Category: Restoration

The finishing touches! That’s where we are at in the restoration of the #18. We spent three productive days in September basically crossing things off our to-do list one by one. Small things like bracketing plumbing, finishing the electrical, installing the front coupler, finishing the crosshead oilers, installing the seats, cab curtains, awnings and floors, installing the rebuilt safety valves and whistle rod and generally finishing up minor things. Both the installation of the coupler and the seats were firsts for the #18 in the park. The SP had not placed the engine on display with either seats or couplers.

There were some bigger projects as well, most notably installing the eccentrics and rods and setting the valves.

The process of setting the valves is something we assumed would never be done in the park, but since it was, the challenge was to determine how best to move the engine accurately in both directions. After considering a few options we went back to our normal method that involves our winch mounted on the forklift and our panel track. This process has become routine at this point and we can have the #18 completely out into the parking lot in less than 30 minutes. To solve the problem of accurately moving the engine to a given point we double rigged the winch and would stop just short of the point desired and then use a couple of bars and pinch it to its final spot. After a few misses we got really good and by the end of the weekend could roll it over and check and re-check the valves rather quickly. With the timing checked it was found that the left side in both forward and reverse was extremely close to where we wanted and would require no further adjustments. The right side however was as we say “out in left field”. To remedy this we had to gain more valve travel in forward direction and less travel in reverse. This was accomplished by moving the link block lower on the link, this also corresponded with the left side. Once that adjustment was made it was determined the eccentric rod needed lengthening about 1/4″. Without sufficient heat in the park to perform the legthening the rod was brought back to Durango for final adjustments.

Looking ahead to October we have some final painting touch up to do on the engine (the tender will not receive final paint just yet) and a few additional minor adjustments that should take us to the finish line.

As a reminder be sure to buy your BBQ tickets for October 15th.

And finally, the grading permits have been issued for the museum project. The building permit should follow soon and we only lack signing a contract with a contractor. Once that occurs we should have a definite timeline for the building completion and subsequent locomotive move.

As we come down the home stretch, the #18 is looking more and more like a complete locomotive. August saw us wrapping up numerous small projects: finishing the sander lines, installing the cab windows and doors, finishing the electrical, adjusting the blowdown linkages, and finishing leak checking the air system. By the time we finished up the air system was nearly leak free! One more pipe “tee” to replace and we will be done. Meanwhile the list of other miscellaneous items is getting shorter and shorter. Still to do are the rear cab windows, engineers side floor, whistle rod, tender-locomotive connections and installing the left eccentric and setting the valve timing.

Throughout the month work has also been progressing on final paint on the locomotive. As of this post, work is about two-thirds complete with the cab and lettering still to be completed. Final paint and lettering on the tender will be done once it is inside the new building.

As for progress on the new building, we have bought and paid for the structure, currently we are working on securing a general contractor to do the dirt work and awaiting the counties issuing of the building and grading permits (no additional approvals required for those). Although we had hoped for the building to be completed by our October BBQ, it looks like it will not quite be done. Slightly disappointing but we have waited this long so what’s waiting just a little longer.

Finally be sure to buy your ticket for the BBQ dinner on October 15th. This year tickets can be purchased right here in advance. This will be a year you wont want to miss!