LE 1 inch scale 060 Rebuild

[SteveR]

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I bought this locomotive in 2018 and I've been waiting to start into it until I had more time. After 5 years, if I haven't found time yet, then might as well get started.

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The story is that this engine was built in 1970 by Francis Batenich of Chicago in 22 months. He was a tool and die maker and the engine appears to be a well built little machine. The boiler uses the cast firebox and at some point developed a large leak. The exact location was a mystery and would require disassembly to find out where the problem is.

I've started the disassembly process and thought I would document some interesting tidbits.

[SteveR]

Some additional pictures before getting started. Here's what it looks like currently:

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Here's the backhead with some annotations.

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Here's where the real fun is - inside the smokebox.

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The inside of the smokebox door suggests maybe there was a lot of water inside at some point? Yes - the light colored section would be on the bottom.

[NP317]

Looks like quite a project. I can understand why you have not started it until now.
'Will be educational to watch your progress!
RussN

[SteveR]

First thing was to remove the running boards with a couple of screws. Each one has tubing that feeds a check valve - one from the injector and one from the tender hand pump. No other boiler feed. The lubricator came off with the LHS one.

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Next the cab. Removed the sides with a couple of screws, then the front has to come apart at the center.

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To get to the screws at the bottom of the front panels that hold them to the floor, the air tanks have to come off and to get to those, the diamond floor covering has to come out. Then there are two screws for each air tank bracket.

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Then there are two bolts that hold the rest of the cab (floor and back) to the frame and they slide off the back of the frame as a unit.

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I've been pretty lucky up to now. Haven''t broken any screws. They all get put back in their respective holes. Everything that comes off gets put in a McMaster baggie and labeled. I dictated some verbal notes to myself in my phone when taking some things apart.

[SteveR]

Here's a picture of the cab assembly.

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Then on to the boiler. Removed the boiler bands and shell. Not sure what the lagging is, so wet it down good and carefully put it in it's own baggie. I had already tried some of the bolts holding the boiler to the smokebox. These are brass, heavily corroded on the inside of the smokebox and they all just sheared off. Not going to mess with them. The idea of using brass could mean they were meant to be disposable?

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More smokebox bolts - there were 5 sets of 3 bolts. None of them would budge and they all (fortunately) sheared off at or below the smokebox ID.

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Then removed the two boiler guides at the rear of the frame, lots of liquid wrench on the smokebox joint, some judicious use of a hammer and cold chisel at the joint just enough to get a little disposable screwdriver in the crack.

One additional problem was that the throttle and blower lines were hard soldered or swaged on both sides. So the decision was made to cut them on the backhead side. When the boiler came off, I had to slide the boiler over those lines. Now you can see the smokebox in all its glory.

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[SteveR]

The boiler looks to be in good shape - no obvious cracks. The turret was soldered on because when I tried to unscrew it, it snapped off. Plugged it with a pipe plug for now.

Plugged up the other holes and connected to my compressor and sprayed with soap. Lots of bubbles.

Hard to get my camera to focus, but there were a couple of small bubbles on the firebox sheet. Hard to see with all the soot.

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Same for the front tubesheet.

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But the steam dome joint is busted for sure. Air was pouring out.

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So this has gone to the sandblaster to get cleaned up and then we'll try again.

[Bill Shields]

Boiler city...here you come.

Experience tells me that when you are at this point...easier to replace than attempt repair

Historically the LE cast fireboxes were gobs of trouble.

What is the of of the shell?

[SteveR]

Hi Bill,
Looks like the OD is 5-1/2". In the thread http://www.chaski.org/homemachinist/vie ... &start=12 Marty mentions X-raying one of these fireboxes. I may do this if I can find someone nearby who can do for not too much $. Maybe the alternative is a big furnace and pull the whole thing apart (for fun and possible rebuilding). Practically though, I think the path forward is to build a new one from steel.
BTW - you can't see it in the pictures, but there is only 1 blowdown on the side of the firebox. Taking it apart would be interesting to see what has accumulated over the years.
SteveR

[Bill Shields]

Suggest Copper, not steel.

Generally, repairs not doible.

X-ray would tell you "toss it"

[SteveR]

Back from getting cleaned up at the sand blasters. Much improved and much easier to leak check.

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In the picture above, you can see the one and only blowdown valve.

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In the picture below, the bolt at the bottom is soldered in place.

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FB sheet after SB.jpg (45.89 KiB) Viewed 3982 times

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[SteveR]

Here are where the big leaks are - on the steam dome solder joint:

Dome after SB.jpg (76.67 KiB) Viewed 3982 times

And the Smokebox tubesheet. I've circled the cracked areas in both pics and they are not small.

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There is one or two tiny ones on the firebox sheet on a couple of tubes - very hard to spot. In general all other joints look good. But on the print it says to use EasyFlow silver solder and this is one of the Sil-Phos compounds that doesn't like the sulfur in coal

SteveR

[Bill Shields]

Not a very pretty looking silver solder job .sil phos makes it worse, since once it beging to fail, there is no fixing it.

Agreed, this looks like straight up bad solder job, but I assume that at one time it held pressure and ran...how so?

Were the leaky areas caulked with something? Lead solder maybe? If so, there is no fixing it

Fixing going to be a bear, particularly if there is any grit down in the openings.

Getting apart...well...think bandsaw.

Been in this situation a couple of times in past 10 years for others and ..well ..think doorstop is my suggestion