Author Topic: WW&F No. 9 - Official Work Thread  (Read 552977 times)

Keith Taylor

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Re: WW&F No. 9 - Official Work Thread
« Reply #15 on: March 14, 2009, 10:26:27 AM »
Also, is there a reason why only the crown sheet has threaded staybolts on the top of the fiebox? I guess it is just how that area was built.

Rob
Rob,
All of the staybolts are threaded, you can tell that because they have been drilled with "tell tale" holes. What you are looking at, on the top of the wrapper sheet, are "Flexible Stay Bolts." They are a ball and socket affair and the "threaded" piece you see is a removable cap that allows access to the ball portion of the staybolt. The stays in the side sheets are threaded, and then the heads are riveted over. The tell tales are drilled so that should the stay bolt break in service, a small amount of steam will escape alerting the engine crew to the broken stay.
Keith
P.S. The boiler looks magnificent!

Robert Hale

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Re: WW&F No. 9 - Official Work Thread
« Reply #16 on: March 14, 2009, 04:25:17 PM »
So it begins as a threaded rod with nuts on both ends then heated and shaped with the rivet gun? I gather they use the bolt to pre-tension the construction and then lock it by riveting? Never mind, I found my answers. Now to do some reading................

And yes, the boiler looks very nice.
Rob


« Last Edit: March 14, 2009, 04:30:59 PM by Robert Hale »

Stephen Hussar

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Re: WW&F No. 9 - Official Work Thread
« Reply #17 on: March 14, 2009, 07:43:40 PM »
More No 9 work today with studs being cut and threaded in the shop...






Jason M Lamontagne

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Re: WW&F No. 9 - Official Work Thread
« Reply #18 on: March 15, 2009, 08:01:28 AM »
Hello,

Yesterday's shop pics look great-

The holes I were drilling in the mud ring are for patch bolts.  These are alternatives to rivets on mud ring corners, where the tight radius inside the firebox does not allow room for a rivet.  A patch bolt is threaded about half way through the depth of the mud ring, then headed into a countersunk hole which will be prepared on the outer sheet.  There will be 8 on our mud ring.

The flexible crown stays were not on the original boiler, but are used here as an alternative to crown bars (which were employed on the original boiler).  ASME still allows crown bars- but with stringent stiffness requirements for which there was extremely limited room on this small boiler.  We also called the FRA inquiring whether crown bars are legal with them (the rumor is that they are not)- their engineer in DC could not find such a law but could not say with certainty that there may not be some old ICC rule against it. 

So the flexible crown stays allow for a flexible crown sheet as the crown bars essentially would have done.  BRV bought the flexies, sleeves and caps pre-manufactured of code material from the Strasburg Railroad- what a great resource those guys are for staples of the steam locomotive industry but oddities anywhere else.  They just want to help all they can...

In Stephen's photos you can also see the home-made bronze washout plugs we had to make.  The code doesn't tell you you have to make them yourself- but no one supplies them of code-accepted bronze material.  1+1= ...   As such we made them longer and heavier than standard bought plugs to simulate the look of older plugs and give them more life.

Boothbay has been great to work with us to make this boiler something to be proud of, instead of something that just makes steam.  We're now pushing to get it out of their hair- they have a great many other projects fighting for attention and floor space.  It'll be a great incentive having the boiler at Sheepscot Station to hammer out the rest of this project.

see ya
Jason

Jason M Lamontagne

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Re: WW&F No. 9 - Official Work Thread
« Reply #19 on: March 15, 2009, 08:08:14 AM »
Oh-- the flexies are only on top of the wrapper sheet because the crown sheet is flat.  It is flat because the original was supported by crown bars.  We didn't want to change the firebox shape at all- to keep the tube pattern the same.  So we support the new crown sheet with an array of 35 (5 rows by 7 bolts/row) vertical bolts. 

Jason

Gordon Cook

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Re: WW&F No. 9 - Official Work Thread
« Reply #20 on: March 15, 2009, 09:28:49 AM »
In the first of Stephen's excellent pictures, to be clear, the binder bar for the front right driver pedestal is being drilled. The new binder bar will have a 'toe' on the front to catch the lower frame member and squeeze it up tight against the pedestal. The problem with the original was that the lower frame member was 'working' against the main frame where it is bolted, and we are reinforcing this joint to stop it from moving around in service.
Also, the original bar did not have a taper on the slots to capture the pedestal sides, so that feature is being added.
Gawdon

Stephen Hussar

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Re: WW&F No. 9 - Official Work Thread
« Reply #21 on: March 16, 2009, 08:01:52 AM »
Here's another photo taken over in the Boothbay shop which shows the inside of the boiler through the hole for the dry pipe in the front tube sheet...


Vincent "Lightning" LeRow

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Re: WW&F No. 9 - Official Work Thread
« Reply #22 on: March 16, 2009, 09:44:24 AM »
wow, it looks so.... clean...
A spike saved is a spike earned.

Duncan Mackiewicz

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Re: WW&F No. 9 - Official Work Thread
« Reply #23 on: March 16, 2009, 11:56:12 AM »
The pictures of the boiler really highlight the effort and workmanship that has gone into the making of a wonderful restoration.
Duncan

Robert Hale

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Re: WW&F No. 9 - Official Work Thread
« Reply #24 on: March 16, 2009, 12:10:14 PM »
Are there any methods/products to prevent the internal corrosion of the raw steel in the boiler? How do you go about cleaning scale out?

Rob

Mike the Choochoo Nix

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Re: WW&F No. 9 - Official Work Thread
« Reply #25 on: March 16, 2009, 07:10:49 PM »
While I don't know the specifics of #9's new boiler, commom practice is to have plugs in the mud ring and front tube sheet, where scale can be washed out. And yes there are anti corrosion products that can be added to the feed water.  There are a lot of pro's and con's to their use in a locomotive or traction engine,
they must be used properly to be effective.
Mike Nix
Mike Nix

Stewart "Start" Rhine

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Re: WW&F No. 9 - Official Work Thread
« Reply #26 on: March 16, 2009, 08:42:12 PM »
One rule I got from George Hart, you don't put water in your boiler that you wouldn't drink.

Eric Bolton

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Re: WW&F No. 9 - Official Work Thread
« Reply #27 on: March 16, 2009, 09:54:58 PM »
You can over treat your water though. I've seen proof. On the NH&I when I fired for a photo charter the engine foamed like a  :-X with the treated water from New Hope but when we threw a load of hydrant water in her at Wycomb she turned into an animal! Steamed completely different and stopped foaming. It wasnt the first time thats happened either.
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Dwight Winkley

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Re: WW&F No. 9 - Official Work Thread
« Reply #28 on: March 17, 2009, 05:50:57 PM »
You don't want to drink water from the faucets on the sides of the loco tanks at WW&F. You may get a mouth full of boiler treatment.

John McNamara

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Re: WW&F No. 9 - Official Work Thread
« Reply #29 on: March 17, 2009, 06:07:28 PM »
You don't want to drink water from the faucets on the sides of the loco tanks at WW&F. You may get a mouth full of boiler treatment.
It would, however, prevent boiler scale in your bladder. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)
« Last Edit: March 18, 2009, 06:21:21 AM by Ed Lecuyer »