Work Session Status Week Ending 03/25/2017

March 28, 2017

Over the past few weeks we have been water testing the boiler at various pressures. Each time we seemed to find more slow leaks which may have been overlooked at the previous test. Many, if not all of these leaks, stem from flexible staybolt caps and rigid staybolts at their mushroomed caulked heads. Many were sealed by just caulking the head. We still have a few sleeves to look at and no water tests are scheduled at this time.​

The air brake crew is testing the system and found a few leaks at various locations.

Other volunteers have been preparing the tender for MU conduit and air brake piping. Pipe supports are being fabricated for them and also for the MU receptacles. Several Hoffman boxes have been received in recent weeks along with terminals, MU receptacles and MU jumper cables. The MU cable and connectors have been ordered.

Various original valve controls rods have been straightened and installed. Some were bent from folks standing on them while the engine was in the park.

The machine shop is building a large bushing to close off the opening on the steam fountain that was once used for train car heat. The old valve had fine tapered male threads not regular pipe threads.

Those of you who may be interested in Madam Secretary’s progress since her hip replacement, I’m pleased to announce she has graduated from Physical Therapy after five and a half weeks. After sitting or laying down for a period of time she is still somewhat stiff, but after a few steps she gets around quite well.

Also, to those of you that have not paid your membership donations for 2017, you are encouraged to do so NOW. Gail will probably start bugging people that have not paid their 2017 memberships, so just be expecting a friendly reminder from her. She’s got to go through the entire 400+ names and see who has not paid up.

We appreciate your understanding during this process, and we hate to bug people, but we don’t know unless we ask if you still want to be on our membership list. Also, if you’re not sure if you paid or not, feel free to email Gail and she’ll let you know for sure! BTW, all our overseas members have paid all their donations and are up to date! Two, Mr. Dobbs and Mr. Allen, are even Lifetime Members! Thanks for those continued donations.

We’ve had some good rain last night and possibly more tonight, so the ground should be pretty well soaked down at the site. Looking forward to seeing everyone this week, and as usual…

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