After my arrival late Sunday afternoon, I spent about an hour going over work the work that had transpired earlier in the day and on Saturday.
Monday Morning I began die grinding the access hole for the washout plug on the fireman's side of the boiler. This consumed a most of the morning.
Following an excellent lunch, JB and I measured drilled and installed the cab stirrups. Milo provided encouragement. I began to work on the stirrups at the rear of the locomotive. Finding them to be out of square, Brendan and I heated them with the rosebud torch and made some adjustments. Interestingly, the next day I found punch marks on all of the stirrup bends from when they were first forged. The torch burnt all of the paint and dirt out of them, making them very obvious. As mentioned below, Brendan and I put up the pilot beam temporarily to measure for the smokebox braces. Monday night I laid out and wrote procedures for drilling the ash cleanout casting on the smokebox, smokebox-pilot braces, and the rear stirrups. I also located Dave Crow's punch marks for the handrail stanchions and marker light bracket.
Tuesday I proceeded to drill the previously marked holes to the proper dimensions using the mag drill. The ash cleanout casting and marker light bracket were both temporarily installed. Jason stopped by to discuss the progress Tuesday afternoon, and it was decided to replicate a smokebox patch on the firman's side of the locomotive. This patch is necessary because it maintains the dimensions of the original smokebox and will prevent the need to make modifications to the both the smokebox-pilot brace and the front running board bracket. It also maintains the historical character of the locomotive while it operated on the WW&F. I spent the remainder of Tuesday evening measuring and producing this patch. It was rough fit by Tuesday evening, although it will still require some grinding and adjustment. It also will need holes located and drilled before the patch is fitted.