Another work session today. Highlights include:

-Completing painting the inside of the coal bunker silver as part of our plan to use the coal bunker as a storage space
-more work was done towards restoring the cab and backhead including some reassembly.
-Some repairs to the triangular CNR numberboard which got banged up a bit
-Taking down the tender headlight

As we were working, the Mayor of Guelph happened to walk by!

One of our members recently discovered a VERY old Torpedo in one of the toolboxes inside the cab, which probably dates back to the 60s. We're not too sure what to do with it. Is it still live after all this time? Is it inert? Should we ask the police to dispose of it? Suggestions?

I know you have to watch out for old munitions when restoring tanks, but no one mentioned anything about Steam Locomotives!

After taking down the tender back-up light, I discovered that it was pretty beat up. The reflector was cracked in half, the metal shell that holds the reflector was badly rotted, and LOTS of aluminum corrosion in general.

Luckily I was able to acquire a spare headlight years ago, which I subsequently restored and is ready to go on the locomotive. However, I wonder if the old reflector can be salvaged so that it may benefit another project.


Now for the bad news, we've known for some time that we wouldn't have any money to do any work to the tender. However, while I was crawling around the tender today I see a lot of work that needs to be done, so it got me contemplating starting an independent effort at dealing with the tender. Based on the magnificent results that Brother Whitfield has turned out on CNR 6069 in Sarnia, ON, on a VERY modest budget, I believe the same could be done with 6167. It's just a matter of working out a restoration plan, establishing a budget and doing two things that we haven't really tried so far: fundraising and getting some fresh volunteers to man the needlescalers.

I guess crowdsourcing is a given at this point, but I've long wanted to run some legitimate fundraising campaigns, such as producing a run of those really snazzy CNR number plates.

So the question is, who would be interested in buying a replica number plate?

When I worked at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis County, MO, we found torpedos hidden in the nose of one diesel locomotive and also in a newly delivered caboose donation. We called the local county police each time and their bomb squad guy came to collect and dispose of them. While waiting for him we carefully placed the torpedos on the grass near the office and kept visitors away from them. If they are old and appear to have "sweat" on them they can be unstable and should be handled very carefully. Of course it was funny that the dispatcher thought of a naval torpedo, a much, much larger object, when the call was passed to the bomb guy.

Years ago I bought a Fairmont MT-14 from the SP shop auction. Brought it home, was able to fire it up with the battery that was in it! Took it on a MOW run, and was showing it to some of the guys. The Torpedo box was full of torpedoes (uh, yeah, that's what they carried in there, see, it says "TORPEDOES" on the side). One of the guys suggested that it would probably be a good idea to dispose of them, instead of riding around with them there. So when I was home one afternoon (actually at a friend's house where I kept the speeder & trailer (he helped me build the trailer)) I bagged them up--and yes, they were 'crusty', and dropped by the fire department station that was on the road home.
YIKES!! The guys came out in protective suits, looked over the bag, called the bomb squad. An hour later the bomb guy drove up in a ranger-type vehicle. Looked over the bag, said, "Oh yeah, we'll take care of 'em" Tossed them in the back of his vehicle and drove away. No hazmat suit, just regular clothes. For this I waited an hour!! And caused a lot of excitement for the station too. Seems to me I had to answer a bunch of questions too. Probably a lot fewer questions than if I'd clamped them to the mainline rails nearby!! :)
BTW, I no longer have the Fairmont nor trailer, rats, as I still have an M-9 and no way to transport it.

Lately some of our volunteers have set about constructing a series of shelves/workbenches inside the coal bunker of 6167's tender.

It is quite comfortable in there actually, with plenty of room for a person to move about, and the benches are at functional height as well. Between the benches and the silver paint, I must say it's rather quite nice inside the coal bunker, and with the scent of the wood, it's kind of like being up at the cottage!

Now the bad news. It seems that the Restoration Committee's official website was permanently removed from the Guelph Art Council's website several weeks ago, while the temporary construction fence around the locomotive has also taken down within the past two weeks, so that the locomotive is now totally exposed, and will remain that way indefinitely.

Some of our recent activities this month.

