MNGRR Steam Team Work Session Report 03/22/2008

Mechanical Department Work Session, March 22, 2008
By Hans Brandes

Is it spring yet?

OK, so it didn't snow or rain, but it was pretty nippy as we hauled #7 out of the house for another day's work. With better weather came better attendance. More volunteers were able to get out of their driveways and travel down clear roads to get to Portland. Those who were there were bundled up and ready to tackle the chores of the day.

In attendance on this winter day were Rick Knight (CMO), Gerry Bagley, Hans Brandes, Trevor Hartford, Bob Meckley, Joe Monty, Jay Monty, Rich Currie, Steve Kohut and Don Sanger. This represents 4 out of the 6 New England states. Missing were Rhode Island and Vermont. Any one else want to make the trek up to Portland from those two states? Come on up!

One special guest was with us again today: Donna our student photographer from Massachusetts. She has been taking many detailed and interesting pictures of our work for her class. Hopefully she is finding enough photographic material to tell her story. Thanks Donna for putting up with all of us!

The day started out dry so #7 was pulled out of the house to give us better light to do more work on the firebox, boiler and other areas as we continue towards the day when we can finally send #7 to Boothbay Railway Village for the heavy work.

Steve sanded more spots on the boiler in preparation for UT work. Bob has brought a grinder that did a much better job than a disc on a drill. Joe, Gerry and Trevor worked on disassembling the smokebox, including the dry pipe branch pipes and T fitting. The torch had to be used to cut off the bolts holding these pieces in place.

Hans and Jay worked on UT of the inside of the firebox. UT is a 2 man job with one using the probe and reading the output while the other one writes down the data in a notebook. The opening into the firebox on #7 is only 14" in diameter. This is smaller than the opening on #4. That means that only Jay can fit through the door, though Hans did give it a good try. By day's end Jay and Hans had completed the entire inside of the firebox taking over 300 readings which have since been sent to Boothbay for preliminary analysis.

Rick and Rich continued with the tough job of removing the throttle from the inside of the dome one part at a time. Each bolt had to be burned off. No easy job as the bolts are located down near the bottom of the dome in a tight space.

Gerry, Bob and Joe worked on center punching and drilling staybolts in the cab. About half of the staybolts were drilled using a good supply of bits and sulfur based lubricating oil.

As usual Don was always nearby to add his support with all the little things to help set up jobs and keep the work moving. For lunch we were treated to delicious vegetable soup, bread and macaroni and cheese from 'Chez Sue'. Seems our Executive Director has a good knack for filling hungry stomachs. Thank you Sue!

By 4 PM the work day was about done and #7 was pushed back into the engine house with another successful day drawing to a close. The engine house doors were closed and locked and all headed home.

The volunteers still have a lot of work to do before we can transport #7 to Boothbay.

The next Steam Team work session will be on Saturday, April 5th. We will continue to ultrasound, working on the outside of the firebox and the boiler. We will also finish removing the throttle, drill more telltale holes into the stay bolts and possibly begin removing tubes. Please come and help out.

As most everyone knows, we are still in the 'discovery' stage of our repair work. This means that as we continue to disassemble, test, etc. we are going to find more situations that will need attention.and money. This will continue all the way through our visit to Boothbay. Not until the last piece has been, disassembled, replaced and inspected will we know what our final bill will be. Until then, we are exposed to additional cost. Remember, a standard gauge locomotive having this kind of work done would cost around $500,000. We are doing our best to get through this at a fraction of the cost and a lot of sweat equity. Please send your monetary contributions so that #7 can be under steam once again!