3025 Progress, December 2009

Kevin grinding old weld from rear tube sheet

While most of our efforts have been focused on "The North Pole Express" (read: keeping Nos. 40 & 97 plus all the coaches running), in our spare time we have gotten some work accomplished on "the big project".
Work on the boiler continued with Ken Blandina and Kevin Narin grinding on the front and rear tube sheets preparing them for die penetrant inspection. Meanwhile, Wayne Hebert constructed a new, additional dome liner. The need for an additional liner was one of the results of our Mechanical Engineer, Pete Fredrickson's recalculation of the boiler stresses.

Wayne running the radial arm drill press

Bill Wolf and Scott Dimartino continued dismantling the driving gear, etc. preparing parts for inspection, measuring each parts and recording their findings. The condition and size of each part must be determined for us to decide which must be replaced or repaired to insure that once we have finished our work the locomotive will operate trouble free during its' next term of service.

Scott dismantling and inspecting lubricator lines

Bill measuring cylinder bore diameters

January we'll be occupied with Annual Inspections on Nos. 40 & 97, but once those are finished and various annual maintenance items attended to, we'll be in a position to return to "The Big Project".