Ferroequinology: More Running Boards

Saturday, I revisited SERM to spend some time on A&WP 290. The previous visit, we cleared several brackets and attached steam and air pipes to expose a nearly clear boiler shell. In preparation for Ultrasonic Thickness testing, a grid over each course of the shell must be arranged and test points ground to expose bare metal. To access the entire shell, running boards on the fireman's (left) side of the locomotive needed to be installed.

Installing the fireman's side running boards used all of the mounting hardware remaining and, to our chagrin, exposed mistakes in mounting the engineer's side running boards. This image depicts the two large castings that support both running boards and compressed air tanks. Each of the four castings is distinct, not correctly labeled, and not easily positioned even with a crane (of which I have become a precise and efficient operator).



Ultimately, we had to remove the engineer's side running boards, remove what we guessed was the incorrectly placed bracket, place a different bracket, reinstall the running board, install that bracket on the other side in both possible locations, and hopefully achieve the best fit. Moreover, studs can be bent so it's a matter of luck and judgment to determine whether a part doesn't fit because it's not the correct part or because you're not using a large enough hammer.

By end of day, with many possible combinations attempted, all air tank brackets were soundly mounted, running boards placed, and the boiler now accessible from all sides. During the next disassembly, we'll surely stamp each casting and avoid confusion in the future... ha.

Up next, ultrasonic thickness measurement over every square foot of a 37ft pressure vessel with working pressure 201 psi and operational temperature of 450 degF.

Ferroequinology: Running Boards

We hoisted engineer's side running boards onto the brackets mounted the previous week. Now, it is possible to access the top of A&WP 290's boiler shell. We used the opportunity to heat and remove a handful of brackets to clear several sand and steam pipes.

Protip: when applying a socket wrench to a red-hot steel nut, make sure your gloves are dry to prevent any unwanted heat transfer...

Update: water soaked into gloves acts as a thermal conductor resulting in scalds if a gloved hand is applied to steel whose temperature is several hundred degrees above the boiling point of water.

Ferroequinology: clearing A&WP 290's Boiler Shell

Yesterday, I visited the Southeastern Railway Museum and worked on A&WP 290 with Dale Grice.

In continuing with the goal of removing everything from the boiler shell to prepare for an eventual blast with baking soda, we removed a steam pipe carrying a "signal" that actuates cylinder cocks. A valve in the engineer's side of the cab raises steam pressure in this pipe which actuates valves at the bottoms of the main cylinders at the front of the locomotive that permit condensation and steam to blow out when the locomotive starts. This is why steam engines seem to start in a cloud of steam.



This required removing two unions coupling a network of steel pipes. I tried without luck during a previous visit to wrench them apart. Yesterday, we used a "rosebud" oxy-acetylene torch to heat the union coupling to dull cherry red then quenched it with a cup of water. The first coupling I tried this on came loose readily and after one revolution with the wrench [and plenty of time to cool], I removed it the rest of the way with torque applied by [gloved] hand.

The second union would not budge in spite of this treatment. Between heatings, I hit it with a hammer but it remained fast. Consequently, we used a cutting torch which emits a jet of oxygen gas through a flame and oxidizes steel. A short segment of pipe was cut between the union and a T-coupling thus freeing the main pipe along the boiler.

With unions apart, the cylinder cock pipe would come loose with the removal of a single bracket fastened to the boiler shell via a threaded stud. Unfortunately, the nut holding the bracket was corroded and could not be made to turn without heat. After heating to cherry red, a wrench with torque magnified by a breaker bar [steel pipe] eventually made some progress. Or we thought it was progress. After about half a revolution the nut fell off revealing we had literally torqued the 1/2" stud apart and never moved the nut. One more thing to fix on the boiler...

I manned the portable crane and we pulled the pipes off the boiler then applied a set of labels so they can be replaced or new copies made.

To reach the top of the boiler, the next step was to replace air cylinder brackets. These are large castings [weighing probably 50 or 60 pounds each] that suspend two large air cylinders along the locomotive, one on each side, and support running boards.



Again, I manned the crane lifting the castings up to the boiler while Dale aligned them with 1.5" diameter threaded studs. These studs were placed in the boiler from within when it was built and cannot be easily replaced without potentially compromising the boiler's integrity [not to mention incurring a laborious and detailed inspection]. The first bracket went on without much trouble but we discovered it was mis-labeled and didn't sit flush with the boiler shell. The next bracket didn't slide onto the studs at all, and we discovered the reason was due to the forward stud bent up and forward. The studs needed to be parallel for the bracket to slide on, and this clearly wouldn't do.

To straighten it, Dale fitted a large 12' steel pipe over the stud, and I climbed up on a scaffold. The plan was for me to bend the stud using the pipe as a lever. Doing this proved problematic; the pipe was not adequately stiff, and all force I applied deformed the pipe like a spring. I had visions of losing my grip and the pipe springing back; the last thing I would see is a 2.5" steel pipe swinging back to hit me in the face...

We abandoned this idea pretty quickly. When Dale attached a nut to the end of the stud and hit it with a sledgehammer without any success, he decided heat was the only solution. Again, the rosebud torch came out and in no time, the base of the stud was glowing cherry red. Each gentle stroke of the sledgehammer moved the end of it by about 1/4", and in no time we had straightened it.

Both brackets slid on without difficulty after this, and now we'll be able to add running boards and access the top of the boiler. Progress!