News Letter Index

Various members give a report of happenings at the railroad.

May 10, 2010

Saturday was non productive. Most of our efforts seemed to make each issue worse. Fritschle, the Mayhews, George, Cullen and White were the crew for the day.

Fritschle and Cullen had the 928 reassembled to the extent that it could be test fired. Jerry moved the engine to the station area then attempted to move to the service area, but she would not budge. It seemed like the throttle valve was not opening. She was pushed back to the RH and the fire dropped. A lot of time was spent by Jerry and Tom trying to diagnose the problem. After ruling out most theories we concluded that something must be blocking the dry pipe.

Meanwhile Mayhew and George worked on the 535 and 400. Jack attempted to replace the glass in the sight glass on 400 and succeeded in shattering several spares. The sight glass was borrowed from 180 and they decided to switch parts on Sunday.

From the previous Sunday we knew that 535 had injector problems and the low pressure safety valve was leaking. The engine was fired and no coercing could fix the safety or failing right injector. They decided to replace the safety and replace the right feed water check valve and tighten the plumbing from the injector to the boiler inlet on Sunday. By this time it was nearing 7PM.

Believe it or not, Sunday started with great enthusiasm. The plumbing was corrected on 535. The water glass on 400 was repaired using parts from 180 and she was fired. Fritschle and Eckrich worked on 928 removing the new throttle valve. Once the obstruction was removed the throttle and associated plumbing was replaced in between train duty by Jerry and Kary. So what looked like a steamless Sunday had two locos under steam. The 400 performed OK with a few adjustments still needed.

On one trip the train was leaving the station and the cylinder cock lever became disconnected. White and George rushed over and 704 was brought in to take the train out. White and George had the problem temporarily fixed and the engine went out on the next train. The 535 was the star of the day. Several engineers took her out and Mike Lorance gave a thumbs up after the last trip. He told me later that she had plenty of power and ran like she did years ago. She fired easily, steamed very well and had no trouble handling a loaded train.

I’m very grateful for all the hard work by the RH crew especially Jack, Brad and Jerry on Sunday to make steam operations possible. Their skill and persistence saved what could have been a bleak weekend for the steam crew. Thanks from your.

Tom White-SMP