Southern pacific #18 Restoration – October, 2012

The weekend of October 27th and 28th was a big one. Our focus was on removing the drivers from under the frame.

cribbage
springs
To complete this task we needed cribbing, and lots of it. We began by lifting the locomotive enough to “take the weight off” of the spring rigging. With the weight off we were able to remove all of the springs and hangers that were in the way of the drivers. This turned out to happen much easier and faster than anticipated, taking only a day. After consulting with the crew, we decided to go for it and pull the drivers on Sunday.

fullheight
removedrivers

Sounds easy? Well yes and no. If you know what order to do things in and have the tooling and an awareness for safety, it can be done relatively easy.

Aside from the driver work, cleaning and repairing of appliances continued. The left valve surface was lapped and the crossheads prepared for babbeting.

Now that the drivers are out, the cleaning can begin.

composite
 

Southern pacific #18 Restoration – September, 2012

For the third year in a row we had our annual BBQ fundraiser the last weekend of September. Before the food though came the work…..Work was focused on removing the old steam dome studs, and cleaning some of the piping, not many pictures though.  After the work came the food and fun, and lots of it!
bbq
Fire up the beast…and…out comes the chicken!
dougMeanwhile, our master chef, Doug Mull, was turning out the tri-tip steaks, the beans, and the absolutely sensational coleslaw. In fact, the food was so good that we ran out. We just couldn’t give the folks enough of what they wanted.

Doug also advised Doug Dumas on the design of the barbeque. Amazingly, Mr. Dumas and his son built it in one summer of after hours work…using mostly scrap parts.
pickers
The Peavine Pickers provided the music. Just like last year they were terrific…as you can tell from the reactions of some of our guests

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