Yeah, shoot that bum that stepped in front of me, when I was taking a picture of the iron horsey. Was back in '56, but I’m betting on you.(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Sis is talking about riding the DS this year, maybe our tracks will cross!
John
Dave Taylor said:
Wed 25th, will be the first of several 315 work days before or annual inspection work in July. Will be in Silverton all day. Any thing up there that any of you would like me to shoot or report on? Let me know.
Dave, . . . . Damn I wish I could BE THERE. My “significant other” ( Calamity Myke ) ended up in the hospital with pneumonia 3 weeks ago. She spent a week on life support in Intensive Care . . . is still in a nursing facility and will be there at least another 2 weeks. So that whole episode put the “kibosh” on a trip to “Narrow Gauge Country” that we’d been planning. Damn . . . &^%^%#$@! But on the positive side of the situation . . . SHE LIVED. There was considerable doubt about that for a while. I can’t make it to the narrow gauge events in August or in the fall as I’m in Stockton from early July until the end of October.
You all have FUN playing with the narrow gauge !
Dave, you have been wonderful in reporting and documenting so much of what goes on there. I am sure anything you post will be educational.
But the thing that has me perplexed is; how do the 1:1 guys rig the lead truck so it supports weight and leads the locomotive into curves? Maybe if us 1:24 guys could copy the mechanism, we could get lead trucks that don’t derail every time they come across something they don’t like.
Spent yesterday in Silverton with my favorite girlfriend. Spent the night in Montrose CO, on the way to bring back from Grand Junction CO. my favorite RR buddy, my 5 yr. old Great grandson. We started the pre-work to the FRA annual. The ol’ gal is in great shape.
A couple of quick pics.
This is a view few people have ever seen. From inside the fire box looking back at the door.
And a scary fire box monster.
Yup its very dirty in there. Good news is all looks great. And the fire grates are all in perfect shape. Thats really good because I was the last one to fire her.
Wed. I worked on 315 in Silverton, very nice day at low 70’s. Did I mention that some of the jobs are really dirty.
Two things to note here. First I’m 5’7" tall, You can really get a size comparison of our boiler. I have to chuckle when I see pics of workers standing inside, and walking around in the smoke box of some of the big engines. I wish it was that easy.
Second: I’m not sticking my tongue out!, Thats a cookie that my wife handed me, by sticking it in my mouth, I certainly wouldn’t want to ruin a perfectly good chocolate chip cookie by touching it with my hands. No, I didn’t go over to the dark side. Little known secret: Steam trains run on donuts and cookies, just ask any crew.
Thur. drove to Grand Junction to pick up my Great grandson for a visit to Farmington. On the way back, Snowed going over Red Mountain Pass, Snow flurries and 40 deg with a 15 MPH wind in Silverton. Like a fool i’m in shorts, Sandals and a Hawaiian shirt, as we stopped to show the kid 315. Froze my ass off. What a difference 24 hr’s makes at 9300ft in the Rockies.
I you want to bring joy to a 6 yr old, Let him climb around on a steam engine. Grandpa’s happy too.
Guys… This is really whats it all about. Sharing our joys with the next train nuts.
Great pics!
OILER…
The oiler is located in the cab, adjacent to the turret valve (it’s the big brassy thingie).
It looks like this.
The top is the “Tank” section. Ours has three drips. One for the Air pumps, and one each for the steam cylinders. They are controlled by the red valves hanging off the bottom. The sight glasses allow the fireman to visually see and count the drops per minute that is going to the cylinders.
The sight glass at the top left is to check the fill level at the start of the day. On the right top is the fill. This is filled with steam oil.
For the cylinders a small copper pipe goes out thru the cab and under the jacket to the front of the boiler. And ends at the top of the valve.
After setting unused for a while, the line is opened and oil is put directly into the valve, to assure that the valves aren’t run dry.
