The mess north of the shop was made worse from the dripping tender of the 9. The staff had moved the 9 about 500 feet north to drain the boiler and tender. The boiler drained completely while the tender took its sweet time, with a good portion of it flooding the snowed in area immediately outside the building.
Dustin B and Mike E replace a gasket in the "Chicago" air fittings.
The air hose was connected to a companion fitting next to the whistle. This connection allows the boiler to be pressurized. Once pressurized, the air compressor, turbine, injector lines, and steam cylinders can be "blown" dry.
Here, John G. wrestles with the air hose connections. The new gasket, while making a tight connection, made it a bit harder to snap the two pieces together.
While John is wrestling with the connection at the top of the boiler, Dustin B is wrestling with another connection at ground level.
The boiler is pressurized and the blow dry begins. Water vapor can be seen rushing from the various openings on the engine.
The next few pictures show the vapor coming from the fireman's side injector line check valve. The 9 has four injector check valves, two on the fireman's injector and two on the engineer's injector.
Now that a good portion of the water is out of the fireman's injector line, the locomotive's air compressor is started. The compressor tries to compress air into the 9's air brake system.
Mike E tinkers with the bleed valves on the steam driven compound air compressor.
After the stationary items are blown dry, the steam cylinders must be blown dry. The only way to dry the steam cylinders is to operate the locomotive, moving it back and forth as if it is actually under steam.
There are no still pictures of this adventure, instead, check here for a composite youtube video of the action. In the video, John G can be seen dancing with the air hoses to keep them from being entangled within the crankshaft, wheels, and axles of the 9.
After the steam cylinders were dried, the 9 was pushed into the shop for removal of the boiler plugs and the shield located in front of the flues in the locomotive's smoke box.
That done, the 9 was pulled out of the shop and placed where the high pressure washing could be performed.
The remaining pictures show the staff washing the various nooks and crannies inside the boiler.
The morning had been fairly warm (just above freezing) but it turned colder as the day wore on. By mid afternoon, the wind had picked up and the temperature dropped to the low 20's.
Dustin finally called the outside operation to a halt when the water was freezing as fast as it was applied to the skin of the 9. The last few corners of the boiler were cleaned after the 9 was pushed back into the shop.
-steam.airman