We installed the two foot warmers in the cab, and also got the cab roof vents opening properly for the first time in many years. It was a real treat to see some natural light pouring into the cab, which has been rather dungeon like for many years as the windows have been boarded up for many years.

For reference purposes:

The steam supply for the foot warmers has it's own turret valve, which is the connected to a tee inside the turret, which then runs down each side of the back head to a globe valve (allowing the engineer and fireman independent temperature control-70 years ahead of their time!). The cab warmers are supposed to have an orifice installed at the exhaust end, rather then the supply end (according to the CNR Drawing). And the drains are tied into the injector overflow pipe on one side, and the continuous blowdown valve drain on the other.

Another ongoing job has been clearing out the shipping container that we have been using for storage these past 6 years, and either getting rid of stuff we don't need, getting parts back on the engine, or storing useful items and supplies in our new storage space inside the coal bunker.

We recently coupled up the tender to the locomotive.

To make handling the drawbar pins easier and safer we had lifting eyes welded on top of both pins. We used a come-along suspended from inside the tender vestibule to lift the tender drawbar pin into place. Everything was well greased up prior to installation and the drawbar pin lifted into place quite easily actually.

We were able to move the tender around using two manual car movers assisted by a come-along between engine and tender. 6167's tender moved quite easily actually, until of course the chaffing plate reached the back of the cab and we were working against the vestibule springs.

Our greatest headache by far was the universal joint on the stoker auger. Between 6167 and 6213, those joints have caused us far more grief then just about anything else on these locomotives.

One important observation to share is that the rearmost bolt in the universal joint comes out first and goes in last. The stoker bowl is designed to enable access to that specific bolt. The bolt on the forward end of the universal joint cannot be removed (in one piece anyway) or installed with the locomotive and tender coupled.

In the end it was proving too difficult to install the joint in the middle of the universal, so we raised the white flag and left the stoker auger unconnected. Something must have moved out of alignment in the 4 or 5 years since we split the engine and tender, and it was too hot that day and we were too tired to continue the fight.

As we move closer to the "official" "completion" date of August 2, we are trying to tie up countless loose ends on the locomotive.

The headlight and number board were lifted in place using a boom truck from owned by the City of Guelph, and the number plate was bolted on. She looks like a CNR locomotive once again.

Some of the Barco Flexible Joints between the engine and tender were also installed. The three joints for the air lines were still in good shape after all these years, but the piping for the two steam line joints had pretty much dissolved over the years, due in part to all the asbestos insulation wrapped around them over the years, and will have to be repaired at some point in the future.

One other major project has been clearing out the contents of the shipping container that we have been using for storage for the past 6 years, and moving everything into our swanky new storage space constructed in the coal bunker.

The red metal stand seen in the shipping container was something we had made to support the two drawbars during the 4 years that the engine and tender were separated.

Next stop... Fort Erie! 6218 awaits you guys. ;)

Pass.... 6213 is looking shabby. SHE is next in line (closer to home too).

However if '18's circumstances should drastically change for the better, then that wouldn't be out of the question (although a bit of a hike from home)

The official unveiling of 6167 is this Saturday, August 2 at 11am.

The locomotive is located on Farquhar Street in Downtown Guelph, across the tracks from the VIA/GO Station.

Edit: Just noticed that THIS post of all things was my 666th post on RYPN. Don't really know what to make of that...yikes!

pat yourselves on the back for me, great work you all have been doing.

Nicely done!!! Just out of random curiosity, are any of the locomotive's lights going to illuminate at night?

The whole locomotive still needs to be rewired. No money for that. And without a fence I'm not thrilled with that stuff even being on there...

I read with interest that the 6167 has been taken under the wing of the Guelph museums, and that they seem very proud of the fact that the fencing around the locomotive has been removed. I just don't know how you provide any protection for it now?

Yes, the three individuals who made that decision are very proud of themselves.

They envision that people and railfans will come from all over to photograph the engine, which now has all these ugly (and very useless) ladder covers all over it. The other day I demonstrated how useless they are by climbing up them...

Wait till you see the covers they installed on the tender ladders-some kind of flimsy wire mesh.

To answer your question, the locomotive will not have ANY means of protection period.

If you think that is absolutely ridiculous, I say write to the mayor.