NDG Miningman I propose as many as possible Forum members meet here July 30, 31st and Aug 1st, a Civic Holiday in Canada for a ride behind steam. Make it our Woodstock, spontaneous and a grand old time. Was just going to sign off. You Know, that is NOT a bad IDEA!! Doable by Air, too.
Miningman I propose as many as possible Forum members meet here July 30, 31st and Aug 1st, a Civic Holiday in Canada for a ride behind steam. Make it our Woodstock, spontaneous and a grand old time.
Was just going to sign off.
You Know, that is NOT a bad IDEA!! Doable by Air, too.
If the two of you are going, I will take special pains to be there.
NDG My Father died Ten 10 Years ago, today, and ' Leaving Town ' like that made me smile.
My condolences, enduring a loss like that never gets easy. Glad we were able to brighten up your day a bit.
NDG Makes up for all the Volunteer Hours in dirty, wet, cold, ignorant locations with burns, purple finger nails and torn flesh.
Seeing the smiles on our operating weekends does indeed make it all worth it. I always make sure to wash my overalls beforehand. But they can't be perfect (gotta have some oil and/or grease stains), or else they don't look authentic.
NDG Nice T car on rear from CN Mount Royal Tunnel Electric operation. These cars ' hunted ' badly when being pushed at 50 mph by a M Motor Car before CWR.
Nice T car on rear from CN Mount Royal Tunnel Electric operation. These cars ' hunted ' badly when being pushed at 50 mph by a M Motor Car before CWR.
Good Eye!!! I was hoping you would notice. 6740 has been on permanent loan to the APRA from Alberta Prairie for around 20 years now, and has been our workhorse for most of that time.
Alberta Prairie acquired a whole bunch of those MU cars after they were withdrawn from service, they have rebuilt some but a couple have been in storage near Stettler ever since coming to Alberta.
I cannot emphasize enough how much we appreciate Alberta Prairie's generosity with 6740, and this spring we were able to return a favour. Their 2-8-0 #41 has been re-tubed this year (at this time she is still out of service), and we donated most of the new set of firetubes. The APRA had purchased them eons ago for use in NAR #73, but she turned out to be too far gone and the tubes were put in a storage boxcar and forgotten about. Turns out CLC tubes fit a Baldwin, and we have also loaned them a set of tools that had originally come from the NAR's Dunvegan shops, including a tube expander.
It is so very important to work together and maintain good relationships with other organizations, especially in today's day and age.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
Miningman Great videos... well done. What an effort. I propose as many as possible Forum members meet here July 30, 31st and Aug 1st, a Civic Holiday in Canada for a ride behind steam. Make it our Woodstock, spontaneous and a grand old time.
Great videos... well done. What an effort.
I propose as many as possible Forum members meet here July 30, 31st and Aug 1st, a Civic Holiday in Canada for a ride behind steam. Make it our Woodstock, spontaneous and a grand old time.
You Know, that is NOT a bad IDEA!!
Missed a bullet with Cancer in Dec., now they want a Pacemaker installed.
Doable by Air, too.
Thank You.
Good Night.
I had completely forgotten about these!
More videos, inside the shop this winter. I hope a full documentary is forthcoming:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULkiahTgbP4
The "Flyin Dutchman" works on diesels too. WARNING: CONTAINS LANGUAGE SOME MAY FIND OFFENSIVE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6x0hbdycsxI
NDG Good day to touch up paint work and brass, too. CN 1392 is a great size to learn on, as it is a ' Steam Locomotive ' in it's simplicity and can be grasped easily, when learning. Parts are not too heavy and don't need a 50 ton crane, often. Take the dome cover off. Heavy, and go down inside by the throttle and look along dry pipe. Take Pix. Everyone has been in the cab, not many in the boiler. Don't drop anything in there, as it might block blow down valve open. A socket came out one boiler wash whilst raking scale off mud ring. A Stuck blow down at full pressure IS SCARY. Just shut off oil at Firing Valve and stood there mutely 'til it stopped.
Good day to touch up paint work and brass, too.
I have been involved in lifting the dome cover on and off by hand once before, never gonna do that again! Scary up there indeed, balanced on the handrails with no good place to step. Now we normally use the 250-ton Brownhoist "Big Hook" for that operation. Much safer, and not even a workout for that crane, don't even need the riggers out.
