Tag Archives: tubes

Installing and Rolling 1385’s Tubes

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In this C&NW #1385 update, we get a glimpse of the process of installing tubes in the boiler.

The tubes are installed by sliding them into the holes on the tubesheet. Their outside diameter is just slightly smaller than the holes in the tube sheet. However, in order to have a water-tight and steam-tight seal, there can’t be any gap. This is achieved through a process called rolling.

In the rolling process the tube is actually expanded from the inside using a roller. The roller presses the end of the tube against the hole in the tubesheet tightly enough to form a steam-tight seal.  The end of the tube actually sticks out of the hole a specified amount.  The portion that sticks out is then curled outward and back until it touches the tubesheet in a process called beading.  If the end of the tube were left hanging out by itself it would soon overheat and burn off or crack.  Since the beaded end of the tube is touching the tubesheet it will transfer some of the heat back into the tubesheet and not get hot enough to burn off or crack.

A Continental Fabricators employee trims excess tube material from the front of the boiler. Additional employees are on the firebox-end rolling and beading the tubes. Photos courtesy Continental Fabricators.

Additionally, the arch tubes have now been installed. Arch tubes provide increased firebox heating surface area and allow better circulation of water in the areas surrounding the firebox. The arch tubes also serve to support the brick arch, a series of firebricks that help direct heat from the fire more evenly throughout the firebox.

Arch tubes inside the 1385’s firebox as viewed from firebox door. S. Roudebush photo.

With the tubes now installed, a countdown clock has begun to tick. A boiler must be disassembled for extensive Federal Railroad Administration mandated inspections every 15 calendar years or 1,472 days of operating – whichever occurs first. Once the first tube was installed, the FRA gives a 1-year grace period in which to complete work before the 15-year time limit begins. If the locomotive is completed in less time, the 15-year clock starts once the FRA accepts the locomotive for service. If the locomotive is not accepted for service within the 1-year grace period, then the 15-year clocks starts anyway.

The next step for C&NW 1385’s boiler is the hydro test. Stay tuned!

C&NW 1385’s Mud Ring Test Fitting Planned, Superheater Flues Readied

Mid-Continent Railway Museum Posted on by

With Gary Bensman’s (of Diversified Rail Services) flanging of various boiler and firebox components complete, Brett Morley of Performance Engineering and the 1385 Task Force now have the dimensions needed to move forward with the updates to the SolidWorks 3D model needed to finalize the boiler design.  Waiting to get actual dimensions was important to ensure that what we build not only fits to locomotive, but also meets the requirements Continental Fabricators has in order to get everything to fit together.  The finished sheets from Gary look amazing. [Sorry, no new photos available at this time.]

We are back onto the task of laying out the stay bolts and other purchased items. Continental Fabricators (located in St. Louis) is preparing the mud ring at the moment. They will ship it to SPEC Machine (in Middleton, WI) as soon as it is complete.  We expect that to happen within the next week or so.  Once at SPEC, we will test fit the mud ring to the frame and make sure all fits as designed.  As soon as we have completed the test fit and made sure everything is aligned, the mud ring will be shipped back to Continental for final assembly.

Traveling along with the mud ring will be a total of 26 superheater flues, each 5″ in diameter and weighing nearly 200 lbs. a piece. The new superheater flues were fabricated and flanged previously and have been stored at Mid-Continent since 2010. These were loaded onto a trailer last week by Steve and Tyler Roudebush and taken to SPEC Machine to await transportation to Continental Fabricators where they will be installed as part of the boiler’s final assembly.

C&NW 1385’s superheater flues. This image was taken in 2010 when the flues were being placed into storage. In early May 2017 they were removed from storage and will soon be installed into 1385’s new boiler.

May is proving to be a very busy month for the 1385.  Years of careful research, analysis, engineering, review, and fundraising have led to this point where the new boiler is finally coming together. After the boiler is assembled by Continental Fabricators, it will be shipped to SPEC Machine this summer and set on the locomotive frame. At the same time as the boiler arrival, the locomotive frame/running gear will be moved from its current shop bay into a recently constructed addition to SPEC Machine’s facility designed specifically with the 1385’s needs in mind. The new addition can better accommodate the full height of the locomotive and will allow reassembly of the 1385 to continue unimpeded until it is ready for delivery to Mid-Continent.

