Submitted by W.D. Miller.
The weather was decent for the first weekend of February, work continued on the locomotive cleaning out years of built up rust and dirt that has collected in nearly every corner. Much work was done in the area of the cab sub-floor area, 99% of the area was knocked loose and swept with shop vac. Two full loads of a 7 gallon shop-vac were removed from the sub-floor. During this operation, a few more holes were uncovered, nothing of any structural concern I don’t believe, but will need addressed at some time. It was apparent that N&W and/or NS had made repairs in this area before, some patches and a number of welding rod butts were found during the clean-up.
Brandon and Carson sprayed a few floor sections with undercoating as a test of the product. Also, the access panel in the cab was assessed and plans to fix the opening; the panel itself was taken back home by Brandon to make some metal pieces for it. They also worked on the engineer side of the long hood knocking loose and sweeping up what they could along the prime mover sump, and in the radiator section. The water in the sump is frozen yet, hoping for some warm weather to liquefy that, and find the drains to unplug them to allow the sump drain itself.
Much more work of loosening and vacuuming the dirt and rust will continue at the next work session. Work will move to the sill area and battery boxes, and just about anywhere else it needs it. Approximately 130-140 Lbs. was removed during this work session. Noticed that where areas were cleaned, the material was holding moisture, just have to think that removing this wet gunk is a major step forward to stop or at least slow the deterioration process.