I have helped remove, re-lap and re-install her throttle valve before, with ropes attached to all our tools. Fortunately there is enough room to get wrenches in there, as there is no good way to tie a string on a socket. It is indeed a interesting sight in there, but I have never gone fully inside. Next time we remove the throttle I will try, taking appropriate precautions for confined spaces and ventilation of course.
We plan to paint 1392 this week, if other work allows. You probably noticed in the video that her jacketing still bears all the spray paint markings from when it was removed this winter, to better remember where they all go. During her previous 5-year rebuild we couldn't get the last piece of jacketing to fit on, and then realized we had put everything on backwards! So off it came, and then on again over several days, and we made a pact to never do that again.
NDG Running steam is ' A trip ' and thought and emotion can definitely be expressed with the whistle cord. Sanding Out a treat. Working hard.
Sanding. The "Flyin Dutchman" is doing his best impression of 10 mph:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUEa0r9DVwM
NDG FYI. http://www.cnrha.ca/sites/default/files/styles/node_gallery_display/public/node_gallery/h-6-g.jpg http://www.trainweb.org/j.dimech/roster/1947.html
Thank you! Looks like 1392 was down for major repairs at the time. She had a rough career too, culminating in her ending up on her side in a ditch after hitting a hard-packed drift while pushing a snowplow. That was after dieselization was already in full swing, and I have always found it remarkable that CN chose to repair her after that. Ever since then her frame has had a slight twist, readily visible if you know what angle to look from.
NDG Safety First! A steam locomotive is dangerous, even with drivers chained. Good For You! Sir. The Kat purrs his best regards, as I rub his ears. Thank You.
Indeed, we are ever vigilant and careful. So far our shop has a good safety record and I plan to keep it that way! Thank you again for those links!
Virtually nothing left for us in Saskatchewan. Guess all those retired boomers are going to have flashbacks to the 60's and 70's when hitchhiking was the way to get around. Same thing for the hundreds of Reserves. Airfare from the North is very pricey.
The Saskatchewan government killed their own bus services throughout the province, including us last May in the budget cuts. 20-40 cars would be waiting at the depot every single night for the parcel delivery. Not any more. The bus always had that 'pup' trailer behind and the cargo bays loaded.
To think that the Prairies were interlaced with rail to every community and passenger train service to everywhere and all that is gone is truly amazing. Oh well the .1% get richer and the great unwashed can fend for themselves.
I will not drive in the winter any longer ... 1 November to 1 May no way.
NDG You MIGHT consider looking around your area. As launch point for Oil Patch, there MUST be a free air compressor around somewhere, of the type on rubber once pulled around to power pneumatic drills in cities to break up sidewalks?? The reason is, there, even if some money had to be spent, it SAVES wear and tear on 567B? and auxiliaries in 9000, a true artifact, just for air for burner and blower. Just suggesting, mind you.
I have thought about that too, and will have to do some looking around. Unfortunately in our past experience free stuff is free for a reason, and usually comes with its own baggage. Numerous junk piles in the weeds out back are testaments to past good intentions. But you are right, saving unecessary wear on 9000 would be a very good thing.
She is a survivor, that unit. I've probably written this before, but while still in service 9000 was leading a freight in the Fraser Canyon when a boulder the size of a boxcar fell on her, and completely destroyed the Fireman's side of the cab. Today the seam is only visible from the inside of the nose.
We very nearly lost her in a breakdown at the Museum about 10 or 15 years ago (before I started volunteering), just after starting the engine a connecting rod broke, and punched a hole in the oil pan. The Engineer was just outside putting away a water hose, raced over and had her shut down within seconds. Fortunately the block was not damaged, so that power assembly was replaced and the oil pan repaired, and she was soon back in service.
9000's engine was rebuilt to 567BC specs while still in service on CN, I suspect at the same time as the rock incident. This modification eliminated the internal water leak issues that earlier 567 engines suffered from, especially in low-load service.
