These came through on Railpictures.net. It looks like they have both engines and the steam crane up and running.


http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 8&nseq=132

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 2&nseq=108

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 1&nseq=119

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 0&nseq=110

Nice pictures! The one above of the Ford Model AA Railway Express Agency truck is especially interesting to me. What is missing from this photo of course, is the advertisment in the space on the side of the truck body. This was probably a very important source of revenue to REA. There are other museums out there that have vintage Railway Express Agency equipment. Our museum for instance, has a shorty trailer, with the space on the side for the advertisement. What we need, and what the truck in the photo needs to finish the vintage setting of the photo, are authentic vintage advertisements. I would imagine that the original ads might have been made out of paper and weren't expected to last a long time before their replacement with the next ad. Paper probably won't cut the mustard for a museum, but what is more important are finding out where we can get replicated authentic vintage ads. Anyone have any ideas?

Les

I noticed the caption on this photo explains that #40's axles were not cracked after all. I remember hearing that they thought she had bum axles but this is the first I've heard that they turned out to be okay.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 73&nseq=47

Can't speak for NN, but it is important that anybody using NDT to test axles know what they are looking at to correctly interpret results. Also it is a good idea to have clean metal to test.

I was involved in a situation a couple years back with a locomotive that had a cracked axle, failed in service. I was called in to get it back in service after it had been torn down by a "previous administration" and the drivers had been sent to an outside shop several hundreds of miles away having "failed" a NDT inspection. The NDT results looked like indications of the keyway between hub and wheel center to me. The formerly involved guy swore up and down there was no keyway.....

I had never worked on a locomotive built by the same builder of similar design that didn't have keyed axles. Unfortunately, I didn't have the axles handy to inspect. I did have wheelsets for the truck axle, which had also failed. Several layers of paint were built up on the hubs. 5 minutes with a needle gun later, loaded the truck wheelset into the 3/4 ton and off to the NDT shop.

With the keyways visible during the test, it was clear that what had been interpreted as a crack during the original NDT was just the keyway in reality. The driver axles were probably not cracked.

Due to a series of situations it would requre two pints to cover, yet another 3 contractors were involved in replacing the probably uncracked driver axles with new uncracked driver axles. Harder and more costly than doing another NDT.....and they did find the keyways in the originals and quartered the new ones by replicating the keyways in the new axles and pressing the centers on to fit.

Magically appearing keyed axles........ya gotta love this business.

Point being, good test procedures with correctly interpreted results can solve a lot of problems that don't exist before they are ever created.

dave

I was at East Ely last weekend for the first of the 2010 Photo Shoots and indeed, both steam locomotives and Steam Crane A were in service. As you can see from some of the early photo posts on RP, Steve Crise and Mike Massee did a great job setting up the night shoot on Friday. On Saturday and Sunday, we played with four different trainsets and got plenty of photo ops with 40, 93 and sometimes both. The shot of 40 out at Keystone that Tom linked is one of mine. Weather ranged from sun to pea-soup fog to snow....if you don't like what you see one minute, just wait a few more.

Late on Thursday of last week, SD9 #204 was making up a hopper train when one of cars derailed on an ice jam. The museum crew and some inmates from a local correctional facility struggled for several hours trying to get it back on the rails, but to no avail. On Saturday, the museum crew used that derailment as a demonstration of the power of 100-ton Steam Crane A. The crane operators gently put the hopper back on the steel in a little under 10 minutes.

My understanding is that although 40 is now back in service, the museum intends to use her sparingly until a thorough running gear rebuild can be done. They shortly intend to kick off an effort to raise the several hundred thousand dollars that will be needed to do that. Here is a link to museum Executive Director Mark Bassett's blog on the locomotive situation at NN: http://nevadanorthernrailway.net/thrott ... 092309.htm

For anyone who has never been to Ely, it is definitely a very worthwhile place to visit...especially during the February Photo Shoots. The engine house alone is worth the drive. The place is pretty remote....about 245 miles north of Las Vegas, but provided the weather is decent, it's an easy drive at 70 mph. Inexpensive accommodations are pretty readily available. Boots, gaiters, ski pants and a warm coat are mandatory in the winter. While it warms up nicely during the day, it gets bone-chilling cold at night.

I highly recommend NN for any serious steam enthusiast. The place has more original infrastructure and equipment than just about any other steam railroad in the country...and most of the major pieces are still operable. If you like East Broad Top, you'll love East Ely.