Submitted by WD Miller.
Friday night 2/22:
Carson worked on Fireman side battery box some of the final cuts for prep work, and grinding down some edges. That pretty much consumed his hours for the evening.
W.D.; Began the application of POR-15 to the fireman side sill box.
Saturday 2/23:
Pretty much more of the same. We added Frank Walko to the mix, Frank worked on the last bits of grinding and some needle work on the Fireman battery box. It is now ready for new metal.
Carson worked on getting the engineer side battery box lid prepped, cutting off and grinding the hinges down. Worked on the lid for the knuckle basket that is on the fireman’s side behind the battery box. That lid was removed as part of the prep work on that side of the battery box. He cut off the old hinges and installed new ones, primed and painted them for installation for when the box is reassembled. He also cut a new door panel for the Fireman side sill box that is along the short hood end, cut in the three holes for the latches, and installed the latches….a mock up fit proves promising. Next will be the notch outs for the hinges, weld hinges on and weld door to the carbody.
W.D.: Continued with the application of POR-15 to fireman side sill box, plus applied a coat to the areas of the engineer’s side battery box that will be soon covered with new metal. The last remaining POR-15 material was thinned down and applied by hand-pump sprayer to the areas behind the traction motor cables on the engineers side. Early results look decent, will be assessed further once dried. Likely will need a 2nd coat where material was sprayed on. Areas that are brushed on in most cases is applied heavy enough, I don’t believe a second coat will be needed. To date, we’ve used 1 gallon, plus 1 pint of rust prevention.
We all took a pause to help DJ with setting a header beam on the Wabash caboose for a bit. That got him over the next big hump, and by the end of the evening, he and Tyler were installing new lumber on the wall portion. I won’t steal all his thunder…but it’s looking good!!!!
I did take a short break to give a tour of the shop, a Father and his Son from Illinois stopped in the shop to see where 765 “lives”. They had seen and/or rode with us on the Rockets (I don’t recall now which it was), but they were impressed by the shop, and even commented on the amount of work going on with the Caboose, SD9, flatcar, boxcar, and 534…oh yeah…and 765! They had never seen a steam locomotive without it’s tender before, so they were taking bunches of photos of 765. But I did see them snap photos of all the other projects in the shop. A few others stopped in during the day but others handled those tours.
Next week – March 1, 2, 3:
All out push to get the battery boxes completed. Likely will have guys measure and cutting, another doing grinding on new pieces, a guy welding, and another with follow up grinding. We’ll make the most of the entire weekend, and all hands on deck would be appreciated. If we have more help than needed for the metal work, there is some additional prep work needed for the next round of rust prevention.
After this next weekend, 358 will give up the North Shop track for a few weeks while some other maintenance is performed on the Plymouth and 1231. Plus some work on 534’s tender is slated as well. Hopefully with us coming into March, the weather will begin to cooperate a bit more, and the prep work for the next round of rust prevention can be completed so that when we come back into the shop we can get that finished out. Then….it’s on to big diesel block things!!!!
Any questions, please feel free to reach out to me miller@fwrhs.org or call/text me at 419-303-2690.
Thank you
Frank Walko making some final prep cuts on the fireman side battery box.
POR-15 application is visible on the FM side sill box. This should last a long time and keep rust at bay.
Carson Miller works on cutting out the piece that will allow a new door latch to be installed on a newly fabricated door panel.
