Latest on the NKP 757 Project

Lincoln Penn · **Joined:** Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:40 pm **Posts:** 841

Rick Rowlands wrote:

All of the side rods will be in place. The main rods will not be on, and in their place will be four 1 3/4" thick spacers. I took measurements for the spacers and the Bellevue home shop crew will be making them up.

At some point the main rods will be hauled back to Bellevue on a trailer, but for now they are sitting under the left side cylinder.

Why not put the mains on the top of the tender or in the coal space so they can go with the engine, then you don't have to make another trip to get them?

I'm sure it's a dumb question, but I had to ask.

Lincoln Penn · **Joined:** Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:40 pm **Posts:** 841

dinwitty wrote:

G. W. Laepple wrote:

The pistons were removed when the locomotive was moved to the museum about 50 years ago. It arrived with the main rods and crossheads in place, and the pistons were in the tender. The crosshead rusted fast when water entered through the lubrication points atop the crosshead guide.

you may need a 200 ton ram or higher. There is no other way than to break the rust.

But at that point, you run the risk of breaking something else and being in a larger pickle.
Better to get it home before trying drastic things that might make an already poor situation much worse.

Dave · **Posted:** Wed Nov 22, 2017 4:24 pm

No. You would want to disassemble it and remove it in pieces, clean and polish the surfaces, and reassemble it with a lot of lost motion and grease should you ever need to make the crosshead move on the guides again.

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

There is a video on youtube from about 4 years ago of trying to bust loose the running gear on the locomotive by pulling it down the track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDD2XyJKd-w

Dave · **Posted:** Wed Nov 22, 2017 7:30 pm

And, the fireman on the Best Friend of Charleston tied down the safety valve for more steam pressure. Neither is a good idea.

Rick Rowlands · **Posted:** Wed Nov 22, 2017 7:46 pm

Lincoln Penn wrote:

Why not put the mains on the top of the tender or in the coal space so they can go with the engine, then you don't have to make another trip to get them?

I'm sure it's a dumb question, but I had to ask.

How would we get them up there? We don't have any equipment that goes up that high.

We are making regular trips from Ohio to Strasburg anyways, so just drag along a trailer on one of those trips.

dinwitty · **Joined:** Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:18 pm **Posts:** 2226

Dave wrote:

No. You would want to disassemble it and remove it in pieces, clean and polish the surfaces, and reassemble it with a lot of lost motion and grease should you ever need to make the crosshead move on the guides again.

It isnt important now for the move, I thought about also moving the engine to break the rust. The parts are tougher than you think. But dissassembly is the better trick but shock it with some sledgehammer hits. Like I said earlier get some rust dissolver on it. eventually you will want them freed.

765 tried to free the tender pin, it would not budge, air hammers did nothing, throwing wd40 around it did nothing, it took it took an air jack or Ram lifting the pin up.

Lincoln Penn · **Joined:** Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:40 pm **Posts:** 841

Rick Rowlands wrote:

Lincoln Penn wrote:

Why not put the mains on the top of the tender or in the coal space so they can go with the engine, then you don't have to make another trip to get them?

I'm sure it's a dumb question, but I had to ask.

How would we get them up there? We don't have any equipment that goes up that high.

We are making regular trips from Ohio to Strasburg anyways, so just drag along a trailer on one of those trips.

Point taken. I assumed a forklift or something similar would be available from across the road.

My bad.

Rick Rowlands · **Posted:** Sat Nov 25, 2017 8:24 pm

No problem. We have access to a backhoe but nothing that high.

Rick Rowlands · **Posted:** Tue Dec 19, 2017 9:28 pm

List of donors to the Bring Back 757 project thus far:

https://bringback757.org/donors/

bigjim4life · **Posted:** Wed Dec 20, 2017 1:33 pm

Rick Rowlands wrote:

List of donors to the Bring Back 757 project thus far:

https://bringback757.org/donors/

Rick, is there any way to make that list in alphabetical order instead of how it currently is? Would make it a bit easier to find one's name (I did find mine, but it took a few minutes) if one so desired.

nathansixchime · **Joined:** Tue Jan 25, 2005 4:03 pm **Posts:** 948

Right now its in the list/order of donation. I'm sure the final donor board will be alphabetical.

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