We have another unit, NW2 7944 from CN's first batch of EMD switchers (like 9000 they were built at La Grange, before London opened) which retains her original 567A. Her story is even more remarkable, that engine has been frozen twice, rebuilt and returned to service both times. First CN froze her in Winnipeg, which led to her donation as they thought she would never run again, and years later a hot-shot truck mechanic who thought he knew everything about all diesels parked her outside on a cold winter's night (that fellow is no longer involved with the APRA). We always drain the water after shutting her down, but apart from that she is a great switch engine, and purrs like a kitten.
We are religious about winterizing everything, due to our limited shop space most of the locomotives have to be left outside during the winter. Open the main, cab heater, sight glasses, and water pump drains (I might be forgetting a couple here) and blow out with shop air. Then put stack covers on and spot as close to shop as possible, out of the wind and within reach of the 64V battery charger (generously donated by VIA Rail after the Edmonton coach yard closed).
Then they slumber away, to wait for next year.
NDG FYI., Greyhound Cutting all Runs in Western Canada. https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/greyhound-canada-cancels-all-of-its-routes-in-western-canada-plans-to-cut-415-jobs-1.4006215 Thank You.
FYI.,
https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/greyhound-canada-cancels-all-of-its-routes-in-western-canada-plans-to-cut-415-jobs-1.4006215
Turns out even they can't make money in public transportation out here.
There are a few other bus services, like Red Arrow or Sun Dog on some in-province routes in Alberta.
You're welcome, glad you guys liked it as much as I thought you would.
- PDN.
SD70Dude A short video from yesterday, giving Her some "light" exercise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFIcnNO5TX0
A short video from yesterday, giving Her some "light" exercise:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFIcnNO5TX0
Thank you for the Video. She looks beautiful. Rode behing her about 15 years ago. A great operation. Loved every minute of that trip.
NDGWhen getting ready for firebox staybolt inspection, it was customary to brush the soot off the sheets, and some poor F had to suit up in one of those throwaway paper coverall suits and tape wrists and hands, face mask and cap, then enter firebox and use wide brush to pull soot off metal. Visibility NIL. AWFUL, esp if boiler still warm = sweat. Put Shop Air on turret and opened up blower FULL! at 90 PSI. Instant hurricane in firebox door, moving soot out thru tubes and stack. Cooler, too. Engine outside.
This made me smile. The folks renovating the Dixie 4-8-4 in Nashville have proceeded to discover, and start analyzing, the Superior Soot Blower setup on the rear fluesheet/tubeplate ... they don't seem to have been aware of what these things were used for in a firetube boiler.
The idea appears to have been that soot would preferentially build up in places, and when the engine was re-started and brought back to speed after a stop, the aggregated soot would blow out, start fires, *** laundry, etc. So ... buy a Superior Soot Blower, and activate it sometime in the period you are APPROACHING that station stop, with judicious use of the 'blower' arrangement in the front end if you need a little induced draft to run the cleanings through. Then you have a nice clean gas path for the actual start...
I will grant you that this is up there with the Elesco Steam Dryer, Nicholson syphons as crown-sheet protection, and the pictured explanation of Nathan drop plugs as actual safety relief devices in Super-Power fireboxes as watch-lubrication-grade snake oil. But it would sure move that soot!
LOVELY!!
SD70DudeI can't imagine doing a boiler washout in winter, but it had to be done.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the correct Canadian answer -- one which I heartily wish had been far more prevalent and developed in late United States practice -- came with 'direct steam' systems. I am presently working on truck-borne equivalents that can eliminate the issues inherent with trying to use ordinary designs of burner (which have very poor turndown, including control of the plume at reduced fire as appropriate for early stages of cold startup) or having to rely on passive circulation to prevent hot spots.
My recommendation for many years now has been to use the same approach to entering any confined space around a locomotive that one would use when handling a firearm: presume, don't just assume that the thing is loaded and dangerous even when you have taken due precautions 'otherwise'. This includes appropriate standoffs on 'worn' gauges or badges, to keep the part of you that needs to breathe far away from things like H2S that can stop breath expeditiously at mitochondrial level. Set up the protocol once, and set it up right, and then run it religiously.
And I almost forgot, the break-in running went very well today. 1392 is back to Her old self and ready to run for another 5 years.
8 hours for steaming up sounds about right, maybe a bit less if it's a warm, sunny day and She's sitting outside.
