BUILD LOCOMOTIVE 11 – MAY 2024 UPDATE!
Our last Build 11 work session was held April 25 – 28 during our Spring Work Weekend. Between sessions Harold Downey has continued working on the rear truck frame – the arch bars and journal boxes have been bolted in. We plan to prime all the components before final assembly.
Quentin Bethune brought back the lead truck center casting he machined at home. He did a great job and those bolts he made are exceptional!
Harold, Bill Steussy, Joe Monty and Rick Sisson used our flanger to hot form the main spring staples. We eventually settled on three heats and squeezes in the flanger to form the correct shape in three orthogonal planes. Joe was able to fashion a sort of enclosure using ceramic fiber blankets which accelerated our torch heating – very clever! Once again, this was a learning process for us - the first staple took us between 4 and 5 hours to get right; the remaining three staples took about an hour to complete. This is becoming a recurring theme for your Build 11 team. Below we see the completed staples; the critical surfaces will be machined in a future work session.
We used a keeper as before to ensure a flat top on each staple:
We turned our attention next to hot forming the equalizer pedestals. We used the same processes to form these as the main spring staples. Here we see Harold reheating one of the pedestals prior to final forming:
And here we can see the equalizer pedestals test fit on forward frame:
Since we were on a roll, we continued to form the brackets that support the driving box wedge bolts. Jason Lamontagne had built a set of dies (used for locomotives 9 and 10) that we used to hot form our brackets. We were able to heat our material in our propane forge. Before and after photos are shown below:
We had some hand work to do after pressing our material to straighten the ends.
Harold was able to pour babbitt into the bronze truck bearings that we had cast for us. Babbitt is a lead, tin and antimony alloy that provides an anti-galling bearing surface.
Harold was able to complete 20 bearings. Harold will machine these to print in our shop.
In an earlier Build 11 work session we attempted to press the rear truck wheels onto their axles, machined by Quentin. Because the wheel bores lacked lead-in, or an entrance taper, both the axles and wheels were scored when we pressed the wheels on. We disassembled the wheelsets, diagnosed the root cause, and developed a corrective action plan. Our solution entails reducing the axle diameter, increasing the wheel bore diameter and fitting a sleeve between the axle and wheel. Gordon Cook and new volunteer Gorham Rowell turned the inside of the sleeves to the prescribed diameter; Quentin then turned the axles to provide a 0.005” interference fit to each sleeve.
Gordon was able to heat two sleeves in the WW&F Ry barbeque (one at a time) to expand the sleeve so that each sleeve could be dropped over the corresponding axle. Because the barbeque was used by the kitchen crew during our Spring Work Weekend we had to wait until lunch was served. Soaking each sleeve at a temperature between 400 and 500 degrees Fahrenheit allowed an easy slip onto the axle as shown below:
Finally, we want to thank our great friends at the East Broad Top Railroad for donating two original Eames vacuum pots to us. The crews of the EBT discovered these extremely rare objects in their lumber shed! These likely came from some of the earliest EBT locomotives before conversion to air brakes. While the WW&F Ry is constructing new vacuum pots for our rolling stock, these unique pieces will be a historic addition to our #11. Gordon is measuring these vacuum pots so that he can design mounting brackets specifically for these pieces. We’ll be posting an update on these when they get attached to the frame.
Our 2024 fundraising is continuing! To date we have received $21,026 (42% of the $50,000 goal for 2024). Remember, you can still donate directly by check to the museum, use a credit card to donate through the gift shop, PayPal, or you can go to:
www.build11.org