To make a donation in support of completing the C&NW 1385’s rebuild, please consider visiting our Donation page.

Swaged Superheater Tubes Arrive

Mid-Continent Railway Museum Posted on by

Swaged superheater tubes for the C&NW 1385 arrived on August 27, 2010 and were placed in storage for eventual use in the new boiler.

 

Tools of the Trade Explained

Mid-Continent Railway Museum Posted on by

Momentum is a wonderful thing and we have it going here at MCRY! March 5 and 6 have been no exception with the help of Jeff Bloohm, Dave Bierman, Jason Sobcyznski, Jim Connor, Kevin Reihl, Tye Hasheider, Doug Klitzke, Dave Lee, Jeff Bloemers, Doug Crary, Steve Seibel, Mike Flood, Mike Wahl, Kelly Bauman and Skip Lichter.

A whole list of things were accomplished starting Friday evening as Steve came in then and prepped an air jam to be used for riveting. The air jam takes the place of one of the rivet guns by holding the rivet in place by means of an air cylinder that extends when the throttle is opened. The rivet is then “jammed” into place and held tightly enough that the other end can be riveted over and the head formed. This is a much safer approach as you don’t have two air guns pointed at each other near the edge of the work. It is also much easier on the crew as you don’t have to hold the rivet gun against the blows of the other gun.

Saturday Steve then finished a staybolt buck that had been started a while ago. The bucking bar is a heavy, solid cylinder of steel about the size of a rivet gun that has had the end machined just like a rivet gun to be able to accept the rivet snaps or forming tools. The end was case hardened to withstand the hammering it will receive and a handle was fabricated. The purpose of the buck is to be held against one end of a staybolt to counter the blows of the rivet gun applied to the other end.

The staybolt is a threaded rod (in our case 7/8” in diameter) that is screwed into threaded holes in the firebox walls in order to counteract the force of the steam pushing the sheets apart. The process of driving the staybolt is to hammer one end enough to cause the metal of the staybolt to swell into the threads which will ensure a strong and steam-tight joint. The buck is held against the other end of the bolt to keep the hammering from just pushing the bolt through the threads. In blacksmith terms this shortening and swelling of the bolt is also called upsetting.

While this was going on, the final length of the undriven staybolts was determined and the threads of the bolts were staked with a punch so they wouldn’t turn while being driven.

Another task undertaken was to drill the countersink portion of the rivet holes in the smokebox. As no magnetic base drill was immediately available some of the crew were introduced to an old fashioned approach–using an air motor and the “old man.” The air motor is an air-driven drill motor which can handle drilling, reaming, countersinking, tube rolling, or most any other job an electric motor can do. The old man is a bracket that is bolted to the work piece such that its arm will extend over the hole to be drilled, reamed, etc. Built into the back of the drill motor is a lead screw with a point on it exactly opposite the drill point. As the lead screw is turned it will extend away from the drill motor. If it is properly captured by the old man, it can be used to keep constant pressure on the drill bit and hold the drill motor straight and square to the work.

Mike Wahl went on an expedition and found the tubes that were purchased to go into the boiler of the #1.

Lunch was provided by Jeff Bloohm and was delicious bratwurst fresh from a butcher shop in Brownsville. What a treat!

After lunch work continued on the countersinking and then the ashpan was brought inside. After laying out the new pieces and examining the old much head scratching was employed to come up with an initial plan of attack. Mike Flood headed up putting the new pieces together. The pans themselves are now welded together and we must now come up with the best approach to either repair or rebuild the frames.

The Sunday crew of Bloohm, Bierman, Connor, Crary, Bauman, Klitzkie, Reihl and Sobczynski were up and ready to drive rivets. The air jam was employed and between 9 am and early afternoon the job was finished. Skip repaired the unloader of one of the air compressors to help speed the job.

The smokebox is finished until it is time to first fit it to and then attach it to the boiler and then fit it and the boiler to the cylinder saddle and the frame.

And as a side note, as of the end of the day on March 8, the third course patch in the boiler barrel is ready for inspection and then welding can begin on it.

A great many things have been accomplished in a short time by the willingness and giving of the volunteers. THANK YOU!

Photos by Jason Sobczynski