Steam: Some days are diamonds, some are clinkers

Watch this time lapse video of Jim's day at the Mid-Continent Railway Museum with Saginaw Timber No. 2.

NORTH FREEDOM, Wis. – I pulled up to the shop area at Mid-Continent Railway Museum last Friday about 10:30 a.m. Volunteers were already milling about, but the star of the day, Saginaw Timber 2-8-2 No. 2, was nowhere in sight. She was still in the shop, peering out of two wide open doors like a scene from Lucius Beebe’s “Mixed Train Daily.” This day was to be the locomotive’s first steam test after a lengthy rebuild and having been out of service since February 2000.

The locomotive is privately owned, and the man with that incredible privilege and awesome responsibility is Skip Lichter. Skip came out of the shop, greeted me, and accepted an offering I’d brought: Two cups of coffee, black, and a half dozen glazed donuts. I set them on the pilot, and Skip went back to work. I scurried to set up Trains’ time-lapse camera in a strategic spot – parked in an out-of-the-way spot where it wouldn’t get run over and aimed toward the place where I figured the locomotive would come to rest when it was outside. I grabbed our video camera, my Nikon D700, and a spare wide-angle lens. It was going to be a while before steam was in sight, so I wandered around the complex, photographing the engine’s cab and its new tender tank, both still separate from the locomotive.

A crew grabbed the museum’s General Electric 45-ton diesel and pushed the Baldwin-built 1912 logging Mike outside into the sun. Skip put a lot of work into the engine’s boiler. After a successful hydrostatic test last summer, he was eager to test the boiler under steam and try out the appliances: the air pumps, the injector, and such. Toward that end, steam contractor Gary Bensman filled the firebox full of scrap wood, tossed in a bucketful of diesel fuel, and lit off the engine with a propane burner. Draft came from an air compressor in the shop, hooked up to the engine’s smokebox via a long hose. It was a little after noon when smoke started rolling out of the stack. Knowing it would be a while before there was any steam on the gauge, I took the crew’s lunch order and headed to nearby Baraboo for six Culvers butter burgers, fries, and soft drinks. When I got back, the engine was on an oil fire. I approached the engine to see how long it would be before steam was rising. I put the back of my right hand against the fireman’s side of the firebox; it felt warm, but not warm enough to be making steam.

As morning gave way to afternoon, Gary, Skip, and fireman Ken Hojnacki camped out on the cabless deck as the fire continued to burn. Gary noted that the burner needed to be adjusted so that the flame, which comes from the front of the firebox back toward the firedoor, would be higher in the air instead of along the floor. The crew also noticed a leaking oil valve, placing catch basins under the engine, and tightened air leaks. At the top of the steam done, a fitting allowed steam and oxygen to vent from the boiler. Gary shut it off, and shortly before 3 p.m., the first two pounds of pressure showed on the gauge. Pressure kept building, and after a lengthy time, 30 pounds showed on the gauge. Skip and Gary decided to change from air to run the atomizer and blower to steam. But when they did, the engine didn’t respond. The steam gauge held steady, but didn’t rise as it should have. After a time, they went back to air. The engine built 50 pounds of steam, but daylight was dwindling, and so was confidence that the engine would build more steam before much longer.

The crew chased down more air leaks, removed pilot covers to debut the engine’s wood slat pilot, and looked wistful: They really wish she’d built up to her new operating pressure of 180 pounds (while good for 200 pounds per square inch, Skip is keeping the engine at 180 to conserve the boiler).

Before calling it a day, Skip asked Dave Wantz to blow the whistle. It was a sign of victory for this project, which has come so far, and still has a way to go. There are weeks of work to reassemble the engine, and get it ready to run. I suspect sometime in 2015 that will happen, but on this day, it was best to remember that steam is a wonderful, soul-satisfying experience, and that some days around an engine are better than others. I shut down the time-lapse camera shortly before 5 p.m., and headed back toward Milwaukee.

Postscript: On Saturday, the crew returned. Skip cleaned and adjusted the burner, and fired the engine once more.  This time No. 2 reached 170 pounds of pressure. Another step forward for this venerable locomotive.  A diamond day for steam.