Spring Training!

I would be remiss to talk Spring Cleaning without mentioning Spring Training.

Under the leadership of Bob Wuchert, Operations Manager here at Essex Steam Train & Riverboat, 62 members of the railroad operating department completed a comprehensive Training & Rules Exam, March 31 and April 2. This dynamic training program and exam is the culmination of months of work by the Operating Committee, Supervisors of Locomotive Employees, and Trainmasters. Tailored to each individual railroad position, the training is integrated with the NORAC Rulebook, Valley Railroad Timetable and the new Valley Railroad Air Brake Rules book.

Once again, our qualified and skilled Train Crew is ready to roll in 2012!

~ Susan

Spring Cleaning

Essex Steam Train & Riverboat is taking Spring Cleaning seriously... rebuilding the 40 year-old “Dickinson Crossing.” This crossing takes visitors over the tracks from Essex Station’s Main Entrance into the Parking Lot, as well as to offices in the original Witch Hazel Works building and to neighboring residences.

The project started when the track crew removed the crossing’s gravel surface with a backhoe. Next, a Kershaw Tie Handler was operated to pull up the rails and remove the old crossties. The track bed was prepared, new crossties were placed and rails were installed.

Rob Bradway, VP, Track & Property, says, “While modern machinery certainly helps, there is a huge amount of good ol' fashion back work including shoveling, spiking, bolting up the rails, lining and leveling the track, and tamping the gravel beneath the ties.” Perhaps that’s why we call Rob our Hero of the Rails!

A BIG thanks to the Track/Engine House crews, and the Friends of the Valley Railroad for their long, hard days. Essex Steam Train & Riverboat looks forward to welcoming our passengers in 2012 with a smooth crossing!

Happy Spring!

~ Susan

No. 97 Inspection

J.David Inspecting Smokebox

March saw a brief flurry of activity on No. 97 as it was inspected by a crew of Valley Railroad staff and various Freinds. Ron Olsen began the work by loosening numerous nuts on the smokebox front and other parts. J.David removed all of the front end netting and baffles to access the front tube sheet for ultra-sonic inspection. By the 16th the locomotive had been moved to the shop. Paul Scarbrough and Pete Barrington gridded out the firebox and Burt began polishing spots for U-T testing. On the 17th Wayne Hebert and Dave removed the steam dome cap and inspected the boiler interior and water side of the firebox.


Wayne Removing Crown Stays (note gridding)
Several staybolts and crown stays were removed to assist with thickness testing and checking for any cracking of the firebox sheets. Dave and Burt removed the valve and cylinder heads while Wayne began the U-T work. On the 18th, Bill Wolf came in to inspect and measure the valve and cylinder bores. All of the wheels were measured as well.


Bill Measures A Driving Wheel
It is hoped that the inspection will be completed next week. Once Dave has all of the data, a scope of work and budget can be created. Figuring out where the funds necessary to accomplish the work will come from will take far longer than the planning. No work will be done until funding is in place.
J.David

The 2011 Season is finished and thus begins the work of preparing for 2012.  Engine 40 has completed it's annual inspection and has had a "caps job" done.  Bill Wolf has been very busy working to machine a new wrist pin for the fireman's side crosshead as well as making new studs for the air compressor bracket and  preparing the fireman's injector to be ready for the upcoming season.  Others have been working on re-installing the lagging, piping, brakes, and water-glasses.  The air compressor was removed and had several boiler studs replaced and the bracket was repaired.   Interesting note that #40 has 292 service days remaining that need to be "used up" over the next two seasons, so we can expect to see 40 pulling quite a few trains this year. 

Wallingford was in the shop for maintenance and repairs.  Having completed most of the work we now have 1000 in the shop getting its "M&R" for the upcoming season. 

During 2012, Engines 40 and 3025 will be operating; however, 40 will see more service because we need to use up the valuable 1472 inspection days.  Engine 3025 is new and has many, many years left to use up its days. 

The tentative 2012 Motive power operating schedule (which is subject to change)
Engine 3025 will start the 2012 season in Fri, April 13 and operate until May 20, 2012 (weekends). 
Engine 40 will operate May 26 through June 29, 2012
Engine 3025 will operate June 30 through July 30, 2012
Engine 40 will operate July 31 through August 30, 2012
Engine 3025 will operate August 31, Sept 1-3, 2012
Engine 40 will operate September 7 through October 22, 2012
Engine 3025 will operate October 26 through November 4, 2012
Engines 3025 and 40 will both operate Christmas starting November 16 through December 27
Please remember and don't be disappointed if your favorite engine isn't operating a particular day.  You can always call the office to verify; however, under certain circumstances the schedule may be altered at the last minute. 

3025 in the SUN!

3025 was out of the shop for a few minutes this afternoon. The tender was filled with coal and some firewood was put on board. We are getting ready to fire it up for the first time since it was re-assembled. A myriad of small tasks remain to be done before it will run, but it is getting close. Stay tuned...
J.David

3025 BACK ON ITS WHEELS

We reached a major milestone in the rebuilding of No. 3025 this afternoon, raising the locomotive nearly 5 feet, sliding the wheels under it and lowering it onto it's rebuilt running gear.

The lift was a long time in coming. The entire running gear had to be disassembled, all parts cleaned, inspected and repaired or replaced.

In addition to all that, early this year we acquired a set of 4 Whiting 30 Ton locomotive jacks. Prior to getting these jacks, we either hired cranes or used our air jacks (and a lot of oak blocking) to wheel and un-wheel our equipment. We beleive that the jacks will pay for themselves with about three or four uses.

