Submitted by Steve Winicker.
LAST WEEKENDS SHOP ACTIVITY
Friday, Jerrad has some jacket pieces painted and we put them back up on the engine for hopefully the last time. Bob W cleaned dirt and grime off the roof of the cab and assisted John with finishing up the washout plug seats. They never-seized the cleaned-up holes and put in plugs to keep out dirt and to avoid damage to the newly profiled seats. We still have the larger sized seats to clean up and have new plugs to replace worn ones on order.
Saturday, we continued to make good progress with several pieces of jacketing fit up and put on the engine. Several more sheets were measured out by Chris Zahrt and are ready to cut out of the new jacket material. Carl ground out a cracked spoke and Bob has it welded it up. He also welded on the flag box to the front step and started on the bump out that covers the throttle valve casting on the left side of the throttle cover.
Sunday, we moved along on many fronts with another sheet of jacketing cut out test fitted and made ready for installation pending coating the back side with paint. Bob did some grinding and additional welding on the driver spoke – it is now as good as new. The cab roof and outside front wall were cleaned with Kerosene and only need a good wiping with mineral spirits to finish off creating a surface that can be sanded and painted, though it looks good enough we might want to consider whether it needs to be re-painted. DJ managed to disassemble the north wall of the caboose and avoided a complete collapse of the structure so far. He followed that performance with some needle gunning of paint on the engine.
Monday, Bob Whiteman and I worked on chipping paint and degreasing the locomotive. I was able to move the engine a bit to get to areas formerly inaccessible. A bit more moving will be needed to get it all but most of the undone areas are exposed. So, if you want to needle gun off paint you better get out soon or you will miss it.
UPCOMING ACTIVITIES
There are more areas to degrease and more spots to chip paint from, but we are closing in on the end of those projects and could be done by the end of the weekend if we make a good effort. Bob is hoping to bring jacket material sheared and ready to cut out. So, cross your fingers the sheet metal shop is working, and Bob does not have a relapse. If all works out, we should be able once again to make significant progress on the jacket. At least three more pieces are ready to go up as soon as the back is painted so that much I can guarantee we will be installing. We could use some climbers to install sheets check for fit and get them up and down during the fitting process.
