We started prepping 6167 for her move this past Saturday (April 10). The main job at the moment is getting all of the cellars out from beneath the six driving boxes that are so equipped (the main axle is equipped with CNR's floating Bushings).

The cellars are held in place by two large pins (one inside the frame, the other outside the frame, between the frame and the wheel). There are also two smaller pins that hold the inspection cover in place, and all of these pins are secured using split keys. We quickly discovered that the split keys securing the pins between the frame and wheel were installed so that when drive up, out of the pin, they would hit the bottom of the driving box and as a result we had to use a torch to cut the split keys out.

The inspection plates came out fairly easily, although again those split keys were a bit of a nuisance to get out. We then pulled on the chains on the bottom of the grease cakes to seperate them from the journal and make it easier to pull the cellars out.

Since the cellars were caked in decades of old grease, we had to use a come along to pull them out. We ran chain through the spokes of the drivers and attached them to the fence posts, and this set up worked like a charm on all but one box that we just couldn't get out.

On this stubborn box, one of our guys grabbed the jack from the trunk of his car and was able to push it out with that! With the cellars out, we began cleaning the inside of the driving boxes, and inspecting the journals on the drivers.

Some were in near perfect condition, while others had varying amounts of corrosion. The journal for driver L4 was in very bad shape, with heavy corrosion. It seems water got into that journal over the years. We will try and polish them as best as we can using emery cloth (which is what we did with 6213).

Once all the cellars were out, we started cleaning them too. Its surpising that even after all this time, we can still find bright metal on that engine, and that some things still come apart rather easily. We figured that everything would have been rusted solid, but the frame actually looked to be in rather good shape, just full of grease.

We also started cleaning the smokebox out. It seems CN looked at smokeboxes as a good place to their garbage, as well found quite a large quantity of washers in there. Perhaps they were experimenting with cleaning flues using washers?

And we also began taking the barco flexible joints apart. The drawbar and stoker will wait until Western Mechanical moves in to the site.

I think thats it for now. I'll have photos later in the week.

Thank you so much for the updates on 6167. I'm not convinced that she has seen her last steam up, so keep her as well greased as possible, please. What you are doing is really wonderful work in true preservation. Thanks!

Flap wheels in a small drill motor will make smoothing out the worst of the axle rust faster and much easier.

dave

There seems to be an ongoing debate of flap wheels versus emery cloth, in fact one of the gang (also named Dave) mentioned flap wheels today...

And Richard, I don't even want to think about the possibility of ever having to restore THAT engine to steam. At this point EVERYTHING would have to be taken apart, cleaned, repair, and reassembled. The "Taking apart" phase eats up enough time as it is.

The engine was quite tired when it was retired and 40+ years outside have made it even worse. For example, virtually ALL of the flexible staybolt caps rotted away and will have to be replaced, plus retubing. All the machinery needs to be newed, all the appliances have likely suffered water damage over the years (for example the turbine inside the dynamo is all corroded as CN never bothered to plug the exhaust pipe). The tender has a huge hole in it, all those wheels need to be dropped...

And of course, who knows what shape the boiler shell and firebox are in.

Here are the photos from this weekend:

http://www.trainweb.org/j.dimech/journal/100410.html

So i'm guessing it's only a cosmetic restoration?

Yeah that's the plan. After all the money the city has spent on the engine this far I can't imagine that they would let the engine go. Also, I can't imagine anyone stepping forth to restore the engine, just so it can work in Guelph. Further more, it seems tthe residents of the city are sentimental towards the engine ONLY becasue it has been sitting in the same spot for the last 40+ years.

While in active service, the engine spet most of its life (1940-1956) out east, before being transfered to western Canada for a few months, then Northern Ontario, before settling in Southern Ontario for the rest of its career (until 1959). From 1960-64 it was used in excursion service all of Ontario and possibly neighbouring provinces and states. During all this time, it only passed through Guelph a handful times.

