If its any consolation, cracked frames seemed to be a regular occurance back in the steam age. A good number of the CNR steam engines that I've looked at had cracks in the frame that were repaired with some massive welds. I've included photos of some of the repairs we've found on 6167.

CNR Mogul 81 in Palmerston has all kinds of repairs to its frame too.

I also have the CNR Maintenance Regulation book, which gives instructions for repairing fractured frames.

Joe,

Thanks for posting that CNR standard procedure. Lots of good information and confirms a lot of the thoughts I've had rolling around in my head. A crack requiring a double V bevel on the inside and outside of the frame will need 2 welders working simultaneously welding on the inside and outside as well as multiple teams of welders to spell each other. I'm sure once the volume of weld metal required can be estimated, the total welding hours can be calculated and then a plan developed for how much total welding time will be required. Fascinating.

Dave, I agree. I'd love to talk to those who have done welding on frames recently. Over on NGDF, Kelly posted photos of the welding recently completed on RGS 20's frame where they have cut out and replaced major portions of the engines frame.

My biggest question is this. If you can get access to the area needing welding without removing the boiler or cylinders, can you get by with tramming the engine if you need to remove perhaps the No.1 set of drivers behind the cylinders?

Joe, is there more text beyond what you posted? It seemed like it might have continued with more directions. Do you have any of the drawings referred to?

Thanks,

Rob Gardner

Rob,

What I've included are the only sections of that Regulation applicable to welding frame fractures. The other sections of the regulation deal with: Arc Welding equipment, Maintenance of arc Welding Equipment, Arc Welding procedures, Precautions and prohibitions, welding and cutting in connection with boiler work, Couplers, coupler parts and draft gear, and a host of information of electrodes, welding symbols, and approved electrode holders, ground clamps and accessories.

In another regulation, it describes the qualification test for welders (circa 1948).

Unfortuneatly, I don't have any of the drawings listed. Maybe the Canadian Railway Museum might have some of them, but unless you are willing to deal with those guys (basically it involves lots of money coming out of your pockets and going into theirs) I don't think you will be able to find them.

If people are interested in ALL of this old welding information, (when I have time) I could scan it and post it online.

The book also has a section dealing with frames, not mention everything else you could think of. Its a pretty hip book. I purchased it from a gentleman in Prince edward Island named Bill Dykeman. He died a couple years ago. His business was called the York Central Railway, and in addition to the book, he also had a number of CNR drawings for different classes of steam power.

I'd certainly remove the drivewrs and carefully block and clamp the frame in tram (allowance for expansion / contraction / warpage) before making the repair. And yes, you will most definitely need to return the engine to tram after the repair is done. Understand that "tram" is a relative and somewhat utopian term, and practical equivalents can be achieved in more than one way.

I wonder....has anybody thermite welded a locomotive frame?

dave

Part of the consist would have been Midwest Chapter's cars for the Cuyahoga Valley Line at the time. Including crew/tool car NYC RPO/Bag #5170; N&W Jim Crow combine #1504; Erie coaches 1016, 1020, and 1022; NYC coach #2318; NKP coaches #62 and #90; and Pullman Sleepers Ft. Eustis and John S. Foster (now once again Mt. Baxter). I would not say for sure that all of those cars were on those trips. The Ft. Eustis may not have been.

I rode one of the solo 2102 trips the preceding October, and I remember that a sleeper in the consist on those trips was Lake Shore Chapter's (and I may not have the name or spelling right) Pend O'Reilly River. It was painted in Amtrak colors (a requirement at the time for any PV wanting to operate on an Amtrak train). Good chance that car was on the train as well.

John B. Corns was riding on one of the helper diesels on the fateful trip, and just happened to snap a series of photos of the double header just as the rod fell off. One of them made the cover of Trains in like August of '77. You might want to check that out.

The accident bent the eccentric rod, and the MRHF crew took it to a foundry in the Pittsburgh area and had it fixed between trip weekends. The engine ran fine for the second set of trips and the deadhead move back to Cleveland. But you're right, the die was cast for steam on Conrail for nearly the next 10 years, and those trips were the end for Steam Tours.