Southern Pacific #18 restoration – December 2015

Polished rods and some new brasess.
Polished rods and some new brasses.
The general condition of the rod holes before.
The general condition of the rod holes before.
Machining the holes true again.
Machining the holes true again.
Travis cuts brass.
Travis cuts brass.

Although we did not work on-site in December, we did make some progress with the side rods. Through an exchange, we have been able to do some limited work in the D&S machine shop during off hours which has allowed us to get what would otherwise be difficult work done extremely fast.

The first step in the work was to true up some of the rod holes. About half of the holes were out of round or too rusted to be serviceable. The rods were set up on the horizontal boring mill and the holes machined round again. The overall center to center distances were also confirmed. Once round, Travis and Charlie got to work making new brasses. While brass was flying, Jeff polished all the rods and cleaned out all of the grease fittings and Patrick converted the final few oil fittings to grease fittings.

Although work has gone quick we are only about half way through. We hope to be complete by the end of January and have the rods back in Independence in February.

In museum news, we would like to thank the Friends of the Eastern California Museum for giving $40,000 towards the building project providing Inyo County will match the funds! We are getting closer to having a permanent roof over the #18!

Travis and Jeff cleaning and measuring.
Travis and Jeff cleaning and measuring.