May, 2013 Work Weekend

The blogger was a "slacker blogger" this month. He didn't arrive until Saturday morning! (Late arrival is the "official excuse" in case you are wondering why there aren't very many pictures.)

With the weather being quite nice, various outdoors activities were taking place. There were reports of Matt C. running the mower along the west fence; Chris P. was running the weed trimmer and rearranging some other items in and around the yard; Elsie B., Lindsay R., Matt W., Jeremy L., Roger R., and Elliot H. moved the passenger cars out of the South Station to give access to the plastic sheets covering the south wall, a left over from the North Pole Express. Using the diesel man-lift, they were able to remove all of the plastic.

Chris P. "rearranging other items."

Matt W. sandblasting parts for locomotive No. 2.

Roger R. giving much needed advice to Braden G. Braden was still stomping around with a removable cast on his leg and didn't seem too anxious to get into heavy lifting tasks.

Jeremy L. finally found a comfortable place to hide.

Paul K. holding the locomotive in place. There was a strong wind blowing from the north and Paul's efforts kept No. 12 on the pit track.

The most measurable work took place in the office. Brian B and John K. spent most of the day cutting out stencils traced from the side of the DRGW boxcar. They want to duplicate the lettering on the blank side of the boxcar.

-steam.airman

April, 2013 Work Weekend

Several days of fantastic weather! It had been rainy earlier in the month along with the occasional freak snowfall, but not this weekend. There were times that a jacket wasn't necessary.

The recently acquired 4-wheel drive fork lift had a few discrepancies which had been noted at delivery. The two highest priority items were the foot brake not working (yikes!) and the other was the 4-wheel drive engagement mechanism was not working reliably.

Roger R's first assignment was to get the brakes working. The problem was traced to a gummed up master cylinder. There was evidence that the fork lift had not had its brake fluid changed in a long time. Since fork lifts often work in dusty environments, the dust had infiltrated the seals on the master cylinder and formed a concrete-like substance which kept the unit from working.

The second assignment was resolving the 4-wheel drive problem. Rex F and Roger R worked on this for quite a while but it isn't known if they came to a conclusion or resolution. There is evidence that a controller circuit board is not doing what it should.

Dave O. had arrived on Friday night with his son, Kendell and a trailer load of steel tubing and rail. The first task Saturday morning was to unload the trailer. Using the skid steer, Nathan V and Randy V were able to get all of the steel off the trailer and load it to the proper storage areas around the MCRR shop.

The main spring cleanup project around the shop was to get the locomotive fuel oil under control. During the previous season, we were able to collect a number of totes full of oil. Some of the oil was pumped into the two locomotive tenders but a good portion was awaiting use in the totes.

Before the transfer from the totes to the large storage tank could begin, the containment area had to be drained of the recent heavy rains. We have a submersible pump to empty the water but the drain hose had fallen off of the pump casing. Elsie B, Ryan F, and Matt W quickly repaired the hose connection and started the pump.

After getting the pump working, Elsie B, Ryan F, and Matt W spent a good portion of the day pumping the content of the totes into the large storage tank and moving the empty totes to various locations on our property.

How did that get up there?

Matt W stepped inside the shop to find Matt C and Kevin S having a chat about some unknown topic. We are sure it was important.

Meanwhile, Brian B continued his stenciling project on the DRGW boxcar. Last month he had copied most of the small lettering from the "good" side of the boxcar. This month, he dealt with the large lettering on the upper portions of the boxcar.

Kendell O, Wayne P, and Braden G cleaned up the drivers for No. 2. Having been buried in the mud for so many years gave the team a chance to get familiar with the pressure washer. Portions of the wheels were so encased in mud that some manual scraping was necessary.

Not pictured is the activity in the South Station and Museum "B."

Every North Pole Express, the coach windows are treated with translucent plastic to aid in the experience of travelling to the North Pole. Our summer travelers do not care much for the North Pole Express look, so the plastic needs to be removed. Jerry C and Mike N spent several hours peeling the plastic off the windows. Deb C was keeping the gift shop and M&E room under control and preparing them for the upcoming season.

The Midwest Old Threshers are kind enough to allow us to store much of our equipment in their Museum "B" while North Pole Express takes place. However, when the school tours start in the spring, we need to get our "rougher" rolling stock out of Museum "B" and into our South Station. Several switching crews moved the various pieces around to give Museum "B" the correct look.

-steam.airman

March, 2013 Work Weekend

Most of the MCRR Board of Directors visited a trade show in St. Louis for the upcoming "Midwest Haunted Rails." While the BoD members were at their trade show, the MCRR "mechanics" (also known as the "volunteers") worked on various projects in the shop.

No. 12 was the focal point for the weekend.

