Work Session Status Week Ending 07/09/2016

July 19, 2016

Since I last reported, our work continues on several areas of the restoration.

Small bore piping was thoroughly cleaned and painted. These pipes lay along the top of the boiler to operate various equipment such as the sanders, stack lifter, bell ringer, dynamo and others.

The air brake crew is making steady progress piping the various components needed for proper operation of the system. Brackets are still being welded on and components mounted on them.

Hydro test equipment for the superheater bundles is being assembled so two bundles can be pressure tested simultaneously.

Sander pipes are being installed and secured in their respective brackets.

Slack adjusters are also being adjusted whenever the locomotive is over the pit.

We performed another air test of the boiler. We still have some problem areas we are working on. Welch’s Boiler rerolled the remaining tubes and flues not completed on their first visit. They feel confident they will now hold pressure.

A few of the flexi-caps are still giving us problems. Most have reconditioned caps and are being replaced with new ones along with new annealed copper seals.

Behind the scenes our electrical gurus have been plotting and planning, drawing schematics and ordering needed components.

This week we received a newly casted brass foam meter face plate. The template was loaned to us by the St. Louis Museum of Transportation. They also provided us a cab lighting fixture for a template to fabricate ones removed from our cab years ago.

On the infrastructure of our site we needed to do some maintenance on our pit and shims were installed where needed and tack welded in place.

The electricians working on the engine house have completed the upgrade of our main panel and ran the power to a panel mounted on the engine house. The two exhaust fans have been wired along with several outlets

Several of our dedicated volunteers have been rechecking boiler measurements and preparing documents we will need for the Form 4 required by the FRA.

We have a new member orientation coming up this Saturday in the office reefer promptly at 9:00 AM.

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

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