Great stuff Dave . . . . . (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)
Thank you so much Dave. It’s great having an actual steam engine fireman on board LSC! (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)
I’m amazed at the number of control valves and no identification labels. Must be quite a learning curve for the fireman and engineer.
That’s not a very big oil tank. For some reason, I thought that it would be larger. You say count drops per minute. How many drops per minute is acceptable?
Dan DeVoto said:
I’m amazed at the number of control valves and no identification labels. Must be quite a learning curve for the fireman and engineer.
Dan, I am thinking the same thing too. I see cab pictures on the internet, and I stood in the cab of a Big Boy, and many of the valves have no label, just red handles. Some of the handles are different, so maybe that would help. And if you can see what the handle is attached to, then you know its a this or a that. But some are just handles on valves with pipes. No identifying marks that I can see.
David,
I guess that’s the “art” of being an engineer! (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Dave… It is fun to see your work on big stuff! I think our WW&F #9’s boiler would fit through your smoke box door… Guys climb in our smoke box too, though you can reach most all of it while standing on the ground in front of the pilot! Two foot gauge stuff takes the small award!
Steam trains run on doughnuts and cookies??
Cool!
This weeks work on the bunk car.
My job was to Finnish up the trim on the West Door. It’s never that simple. Before we could put the trim up we had to replace the top layer of the floor boards that were previously cut away to replace the deteriorated middle layer of boards in the door section.
Duane D. helps me pull the 1x6 T&G boards up to be replaced with new.
Of course they were nailed on the ends, under the floor trim. We really didn’t want to open up that can of worms of removing the trim board. Plan was to insert as far under the trim as possible using a big mallet to drive them under.
Next up was to remove the old trim. The D&RGW routinely used long bolts, and then cut the extra off with bolt cutters, mushrooming the bolt, and securing the nut from coming loose. Rather secure. But also making it rather hard to remove the nut. The grinder with cut off wheel works well, but you can’t re-use the bolt.
Duane removes the hand grip.
LOOK what we found under the door trim! Back to the old debate of what color was " Boxcar Red "
Almost everyone agrees that it was a warm brown color. This appears to be the original color when the car was converted to a work service car in 1903. Defiantly not the same tone as the latter “RED” that was used on the repaint.
Here is a B&W copy of the same photo. This is a major reason that guessing the color or tone of a car from B&W photos is useless.
Also, is the inside walls of the car Green or White? We will be painting this car to the 1940’s color.
And the newly finished floor at the door.
BTW: we left the T&G boards spaced apart about the same as the existing ones so as not to look to out of place.
And the finished trim work. Along with the patched side boards.
My next homework project to get done will be to make new thresholds out of oak to replace the old ones.
Our goal is to get the first coat of paint on it next week.
Dave, . . . look’n great! Whut fun to work on old trains !
Got my homework done for the Bunk Car. 2 each door sills, Oak! 3/4 x 7 x 30.
Monday starts a work week on “Bunk Car”, and the re-build on the Oil Shed at the Silverton Northern Engine House.
I’ll try to post what I can during the week, But I will be busy.
Any One that want’s to stop in and lend a hand, you will be welcomed aboard.
Monday, Durango Bunk Car Final prep for paint.
Tuesday, Durango, 1st coat of paint on bunk car.
Wed. Silverton, Annual Prep work on 315.
Thurs. Durango, Final Coat of Paint on Bunk car.
Friday, Durango, Finnish interior paint Bunk Car.
Sat. Silverton, Flanger OT work and Oil Shed work.
Other then that all I have to do is build an Out House that meets the EPA requirements in Silverton, on a National Historic Site. Piece of cake, Right?
Gonna go with Mineral Brown?
Final color was a roll of the dice as long as the mineral content was followed… tho’ for a loco, mineral content was a major.
Just to give folks a taste of the day in 1890.
John
Thats cool John.
Does anyone know what it is, that they refer to as “Japan Dryer”? “Prince’s”? And what is the stuff they refer to as “Rubbing Varnish”? Is this what we now call Wiping Varnish?
