Southern pacific #18 Restoration – Dec 11 and Jan 12

 

$39,440. That’s how much we raised in 3 months.

The Narrow Gauge Preservation Society will match $20,000 so, in total, we’ve raised just shy of $60,000. Enough to do most – or all if we can find volunteers with the right skills – our boiler repair during this year.

Tremendous news! Who do we have to thank? About 300 people in 11 states. 1 person made a huge contribution. 100 others donated between $100 and $1000 each. We won’t forget any of you. Somehow, we’ll find a way to share our restored locomotive with you.

We have some preliminary plans for boiler wrapper sheet repair.

patch_r
The white area in the black rectangle will be patched and all worn out/damaged flexible sleeves and caps replaced. We may patch another area which we are still measuring.

For you techies:
an area must be replaced if it is wasted to a thickness that does not meet a safety factor of 4 (4 times the max operating pressure).

The lower photo is a shot showing the area to be replaced that has been prick punched out. All of the bolts in that area have been cut on the inside near both sheets and removed [time consuming and difficult].

The next step will be to lay out the center locations of the sleeves off the center line of the boiler and the end of the wrapper course. After that, when we have the new piece in hand, we will be cutting out that area.

door
boards

 

 

 

 

 

Rick Eckert installed a roll-up door in our tent.

On the tender, Rick Cromer and Doug Mull worked on installing the wood on the sides.