Saturday, April 2, 2011

Preparation for San Bernardino 2011

With only two weeks until the 2011 San Bernardino Railroad Days, the crew is busy prepping the locomotive for the weekend event. On Friday, the FRA inspector was out to oversee the annual hydrostatic test. For this test, the boiler is pressurized to 125% of operating pressure (for 3751 that is 287 p.s.i). The pressure is then dropped and each and every staybolt in the firebox is hammer tested to check for weakness.

Today, a sizeable crew was on hand. The primary assignment was the installation of new sheet metal jacketing to replace some sheets that had unfortunately begun to decay over time from the locomotive sitting out in the elements.



Other assignments included painting the smokebox door (it had been nearly 10 years since it was last painted), installing the portable tool box on top of the tender, blowing out the tubes in the firebox and installing the light-off connections to the firebox.





Next week the crew will be filling in all the telltales in the firebox and performing a number of cosmetic tasks to ensure 3751 looks her best for the event on April 16th and 17th.

1 comment:

  1. Metal jacketing always check time to time because it can be decayed by the time.careless attitude can be very dangerous.

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