Once moved to Essex the jacks were rebuilt by our Master Electrician, Paul Horgan (right) and Contractor, Dave Wantz. Paul made the electrical repairs and modifications (including conversion fron 575 Volt to 480 Volt) while Dave disassembled each jack, making a thorough inspection and replacing worn parts.

Now the push will be on to reassemble the rest of the locomotive and place it in service so it can begin to repay this major investement for our company.

J.David

3025 BOILER STEAM TESTED

April 5, 2011, Wayne Hebert Looks Over His Work
3025 has slid in and out of the shop several times in the last month. The final step in making an alteration of a boiler under FRA (Federal Railroad Administration) jurisdiction is a steam test of the boiler to operating pressure. We did this for ourselves in March to be sure that we wouldn't be wasting the FRA's time coming up to witness the test. Once certain that all was in readiness, we scheduled the inspection.
April 5th wasn't a good day weather wise, but for the No.3025 project, it was excellent. The FRA was pleased with the test, so now we are clear to apply the insulation and boiler jacket.
J.David



Eric Seamans Tends the Fire

The Last Run of "Old 97" (for a while)...

December 29, 2010 Engineer Ken Blandina & Fireman Jim Miller There has been a lot of babbling about our No. 97 being "retired". It is true that it has used up it's 1472 Service Days as allowed by Federal Railroad Administration rules and that it cannot be operated again until it has recieved another 1472 day inspection. But "retired"? That is hardly the case. It is only a matter of manpower, time and money before it will be in steam again. Now, it may be a while before those requirements are met. No.3025 must be finished. We are behind on coach work and must catch up. No.40 is getting close to it's 1472 day anniversary (May 16, 2014), (but whos' keeping track?) and there are events ("Thomas", Circus Train, North Pole Express, etc.) which must be pulled off year after year. But at some point in time it will return to the shop for a long stay. Actually, it will probably come in first for a couple of weeks for as thorough an inspection as we can manage, then go back out while plans are made, money is found and long lead time parts ordered. Once all these are in place, we'll begin the work. No.97 needs a good deal more than just a routine 1472 day inspection this time around. It has a number of chronic (read: expensive and/or time consuming) problems which must be addressed. We have already begun acquiring the materials and parts that we'll need. Crown brasses and a new set of flues and tubes are on hand, as are new spring rigging parts (see previous blog) and we will continue to accumulate more parts as bargains present themselves. I remember when I first came to work at The Valley in April of 1986. No.97 was in bits and pieces, strewn from one end of the shop to the other. A couple of the "old heads" were standing around, hands in pockets, looking over the locomotive, shaking their heads; both agreed: it would never run again. But two months later, it was back on the road, and has run every year since. No.97 won't be back in a couple of months, or even a couple of years, but it will steam again. J.David No.97 Enters the Enginehouse, 12/29/10

VIVID DRAGON lands in Essex

VIVID DRAGON

Why would a standard 20 foot shipping container be considered "blog worthy"? OK it has a neat name, but really, it is what inside that counts.
When we purchased SY 1658M (see previous blogs), we got a fair number of spare parts with it. However there were a number items which we needed to rebuild the locomotive, plus, with steam locomotives it is always good to have plenty of spares and many SY parts are useable on our other locomotives.

While in China supervising the overhaul of several class QJ steam locomotives at the legendary "701 Factory", Dennis Daugherty noted large quanities of spare parts in their storage areas. Since "701" was about to close it's doors, we were able (with the help of our agent, Vicky Yuan) to purchase many item which we needed for our SY, parts to be used in the rebuilding of our No. 97 and items for other locomotive owners in the U.S.

It took Vicky several months to track down all the parts we wanted (some not in stock at "701") negotiate prices and arrange for shipping to a loading point near "701". Since we are always short of storage space, Vicky found us a shipping container (VIVID DRAGON), which we purchased. Dennis traveled to China last fall to inspect all of the parts, inventory them, and supervise as they were being loaded.

VIVID DRAGON Interior
After a number of inspections by Chinese Customs, VIVID DRAGON made good time to Newark, where it was again subjected to muliple inspections by U.S. Customs (maybe all of the superheater flues looked like cannon barrels).
Eventually it arrived at Essex where we set it on tie cribs.
Finally opened, we "saw wonderful things": injector nozzels, air compressor governors, shoes, wedges, spring saddles, mechanical lubricators, parts too numerous to list. A veritable cornicopia of steam parts all useful for keeping our steam locomotives on the road.
J.David

Coach 1001 Completed (finally)

Scott Painting Coach 1001
Readers with long memories may recall that back in 2006, Wayne Hebert began the tedious process of repairing the rusted window posts. Complicating the work was the need to refrain from taking apart any more than could be repaired in a week or two so the car would be available for charters and events. Concurrent with the window posts, Scott Dimartino repaired the roof and clerstory vents. By late 2008 attention had turned to replacing large sections of the carbody ends. In 2009, Eric Seamans made a complete set of windows, which were installed by Paul Horgan, Mike Camera and the Freinds of the Valley Railroad. Kevin Narin was hired as a dedicated worker. His job was to remove the bottom 10 inches of the carbody and replace it with new steel. Rivets were replaced with round head screws with the slots filled with bondo after tightening. About80% of this work had been accomplished by the time the car was needed for "Thomas" service.
A final push to completion came in 2010. Even as Kevin finished the welding, Scott had begun applying body filler to the weld seams. Eventually, most everyone in the shop worked on sanding the carbody in preparation for painting.

Coach 1001 After Painting
Scott did much of the priming and painting in our new containment bag, which was set up alongside the shop. The finish coat used on the car was a DuPont automotive paint: FulThane. This is the same product used on the Dinner Train in 2000 (it has held up well).

Valley's New Containment Bag, 20X15X100 feet

J.David