Our shop compressors lack the capacity to run both 1392's atomizer and blower, so 9000 gets to play air compressor too. From last year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u01dqy0R0dY
We don't run steam in the winter anymore, but in the past they would fill the boiler and tender while still inside, and the walk her out on shop air just far enough to get the stack outside. Lighting up would then proceed normally, the only diesel needed was for soaking some rags...
1392 normally burns re-refined used motor oil, but she did use up some "skunk diesel" from the tanks of other stored locomotives a few years ago. The re-refining process is supposed to remove water, antifreeze and other impurities from the oil but it always has some, so we blow air back through the tender's oil tank just before lighting up, to mix it up nicely. Otherwise you are guaranteed to get a slug of "unburnables" and a flameout at the worst possible time. Many past oil spills came from this.
Her burner is mounted at the rear of the firebox, which seems to be a MLW trait. Alberta Prairie's 41 (a Baldwin) is a front burner, and she always makes a blue haze no matter what the Fireman does. I am given to understand that is normal for front burners.
I can't imagine doing a boiler washout in winter, but it had to be done. Making coffee must have been a full-time job for someone at the roundhouse! The resulting icicles must have been spectacular!
According to the CNRHA website the diesel 1392 met a unfortunate end in a Quebec landslide some years ago, and has been scrapped.
And you are right about the hazards of low oxygen levels in confined spaces, wasn't there a fatal incident somewhere in BC not so long ago?
Re. CN 1392.
Now that has to be pretty darn exciting for you and your group. Congratulations and wishing you every success. Planning to see you August long weekend and take in that smoke, steam and valve oil and hear that whistle. Pretty exciting for me too!
And while I do not have any photos today an important step forward took place at the Alberta Railway Museum. 4-6-0 #1392 was fired up for the first time after her 5-year inspection and rebuild took place during this past winter, along with much other mechanical work. A few minor problems were discovered and fixed, and a day of break-in operation is planned for tomorrow.
Won't be long before She's back to this again:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoKNBE51pgc
I have probably posted these here before, but they came up in a discussion today and are worth a second go-round. A road repair car back in the day:
NDG FYI. Back on the Track. Acid Spill Ex CM&S. https://www.columbiavalleypioneer.com/news/cars-being-junked-after-acid-spill-on-kootenay-highway/ Thank You.
Yikes! And I thought road salt was bad!
SD70Dude Miningman Yes that's a great posting Mr. North.. lots to see and treasure. I second that, lots of neat photos.
Miningman Yes that's a great posting Mr. North.. lots to see and treasure.
Yes that's a great posting Mr. North.. lots to see and treasure.
I second that, lots of neat photos.
I third that!
Thank You, Sir.
Paul_D_North_JrGood stuff as always, NDG. Thanks for sharing. Maybe my best contribution to this thread this year is this: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/train-yard-photos-1960s The Dangers of Train Yards, Through the Eyes of Railroad Employees A collection of photos from the 1960s tried to show why locomotives need two people in the cab. BY SARAH LASKOW JULY 03, 2018 The article is a good introduction/ explanation of the project, and has a sampling of 9 photos (some of them are of professional quality) from the 1,655+ (!) at this site: https://digital.library.cornell.edu/collections/railroad which is "U.S. President's Railroad Commission Photographs". At the bottom of the page the photos are organized into about 34 groups by railroad and location, with a 'thumbnail' that typifies them. Kind of like the Shorpy photos a few months back. Enjoy! - PDN.
Maybe my best contribution to this thread this year is this:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/train-yard-photos-1960s
The article is a good introduction/ explanation of the project, and has a sampling of 9 photos (some of them are of professional quality) from the 1,655+ (!) at this site:
https://digital.library.cornell.edu/collections/railroad
which is "U.S. President's Railroad Commission Photographs".
At the bottom of the page the photos are organized into about 34 groups by railroad and location, with a 'thumbnail' that typifies them.
Kind of like the Shorpy photos a few months back.
Enjoy!
One of the photos show the B&O's Capitol Limited in the Robey Street coach yard and shows a workman cleaning the train's nameplate at the rear of the train. The dome cars in the trains consist are also visible.
https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:20433416
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
I remember that the whole diesel fireman issue became a public relations disaster for the Brotherhoods in particular and union labor as a whole. They appeared to the public to be trying to protect outdated jobs that no longer provided a useful function.
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