Last month, No. 12's single cylinder air compressor was disassembled and several problems were noted. Based on those problems we decided to install a cross-compound air compressor that had been rebuilt by "Shop Services," a commercial entity co-located with the MCRR many years ago. The air compressor had been stored at the south end of the shop and for years was more of a tripping hazard than a useful piece of equipment. (Perhaps it was simply awaiting the "right" locomotive?)

Last month the cross-compound compressor was moved to a position behind No. 12's cab. This month it was tested with shop compressed air and installed on the fireman's side of the locomotive.

Rex F. and Roger R. inspect, lubricate, and attempt to get the compressor working. Supervising the labor was Board member Chris P. The years of doing nothing caused some of the compressor's original lubrication to become sticky and in a few places, solid.

As Rex and Roger were working on the compressor, Elliot H. was preparing the side of the boiler for the installation. The boiler mounts were designed for the cross-compound compressor but had been adapted to the single cylinder compressor while at the GLRR. The brackets were removed, labeled, and stored with the other pieces which had been removed last month.

With the boiler mount ready and the compressor cleanly cycling on shop air, the staff used the overhead crane to move the compressor to its new location.

With little fuss, the cross-compound compressor was bolted in place on No. 12. That was the easy part!

Unlike the MCRR, whose track "layout" is in a relatively flat city park, the GLRR's track system is up a fairly steep mountain grade. The locomotive works hard to get to the top and then the operator spends most of the time applying the brakes on the way back down. Applying air brakes causes the compressor to cycle, which for a "normal" compressor installation causes excessive smoke box drafting, often snuffing out the fire or causing the boiler's pressure to become higher than desirable.

The GLRR had modified the compressor steam exhaust system on No. 12 to suit their operation. Instead of having the compressor vent through the smoke box, the steam was vented outside behind the smoke stack. Perfect for the wide open areas in Colorado but rather noisy for our operation in Mt. Pleasant. Have a "look and listen" at this video and you will know what is meant by "rather noisy." The snorting is quite prevalent as No. 12's compressor is cycling while the air brake system is demanding pressure.

Solution? Reroute the compressor's steam exhaust through the smoke box. The size of the smoke box becomes a better muffler and the locomotive gets loads of free boiler draft in the process! Rex F. disconnects the brackets holding the exhaust pipe to the smoke stack.

The running boards surrounding the air compressor had been tailored to fit the single cylinder air compressor. With a totally different shape, the new cross-compound compressor demanded modifications to the running board. Here, the running board is readied for a large section to be removed and replaced with a new section.

In order to route the compressor exhaust through the smoke box (as Baldwin intended!), the pass-through port had to prepared for use. After removing the plug, Griffin W. and Roger R. rethread the fitting to accept a 2 inch bushing.

The ongoing boiler shell cleaning project continued as the other mechanical work was taking place. Jeremy L. removes baked on dirt and grime from the front sand dome.

If the mechanical work on No. 12 wasn't enough, another group moved the boxcar from Museum "B" to the shop. The boxcar, before its acquisition by the MCRR had been partially restored, including a new paint job. Since the boxcar was in a static display, only one side was lettered. One of the spring projects is to get it lettered on both sides.

Getting the boxcar from the Museum building to the shop was more work than expected. Recent March snows caused a mess on the tracks connecting the two buildings. The crew spent more time digging the rails out than moving the car.

The Vulcan gasoline switcher proved to be the ideal locomotive to get the task done.

With the boxcar in the shop, Brian B. carefully traced the lettering onto onion-skin paper. The tracings were then transferred to hand carved stencils. The next step will be to place sticky paper on the unlettered side of the boxcar, trace the letters via the stencils onto the sticky paper, cut the letters out of the sticky paper, and finally apply paint.

The new routing for the steam exhaust and the air pressure connection was completed. The last major task was installing the air intake manifold to the cross-compound compressor. A manifold was easily located in the shops archives but the two flanges that connect the manifold to the compressor body were nowhere to be found. Griffin W. fabricates new flanges to complete the manifold's installation.

The forward portion of the running board insert was tack welded in place and the running board fitted to the side of the boiler.

Look carefully between the middle step and the running board and you can see the compressor's steam exhaust passing through the smoke box wall.

The steam exhaust and air pressure output pipes lead away from the air compressor to the existing piping on the locomotive.

Did you ever wonder what the inside of a boiler looks like? Matt W. climbed inside No. 12's boiler and took some spectacular pictures.

These two pictures are looking backwards towards the firebox. The firebox stays are quite vivid. The pipe along the top is the steam line for the accessories.

Looking forward towards the front flue sheet, the dry pipe is suspended from the top of the boiler. The eerie grey color is the result of our advanced boiler treatment. The treatment contains a polymer which coats the boiler's insides preventing rust.

-steam.airman