Spring is here!

Greetings! I hope everyone is well rested and ready to get back into steam "mode"!

Our next work session in Portola is less than 2 months away, Thursday, April 28th - Saturday April 30th, so I would like to give everyone advance "warning" of what I hope to accomplish this season. The list this year is ambitious to say the least, but doable. We have an new tentative deadline of April 2014, so we need to kick ourselves into "high gear" to move the project along. Thanks again to everyone who has been putting in the hours and supporting the project either through showing up and getting dirty, financially, or even through moral support. We need to keep up the momentum so I hope to see a lot of you in April. The entire Pullman car is ours to fill up, so come one come all.

I picked up the steel boilerplate for the patches on the roof sheet today. I will get them drilled out and rolled in the next few weeks with any luck. Thanks to Paul Boschan at Redman, our left side brake cylinder is round again, and ready to put back up on the engine. Rod McClure has acquired a 16" Lodge & Shipley lathe that we need to set up, we will have lots of staybolts to thread. Flexible staybolt sockets and caps will be machined soon as well by a CNC shop here in LA.

The list so far:

Lower engine frame back onto drivers.

Move outside to suitable sandblasting location.

Jack/crib and remove drivers. Replace pedestal binders.

Remove areas in wrapper sheet for access- Sandblast boiler interior.

Continue cleaning drivers & frame – hot tank driving boxes.

Sandblast cab and spray primer.

Replace left side brake cylinder and piston. Test.

Continue thickness mapping of firebox / tube sheets / drypipe.

Begin generating FRA Form 4.

Prep tender tanks for removal. Steam clean oil tank interior. Sandblast water cistern inside&out - Primer

Source superheater flues and obtain pricing.

Re-roof tool car. Prep and Primer exterior.

Continue sourcing out replacement or rebuild of appurtenances (generator, injectors, lubricator, etc.)

Source out replacement leaf springs and obtain pricing.

Set up “new” Roseville Lathe in shop.


Again I hope to see many of you in April in Portola. Please contact me with any comments, questions, etc. -JCA