Steam Locomotive Steam Pipe Repair - Part 1: Pipe Removal and Game Plan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoPYNoC6NMQ

Interesting post (and video)

Thanks! This is the type preservation I like, will be following with interest. I wish some of the other shops, like Strasburg, would do some videos of their smaller projects start-to-finish like this.

They would, but their liability underwriter would cancel them in a heartbeat. I recall a while back when Cedar Point had some work done on the boiler of one of their Vulcan's. One of the employees photographed the process and posted it on the old CP&LERR site. The park got wind of it and threatened to terminate said employee if he didn't remove the photos post haste. He wanted to keep his job, so he did. He has gone on to other steam positions since then.

Keith Rucker's other videos are also suitably wonderful.

I want to be him when I grow up.

I do not understand how insurers would have a problem with publicizing the process of making repairs to locomotives. If the repairs are done according to the code and accepted practices, what would the issue be?

As for the Cedar Point management getting all bent out of shape, who really knows what that was about and whether the supervisor was acting out of some real concern or some made up paranoia involving the "black magic" of boiler work.

BTW, I have created dozens of videos of the restoration of our J&L 58. I am not afraid to show anyone what I am doing to restore the locomotive!

https://www.youtube.com/user/todengine/

Rick, I enjoy your videos as well, not just the J&L 58, but the Tod engine restoration. Thanks, and please keep them coming.

I think the fear of liability is not direct liability, but nuisance liability.

That is, if your primary business and trademark is making chocolate, then in most cases you are going to want to actively promote that any way you can, including videos. But, the maintenance of air conditioning units at the plant is not central to your business's mission, and even though you have plenty of insurance, the nuisance value of a lawsuit due to something going wrong with the maintenance of your air conditioners is not worth it. So you probably will prohibit employees from posting videos of maintenance of the HVAC.

Cedar Park is a big place, with lots of operations, and the train is a useful but small part of the whole product. The maintenance shop is an even smaller part of that enterprise. The potential nuisance value of lawsuits due to a video of the workshop is greater in proportion to the train's value in the central mission of Cedar Park.

Strasburg RR, on the other hand, has the train and their workshop as dead center in their mission, and central to their revenue services. It is like the chocolate factory promoting their chocolate. So of course Kelly posts much material on their activities.

Every business has to balance the positive value of their public relations against the nuisance value of excessive or non-central public relations.

The nuisance is, of course, that someone suffers an injury, and finds some small detail in the public relations that raises a doubt about the practices of the firm.

Steam Locomotive Steam Pipe Repair - Part 2: Machining a New Flange

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXbJQLaZinI

Thank for posting. I was thinking during that first video "Why don't you just cut the busted up flange off and make a new one?" Nice to see I wasn't the only one who thought of that.

It'll be very interesting to see the next step.

For the record, the Georgia Museum of Agriculture's railroad is a closed narrow gauge loop, and is completely isolated from the general system. Thus, it does not come under the FRA jurisdiction. I do not know if the Museum invites the FRA to inspect the locomotive or whether it is inspected only by the State of Georgia. But I do know that Mr. Rucker is a very careful person who understands fully that there are proper methods of making repairs to the locomotive.

Also, the repair shown in the videos is to the steam distribution pipe, NOT the dry pipe which is INSIDE the pressure vessel. Thus it is not actually a boiler repair.

Rick,

Many times it is what the photos DON'T show, rather than what they do, that is the problem. I recently saw a series of construction photos, which I'm sure everyone else here has seen, but I will leave the source nameless... Since my background is construction, rather than boilermaking, I'll use those as my example. What these photos do show is a very nice wood structure being built. What they don't show is the use of any personal protection equipment, including fall restraints; or any hand rails on scaffolds over six feet high; or use of a proper man lift rather than a pallet on a forklift as a makeshift working platform.

Now I haven't worked in the trades for more than a few years, and when I did, most of these items were not requirements, but they are today. If this were a commercial job, most of these items would be cause for OSHA fines. Even if everyone is a volunteer, IF someone were to get hurt, the insurance company paying for their medical care is going to be looking for someone to sue to recoup their losses. In addition, if any of the participants happen to be hurt on their day job, and the lawyers find these pictures, they will try to use them to show that the injured party has a habitual disregard for proper safety procedures, in an effort to shift the blame to them and deny their claim. I know I don't like this, but this is the world we live in today.

So, if anyone actually happens to catch me working on something, please, do not take my picture and post it to the internet for the whole world to see. Just photograph the finished work.