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Steam Locomotive Status
| August 17, 2008 NEW! |
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Now at the halfway point of the NHV operating season, steam locomotive 17 is having her best year ever!
The 2007 operating year was the best in the history of the railroad, but the NHV Steam Department decided
to raise the bar and with a lot of hard work and preparation over the winter by the steam crew,
the engine is being used more this year that ever before. With the exception of missing the May ride day due to a
faulty air pump governor, 17 had made every scheduled trip, including ride days and our increasingly popular
Operate a Loco program. With a quick trip to a specialty machine shop in western North Carolina, the governor was fixed and since then,
17 hasn’t missed a beat. The most exciting change this year was the decision by the steam crew to start using the
17 to pull the train north to New Hill. The highlight of the trip is when the train slows at the south switch in
New Hill to drop off the rear brakeman and is then accelerated from walking speed up to the north end of New Hill;
on a 1.5% ascending grade with the full 5 car train! Based on the smiles of the passengers,
17 is letting everyone within earshot know just how stout of a locomotive she is while putting on a great show!
Come out to ride behind the 17 and see what all the excitement is about!
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| November 11, 2007 |
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The last weekend of the double-header event was as successful as the first! On Sunday, we were lucky enough to host the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile, Big Bun.
Here we see Engine 75 after the last run, posing under steam for the last time in Bonsal, with a crowd admiring Big Bun in the background.
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| November 4, 2007 |
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The double-headed trains are a success! We had a great crowd on hand to enjoy our two steam locomotives pounding up Shearon Harris grade!
Here we see the two locomotives pulling into Bonsal yard. The Apex fire department was on hand just in case.
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| October 26, 2007 |
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Flagg Coal Company 75 arrived in Bonsal today! She was hauled on a low boy trailer from the South Carolina Railroad Museum after her visit there
earlier this month. The locomotive arrived in style escorted by a Wake County Deputy Sherriff. After she was unloaded, she was moved onto the main line
right behind our own Engine 17. This picture was taken just after she was parked. The entire unloading event occured in the pouring rain, which although
made for unpleasant working conditions, was well received by all in Bonsal considering the drought.
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| October 13, 2007 |
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After a quick run to a machine shop during this past week, the steam crew had new gaskets made for the throttle body. One was annealed and installed early this morning.
The steam locomotive was reassembled, fired up, and ran on a charter train to test all her systems. The engire ran flawlessly, much to the relief of the crew.
We are confident that Engine 17 is ready for the gruelling four days of doubleheaded excursions coming in November.
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| October 6, 2007 |
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Today was a very dissappointing day for the steam crew. As Engine 17 was slowly being brought up to operating pressure, we discovered a broken gasket. The gasket
is located between the throttle body and the dry pipe, resulting in a condition similar to when a car's accelerator gets stuck all the way down.
Steam was being sent around the throttle and into the pistons, resulting in a release of steam through the cylinder cocks. This condition was caught
quickly and the fire extinguished. On Sunday, the steam crew dissassembled the throttle mechanism, revealing the broken copper gasket pictured. A replacement gasket has
been ordered from a local machine shop.
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| October 5, 2007 |
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A new oil tanker arrived at the rail yard today. The New Hope Valley Railway purchased this tank trailer from the US Military as surplus.
It's 5,000 gallon capacity tank will allow us to purchace oil for the steam locomotive in bulk, saving us money. Here we see the railroad's
25 ton crane preparing to life the tanker off the flatbed trailer and on to its own wheels.
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| September 8, 2007 |
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One of the many projects completed by the Master Mechanic was to turn this used fuel tank (cleaned be the previous owner) into a usable water tank for the steam department.
The 4000 gallon tank was moved to its new home just west of the mainline south of Daisey St. It has been filled with water and checked for leaks.
Although a leak occurs when the tank reaches 2700 gallons, we are confident it can be repaired within the next month.
This tank will supply water to both 17 and 75 for the doubleheaders, and for engine 17 next year.
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| September 3, 2007 |
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The New Hope Valley mechanical, steam, and track departments teamed up to construct a coal bunker for the 20 tons of coal that will be needed
for the double-header event in November. Engine 75 will burn approx. 4 tons a day, and we will have 4 tons extra for our media day and for any
extra trains we may run. The entire bunker was completed from start to finish this Labor Day.
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| September 2, 2007 |
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Engine 17's air pump ran well today, with no governor issues. However, 17 decided to let her air pump lubricator stop working
10 minutes before our departure time, probably just to spite us. A quick dissassembly, inspection and cleaning got the lubricator lubricating again, and
we had no further trouble. Bearings ran no hotter than 130 degrees all day long, and 17 got to double head with the New Hope Valley's only Whitcomb engine, number 70.
Our crews practiced double heading with 17 and 70 on three trips (the 1:30 trip is pictured in New Hill), and both locomotives performed perfectly each trip.
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| August 18, 2007 |
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Engine 17's air pump was acting poorly during the 4:00 train on the August 5th ride day. The problem was traced to the air pump governor, pictured here.
The governor has since been completely disassembled, cleaned of scale and lubricated so that the parts moved freely. All the valves seats were lapped
as needed. The governor will be testing the Saturday before the next ride day, which is scheduled for Sunday September 2nd.
