Mid-Winter Round up!
Here is our mid-winter update highlighting workdays along with the February 2–6 visit from the Durango & Silverton crew. With a scheduled workday on Saturday, February 7, the effort effectively turned into a full second workweek, just in the middle of winter!
Special thanks to the core engine team of Dan Silbaugh, Tim Clay & Bob Peterson, who hosted and worked with D&S the entire week. Other volunteers attended as they could to provide additional support with Kate #4 and also work on other Roundhouse tasks. Beyond the work accomplished, the week was marked by great camaraderie, teamwork, and even multiple homemade lunches that kept everyone fueled and connected.
Chili fest – Sean & Scott from D&S are on the left of stove.
D&S Visit
The D&S Crew (Sean and Scott) arrived in the early afternoon on Monday, Feb 2, and along with Dan Silbaugh were able to do a quick fit check on the front tube sheet that they had brought along. This allowed the tube sheet to be tacked in much quicker than planned.
Tuesday, we retrieved 3 tubes out of the Gondola and confirmed perfect fit. This allowed permanent tube sheet mounting to begin Tuesday afternoon.
Note the tube inserted in the tube sheets, and the square checking the layout. (It was perfect)!
Tube sheet from inside looking out at start of permanent welding.
Start of mounting. We ran heaters 24/7 for curing purposes.
Wednesday was for welding. It was a LOT of welding that needed to be done (both inside and outside had a root pass, hot pass, and a cap pass or two). Thursday it was completed!
Left – Tube sheet as of Wednesday night. Right - A look at the final fully mounted Tube sheet
Other Kate#4 tasks completed during the week:
Welded, drilled, and tapped upper air compressor bracket holes for tapered studs (7/8” 3/4 in 12 taper, 12 tpi).
Welded last 6 dome stud holes for tapping (this will fix the last of the helicoil repair that was improperly done). We will tap these after they are done inside the boiler barrel.
Jim Vanore finished machining tapered wedges for the valve stem rods. They now not only hold tight - but also match the original Baldwin drawings.
Temporarily attached driver brake cylinders to the distributing valve (and the whole air brake system). Good news is: The air brakes work! The independent and automatic handles all behave as expected and apply and release the brakes as they should. That is the good news. Bad news is we will still need to redo a lot of the plumbing to clean it up and use thicker copper piping.
Mocked up hydrostatic lubricator location, which will clean up the cab plumbing, and provide better slope for cylinder and air compressor oil lines. Will weld in a new stud to accommodate the Baldwin bracket in that location.
Located as many plumbing unions as we could. We will need a lot of pipe unions along with the pipe to be ordered soon.
Tim Clay uses the mag drill to drill and tap the compressor stud holes.
Hydrostatic lubricator moved forward in the cab to clean up the plumbing.
Dan Silbaugh saying, “See that wedge?” It is a small thing, but it is correct now, and they are pretty beautiful, compared to the little sheet of metal that was in there (and bent up from the forces).
The last 4 Winter/Engine workdays have included a wealth of additional tasks including some outdoors given the current weather patterns. This included the initial air brake testing, the removal of the compressor from Kate #4, additional machine shop set up and a very active machine shop that is now almost constantly in use.
Less than a year ago this machining was not possible onsite. Now we have almost constant activity. Jim Vanore & Bob Peterson at work Tuesday, Feb 3.
For early access to a functional turntable this spring we attacked the ice in the pit in earnest. Turns out a warm dry winter actually ices in the turntable rather well. It took a couple of days, but it was “freed” and now makes the full circuit. The plan will be to keep moving at least every 2 weeks.
We entered the rider car in preparation for its use this summer. It is in relatively good shape on the inside. The only interior projects that we identified were 1) potentially switching the benches from inside facing along the walls to outside facing along the center and 2) fresh paint (outside was painted in 2024).
Jacoby Van Winkle beside rider car stairs.
We ended the season with only 13 cut 76” ties remaining. We were able to get 20 more cut but will need to build up the supply some more before any significant track can be laid. From chopping ice to cutting ties: Jacoby Van Winkle, Paul Marizza, Rob Van Winkle, Jonah Gambone & Mike Antolin.
