Steam railroading to return to Alaska!

[Orrin]

Dick, thank you for keeping us up-to-date on "Monte's" locomotive. Monte was a very colorful fellow, a legend in his own time. I had the pleasure of visiting his House of Poverty museum and attending the auction after his death. The loco survived because of the security he accorded it, unlike another one nearby that has been trashed, sitting on a siding in a remote industrial area.

Monte rose from rags to riches. His business, Moses Lake Steel, survives, now being operated by his son. Piles of his self-published autobiography went begging for buyers at the auction. Folks who turned up their noses at it didn't know what they were missing. He was an amazing man. Rather than ask House of Poverty visitors for donations to support it, he gave them money and candy.

Orrin

[Dick_Morris]

It was obvious that Monte took good care of his locomotive. Even the glass in all the gauges was intact.

[Donhost4449]

Upcoming tasks are an inch-by-inch boiler inspection, an ultrasound test at about every six inches of every surface of the boiler, and removal of the tubes.

Dick- how is that tube removal going? That wall must surely make the job a challenge! Chris

[Dick_Morris]

Dick- how is that tube removal going? That wall must surely make the job a challenge!

The crew is still removing stuff from the smoke box, they haven't removed any tubes yet.

What do you think we are, a bunch of amatures? When spotting the locomotive we left ample space in front to remove the tubes. Next year that wall will contain an overhead door big enough to drive a locomotive through. Filling a big hole and laying a couple of hundred feet of track will allow us to tie onto a spur.

Tomorrow is a work day. It's starting to get cold in the engine house and I've had to buy some new cold weather gear. My old stuff shrunk while hanging in the closet.

[Dick_Morris]

What better way to spend Veteran's Day than to spend it with a WWII veteran. In this case a WWII S-160 locomotive.

Today we removed the first of the superheaters. After removing the nut on the first one cold, we found that the way to do it was heat the nut to a dull red, loosen it about half a turn with a 1-1/16" socket, 18" 3/4" drive breaker bar, 4' cheater, and three guys weighing 600+ pounds. (A big pop when it first moves.) Then remove the nut the rest of the way with a 3/4" drive impact wrench.

[Dick_Morris]

Another milestone, the first superheater being removed.

[Dick_Morris]

First four superheaters removed and on the forklift, ready to be stored. Note the box fan on the top of the stack. The impact wrench broke loose a lot of soot and the fan did a pretty good job of clearing the air. Even so, those in the smoke box ended up with black faces, hands, and clothes. That was a bad thing - the waterless hand cleaner was frozen when we went to use it and there is no running water.

Note that there is lots of room to pull the tubes before we run into the wall.

[Dick_Morris]

The first row of eight superheaters removed. Only 24 more to go.

I didn't know how superheaters were attached before today. The nut goes onto a T bolt in the T shot above. The superheaters are sealed to the manifold into tapered seats - about 45 degrees. There are superheaters in four rows of flues and they are connected to the mainfold in four rows, one behind the next.

[Dick_Morris]

No photos this time - I forgot the camera.

For a while we have been working towards removing the tubes so we can inspect the boiler shell. We spent a balmy 30 degree day on Saturday cutting and removing the first of them.

One of our number who is younger and less claustrophobic to me had to make a couple of trips into the boiler. Watching his 6' 4" frame disappear through the steam dome is quite a sight!

[Dick_Morris]

Three photos of today's progress. Work days typically bring a crew of 7-8 people and the total rebuild crew has grown to about 20.

Photo 1. Removing a superheater flue. The process is to use a torch to cut the flue at both ends, a couple of inches inside of the tube sheets. Also cut a couple of pairs of holes in the flue for the bolt that will be used to pull it out of the boiler. Remove the remaining ring of material from the front tube sheet. Line up the flue with the hole and pull it out a few inches with a chain fall. Repostion the bolt to the outside of the tub sheet and pull it until the upset portion of the tube is clear. (That's when this photo was taken.) Pull it the rest of the way by hand. The front six inches or so of the tube and flues are upset (expanded) by about 1/2 inch to make it easier to remove them. The scale and welding slag make that first few inches more difficult to remove. Once you are past the upset section there is lots of clearance. The plug visable below and to the right of the flue being removed is a reminder not to remove that flue. The front tube sheet is only about 5/8" thick and a couple of flues will be left in place to stablize it while work is being done. They will be removed after some of the other flues have been replaced. Care has to be taken not to damage the holes in the tube sheet so that new flues and tubes will make a good seal when expanded into place.

Photo 2. Cleaning many layers of paint from a valve gear radius rod.

Photo 3. Another nice donation was about a dozen sections of 16 foot high, 12 foot long, pallet shelving. We have been able to move a lot of material from the floor, used part of the area as work benchs with extra task lighting, and used some up as scaffolding. (It's a long way from the walkway to the floor. That's also why I installed a new railing on the "back porch.") The door is wide open in this photo. The 40 degree outside temperature warmed the inside of the building by 15-20 degrees.

[Dick_Morris]

It's been quite a while since my last update but that doesn't mean we haven't been busy.

Removing 150 tubes and 30 superheater flues went fairly quickly - until we got to grinding the seal welds and removing the stubs from the rear tube sheet. The entire job of removing flues and tubes took several hundred hours and over three months. This photo is of the rear tube sheet was taken from inside of the fire box.

[Dick_Morris]

One big task was to take ultrasound thickness measurements of the boiler sheets including the inside of the fire box. Well over 2,000 measurements were made at three to 12 inch intervals. Each of the white marks on the side sheet is a measurement.