeks, hopefully, and then we can get all of the rods back on.

Keep on Steamin’,
Bob DeGroft, Assistant CMO
NMSL&RHS