South Station Expansion March 10 through June 9

Work begins with moving dirt in preparation of moving the north track.  Dan Hagist is at the controls of the Skid Steer while Chris Pacha observes.

Dan adds some rock for a base.

Chris Pacha and Scott Deaton test out the heater in the Cushman.

April 27, the building "kit" arrives.

May 9, Construction begins with the removal of the doors and tracks.

May 10, the west wall comes down.

Later that day Mother Nature decides that she will assist in the construction with some "Monsoon" rain and a tornado south of town.

What do you do when there is a tornado warning?  Grab a chair of course and await it's arrival.

Anyone want to go fishing?

May 15, after a little drying the walls begin to take shape.

May 16, up go the rafters.

With the rafters up, the new addition is really starting to take shape.

West wall begins to be put back together.  This wall is still the original west wall and doors.

May 23rd, the building is up, now it's time to start the inside work.

June 8th, Barton Construction is slinging mud in all the right places.

Scott and Mike Barton discuss the next step.

Dan prepares to seal some concrete.

Barton let me (Matt Crull) use their mini excavator to remove the mud from between the north track and the wall.  I really like this mini excavator!



Dan the Concrete Sealing Man!

All photos contributed by Matt Crull.

May, 2017 Work Weekend

Not only were the MCRR volunteers busy this weekend, the staff from Morton Buildings started on the South Station expansion project. We are adding about 75 feet to the west end of the building. We disconnected the building's north spur from the system a few months ago in anticipation of the construction.

While the Morton gang was busy with the South Station, MCRR people were busy installing the new tires on No. 2's wheels.

The first set of pictures shows Dan H. and Chris P. watching the fire heating the tire in anticipation of slipping the wheel inside.

The tire is heated with a propane fired hoop burner. There are several modern ways of determining the correct temperature but for nostalgia sake, we placed a slug of babbit on the tire and waited until it liquefied -- about 500F -- and watched the color of the metal change from shiny silver to light straw to dark straw. Sufficient expansion occurs to allow the wheel to easily slip in place. More critical to the heating process are the initial measurements for correct machining of the tires.

Once the tire reaches the correct temperature, the axle/wheel assembly is lowered into the tire, the fire is switched off, and we wait for the fitted tire to cool.

Jostling the axle/wheel assembly from its vertical position to a horizontal position.

Preparing the bricks for the next tire.

The surfaces of the tire are cleaned with solvent.

The Old Threshers' organization provides school tours of their two museums. We keep a short consist and a locomotive in Museum B allowing us to participate in the tours. Our Dylan D. represents the railroad side of the facility.

A few months ago, we removed a stake pocket from one of the DRGW flatcars in anticipation of having it replicated for use on the other flatcar. Micah M. replaces the stake pocket.

Dan H. prepares the green coach for painting.

Part of No. 6's winter rehabilitation is to have the water side of the tender resealed. The staff removes the fuel tank and access panels to the water tank.

The ongoing inspection the 16's boiler continues. Some needle descaling takes place to insure the accuracy of the boiler wall thickness testing. One of the firebox stays was removed to determine what it will take to do the entire firebox.

-steam.airman