It's been a while since the work on #9 has been reported on here, so I'll start by a brief description of last Saturday's (Feb. 21) work:
Boothbay is getting to 'crunch' time on the boiler, and remaining work involves finishing pieces for the throttle assembly so it can be assembled into the steam dome along with the dry pipe. A new throttle body and valve spindle has been cast and machined. It is a copy of the original but cast with 'code-worthy' materials. Several other pieces are needed, the biggest of which is the piece which makes the right angle turn from the dry pipe up into the throttle. This 'elbow' has a number of assembly and safety requirements, so is being machined out of a roughly 6 inch diameter solid chunk of steel. Assembling all this stuff in the dome is complicated by the inability to get underneath the throttle, so everything has to be done from the top, including making the steam-tight joint to the dry pipe in a way that satisfies 'what-if' fail-safe concerns. The large lathe can handle the turning and boring of this piece. Fortunately, the lathe was moved early in the morning into it's new place in the shop extension and wired up so that that piece could get started.
Other parts include the bell crank which turns the corner for the throttle rod and pushes up on the throttle valve spindle to open it. This part also has to be made from traceable material, and so of a piece of the remaining steel from the dome flange is being used. This was torch cut to rough shape (basically an 'L') and then machined to required thickness and shape.
Also needed is the stem which reaches up through the valve spindle from the bell crank. Again, a large piece of the correct material is being 'whittled' away to create this part.
We have the original Portland Co. drawings for these parts, so as much as possible they will be duplicates of originals.
Unusual and notable was that 3 machinists were simultaneously working away at 2 lathes and a milling machine.
I believe that some pictures were taken, and Jason Lamontagne may want to add a comment about the progress on the boiler at Boothbay shops.