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| July 28, 2007 |
Today was training day on the New Hope Valley. Steam locomotive trainees were given instruction on hostling, firing and driving Engine 17. This
is in preparation for our doubleheader events. Our experienced diesel crews are being training on driving 17 while also beginning to learn the art of
firing a steam locomotive. Crews spent 9 hours preparing 17 for operation, performing practice drills in our rail yard and running one practice train over our line.
During the training day, all of our bearings ran close to ambient, with the hottest recorded temperature of 109 degrees at our right rear bearing. We are well on our way to
being able to provide a safe and enjoyable doubleheader event for the public.
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| June 23, 2007 |
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Engine 17's original builder's plate has finally been acquired! The plate was sold on eBay over four years ago to a collector. Our mechanical engineer found the auction
(too late to bid, unfortunately) and contacted the winning bidder via email. Four years later, the widding bidder responded to us after seeing our website,
offering to sell us the builder's plate for the same amount as his winning bid. We decided that this may be the only opportunity we would get to acquire
the builder's plate for our locomotive, so we jumped at the chance. We struck a deal, and the plate arrived at Bonsal this past week. There are no plans to
mount it on the locomotive just yet... but keep your eyes out later this year, and you may just see the plate back on the locomotive!
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| June 3, 2007 |
Much to the excitement of the steam crew, Engine 17 performed brilliantly on June 2nd and 3rd.
This was the first chance we had to really put some miles on our reprofiled bearings. After only 50 miles of operation, we saw a noticeable improvement
in bearing temperatures after each 4 mile stretch of railroad as the bearings started to wear in. We plan to operate during the July 1st ride day!
The picture is of the original blueprints for Engine 17's Driving Box, Shoe and Wedge. The bearing is the crescent shaped object in the very middle of the
drawing, above the hole where the axle would go.
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| April 28, 2007 |
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The locomotive is completely put back together and several repairs have been made after leaks were found during the hydrostatic test.
The steam valve for the dynamo (steam generator) was completely shot, and the entire line had to be replaced. The picture shows the new steam valve
(valve on the right) that has been installed in the cab and part of the new steam line. The red valve is for the engineer's injector, the gauge on the left
is the main boiler pressure gauge.
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| April 14, 2007 |
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Spring is when the steam crew performs the annual inspection on engine 17, and one of the most important parts of the
annual is inspecting the interior of the boiler. This entails removing the steam dome cover and entering the boiler to make a visual
inspection and measure the thickness of the dry pipe. The dry pipe is visible on the upper left hand side of the picture. In the background,
you can see the front flue sheet with it's braces. Also visible on the lower part of the picture are the flues upon which rest our photographer's feet.
The dark spots on the dry pipe mark where scale was removed to measure the thickness of the pipe using an ultrasonic thickness device.
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| April 7, 2007 |
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Our Sellers 6.5 class NS injectors were rebuilt over the winter by a member of the steam crew. He disassembled the injectors,
inspected the parts and made repairs where needed. Our mechanic also identified parts that would need replacement soon, and contacted
a specialty machine shop that can manufacture those parts. The machine shop has the original blueprints for our injectors, and will be
making new steam nozzles for us over the summer.
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| March 15, 2007 |
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The new driving boxes have much tighter lateral clearances now than when they were removed. Combined with the fact
that when the engine was jacked up, it didn't go exactly straight up, but a bit to the side, we found that we had to move the entire locomotive
to the left 1.5 inches. This had to be done while it was still 3 feet in the air so the bearings could be positioned in the pedestals. So
how do you move the front of a 40 ton engine 1.5 inches to the left while it is 3 feet in the air? You use a Duff-Norton transverse table and a 35 ton bottle jack
(see picture). We jacked the front of the loco up just a bit off the cribbing then slowly, using the transverse table,
cranked the locomotive sideways 1.5 inches.
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| March 9, 2007 |
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The driving box work is complete and all four are back in Bonsal. You can see from the picture that the babbit thrust bearings
(the silver stuff on top) have been completely renewed and the crown brass bearings (the gold stuff in the middle) have been machined. If you look closely
you can see faint vertical lines in the brass. These show where the machinist removed an additional ten thousanths of an inch of material from the brass to create a tiny space between the axle and the bearing. These open spaces are oil wedges, they allow the oil on the axle to be carried between the axle and the brass without being scraped off by the brass. This thin layer of oil actually supports the entire weight of the engine, almost 20,000 pounds per bearing! The steam crew got one bearing in place today and will be working through the weekend to
get the rest in place and the locomotive lowered.
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| February 20, 2007 |
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The driving boxes are now in the hands of a specialty machine shop where the crown brasses will be
reprofiled and the thrust bearings renewed. Typically, a crown brass profile is good for about 30k miles, which on our little railroad means 42 years of
service. We hope to get the driving boxes back to Bonsal by the first of March. We'll spend the month of March putting the boxes back in
and setting up the shoes, wedges and everything else back into place. Holding down our measurements in the picture is one of our new boiler plugs, all of
which have been replaced this year.
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| January 14, 2007 |
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Engine 17 is currently undergoing maintenance as a part of her annual inspection as mandated by the FRA.
In early January, 17 was jacked up three feet and supported by cribbing so that her main
bearings could be removed. The bearings will be sent to a machine shop in western North Carolina for
profiling. While her bearings are removed, her journal surfaces will be inspected, measured and polished
for her return to service in the Spring. Check back for more status updates!
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Please visit
the New Hope Valley Railway for more information:
www.nhvry.org
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