Honestly, it would have made more sense for this engine to have been preserved out east in Moncton or Halifax for example.

Interesting pictures. Some of those journals look pretty good for 40 years of static display. More images as the process progresses, please!

Thanks Joe for the update on Canadian National 6167.

Hopefully, you post more videos and pictures of the moved in action. Keep up the good work! ^_^

I'd love to see her fully restored, but after the way you said it Joe, I doubt it will ever happen.

With that being said, I can't wait to see the finished product!

If you plan to do any more lifting or pulling, I would suggest investing in some real chains, and throw that dog chain in the nearest dumpster. It is unsafe to use. You should at least have some 5/16" lifting grade chain with hooks on both ends, a few nylon straps and any other approved rigging supplies that you can find. In the years of doing this kind of work, I have made it a point to collect any and all rigging equipment that I can find, slings, jacks, pinch bars, cribbing, rollers, skates, etc. The stuff always comes in handy doing jobs like this. Doing railway preservation work is fun and rewarding, but trips to emergency rooms are not.

Another day working on 6167....

We dealt with a variety of odd jobs today, once our torch and generator arrived, so in no particular order:

The first job was getting the retaining plate out from under the drawbar pin, which required torching the 4 bolts that held it in place. Once we took the plate off, the drawbar pin did NOT fall out. Hopefully we will come back next week with some jacks and cribbing and try and get it out.

We weren't able to get the cylinder cover off the front end of the right cylinder 2 years ago (or so) when we started dismantling the engine, so today we took another shot at it. The cover was seized in place due to a great deal of rust and scale that had accumulated between the cylinder head and the cover, so to loosen things up, we cut the front of the cover halfway, from one edge to the middle to loosen things up a bit, and then proceeded to beat it with a sledge hammer for a while and eventually it came free.

After it was off, we discovered that the webs of the cylinder head were all cracked. We figure maybe at some point some water got in the cylinder while she was still in service. Of course the next question, is how long did she run like that?

Anyhow, we cleaned up the cut we made, which will eventually get welded up, and made good as new. We also ground off all the scale on that had built up on the inside. Its amazing how solidly the thing was built- its got to be made from at least 1/4" thick steel. If the engine ever gets scrapped, you could make a nice table out of it...

We also loosened of the radial buffer. First we burnt all the paint off the threads on the adjusting rod, then heated up and loosened those nuts. After we were done, we coated the threads in neverseize.

Another job was trying to free up the Ash Pan hoppers and although we got the linkage freed up, we reckon that the doors are seized shut to the hopper, and we gave up for now. It would be nice to get empty the hopper as its full of sand etc.

We then tried to deal with the stoker screw. The heads of the bolts in two of the universal joints were torched off and socked with oil. All we need now, are several lengths of "Inanimate Carbon Rod" to pound it out, possibly while heating it with a torch. In Rod We Trust...

I also finished cleaning the rest of the cellars. Its funny how mismatched everything on that engine is. Most of those cellar parts are stamped for other engines. Today I found a part stamped 6214, which hasa bit of irony to it, as last year we staged a shot of 6213 as 6214...

As of last Saturday, all the journals on the driving wheels had been polished (as best as we could get them) and the driving boxes were all cleaned out.

At this point, all thats really left is to get the drawbar pin out, as well as the bolt on the stoker screw, then she's pretty much ready to roll. However, as construction on her new concrete pad hasn't even started, the move likely won't take place until the middle of May, (if work starts tomorrow). We figure that once the concrete has been poured, it will require two weeks to cure before we can move the engine.

I'll have photos posted alter this week.

I agree. Safety is key when using rigging "stuff". Let alone the chain used, I cringed when I noted the thumb screw "things" (cant think of there proper name at the moment) instead of a shackle.

Project is coming along nicely.

Guys, no need to lose sleep here. Those cellars were held in place by grease! We weren't trying to move the locomotive (this time, we were able to move 6213 using 2 come-alongs last time...).