The Latest from the Strasburg Rail Road Shops

exprail · **Joined:** Fri Jul 07, 2017 2:37 pm **Posts:** 83

Kelly you folks do outstanding work.

Exprail

Richard Glueck · **Posted:** Sat Apr 11, 2020 7:41 pm

As always, the work at Strasburg is at the apex of steam railroading excellence.
Thank you for sharing.

John Risley · **Joined:** Tue Aug 24, 2004 10:34 pm **Posts:** 965

Thanks for the updates always a pleasure to see. Intrigued by the new and reworked boilers. Wheel sets look grand with new tires. Regards, John.

nedsn3 · **Posted:** Sat Apr 11, 2020 8:23 pm

As has already been written you guys (and gals) are simply amazing. Your updates are some of my favorite postings. Thanks. Ned

Mark Jordan · **Joined:** Fri Nov 07, 2008 11:21 am **Posts:** 490

So......................

On the little Porter boiler, with the new crown bars.......what is the process for replacing a broken crown stay in service?

I assume cut the end out of the crown in the usual manner, then install a rigid through crown in the usual manner, and then......someone has to go in through the dome upside down to install a nut??

tomgears · **Posted:** Sat Apr 11, 2020 11:58 pm

Such fine work. Thank you so much for sharing.

mjanssen · **Posted:** Sun Apr 12, 2020 12:16 am

Very nice work!

k5ahudson · **Joined:** Tue Aug 24, 2004 6:30 am **Posts:** 773

Kelly, is the mini Porter for a customer near Guelph, Ontario?

Kelly Anderson · **Joined:** Tue Sep 14, 2004 7:52 am **Posts:** 2477

Dave Lewandoski · **Joined:** Sun Aug 22, 2004 5:58 pm **Posts:** 1083

outstanding work as always Kelly, thanks for the pictures.

Ed Kapuscinski · **Posted:** Mon Apr 13, 2020 9:51 am

Kelly Anderson wrote:

Hopefully, no one reading this is destine to take their last ride on SRC equipment on one of these.

If I have to go, at least I get to go in style?

Thanks for the update Kelly, these are really one of the high points of RYPN!

Dave · **Posted:** Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:03 pm

Am I the only one that has to look twice to recognise the parts when they are not rusty and worn? Great work, thanks.....

PMC · **Joined:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:55 pm **Posts:** 2865

Kelly Anderson wrote:

Attachment:

IMG_9034.JPG

The last part of the valve gear before the valves themselves are the valve stems and yokes. Here are new ones ready to install. The old ones had been serviceable, however, the customer wanted the valve stems chrome plated. The chrome plating company we hired needs to learn a little bit about communication. Their grinding machine wasn’t big enough to swing the yokes, so without a word to us, they sawed the valve stems off of the yokes, ground and chromed them, then welded them back onto the yokes. Hello?!? Next thing I know is we are having to make new ones on our own nickel because of those dumbbells.

I have a vague understanding of where these go, why did the customer want these parts chrome plated, for appearance, or was there a performance reason?

Randy Musselman · **Posted:** Mon Apr 13, 2020 4:59 pm

Kelly,

Assuming the driver centers are cast steel? Are these post-pour stress relieved? I have been out of the foundry industry loop for 30 years but recall steel casting is a challenge versus grey iron or ductile, having higher rate of shrinkage and residuals stresses?

Perhaps your supplier makes the challenges transparent you?

The results look pretty high quality. Nice result!

The company I worked for attempted to pour stainless steel castings in sand molds and really struggled with it. Our casting and cleaning department kept their air arcs busy gouging out the porosity. Our old salt mechanical engineer with decades of experience was a critic of castings.....he said all the huge holes we gouged out of our castings were big enough to throw cats through! ;-) He was an advocate for heavy plate fabrication. The stainless weld repairs for the porosity were very costly. Of course heavy weldments have their share of stresses to.

Regards,

Randy