Just got mine! Great looking shirt!

What I really like, is that my crummy little donation is getting doubled.

Viva J&L #58 !!!!

Yes, double the bang for your buck!

Even my garage at my home is being put to use for the project. Work is progressing rapidly on the cab. The cab uses a lot of 1 1/8" half round as trim around the windows and doorways which is rather difficult to find anymore. I had to order the half round from an architectural metals supply house, which sold the half round in 10 foot lengths but could only ship up to 8 feet long!

The back corners of the cab are 4" radius, so instead of trying to roll 1/4" plate to that radius I found a piece of 8" pipe and sliced it to make the corners. I hope it comes out looking good!

The welding on 58's frame is done and is now ready to be shipped back to us. What this means is that reassembly can soon begin of the locomotive. Note the comparative size difference between the 58 and a blast furnace skip car.



Back at the museum, I brought the drivers in the shop to get them ready for placing back under the frame. Two wear plates had to be replaced and they need a general cleaning and sprucing up.

And then when I got home tonight, I started welding the new wear plates on the pedestal liners. My intent is to move the frame within the next couple of weeks and place it on the drivers as soon as it is unloaded from the truck. The chassis would then be rolled into the enginehouse and reassembly will begin in earnest.

BTW, four days left on our Porter shirt fundraiser. Just in case you are procrastinating you can still make your purchase!
https://www.booster.com/jl-58-porter-locomotive-shirts

Worked lots of OT over holidays, just ordered mine. Great progress, Rick.

Rick, thanks for the update. Just out of curiosity - What weld process did they use?

-Andrew

Wire feed welders which feed some fairly large wire.

great to see progress.

To convert the locomotive from 23" gauge to 24" gauge ( so that we can interchange equipment with other two foot gauge railroads) I have to move each driver tire out about 1/2". There is no shoulder on the tires so there will not be any issues with doing this.

I had a piece of 3/8" pipe rolled to about 35" diameter and today I finished making the ring of fire and testing it. I couldn't get the 70 tonner started in the cold weather so I didn't have compressed air to do a proper test, but all indications are that this will work fine.

Great progress, especially since you say you'll be starting reassembly soon. . .an advantage of working with relatively small and simple locomotives.

It's probably too early for anything, but is there any word on work on the boiler, which as I recall was contracted out?

Piston rods have been turned and polished. Of the two rings on one piston, one broke while being removed due to excessive porosity in the iron, and the other is about 80 thousandths too thin for its groove. New rings will be made for that side.



A local industrial services company, City Machine Technologies, is refurbishing the driver sets for us as a contribution to the project. The drivers were pressed off the axles, treads turned (flanges are OK and not getting any attention) and the roller bearings cleaned and inspected. This is a 1905 King vertical boring mill.



These Timken roller bearings have an ID of 8" and would have been a major expense if found to be faulty. They held up quite well and while there is some wear there is no corrosion or pitting and good to go back into the axle boxes.

The old dome lid turned out to be too thin to comply with the current ASME code, so a new one is being made. The original lid is about an inch thick. Our calculations indicated the new lid would have to be a tad over 1.5" thick, but the next larger size of plate available from Alro was 1.75". So in keeping with the "overbuilt" motif of this locomotive, the dome lid will be about a quarter inch thicker than necessary.





These J&L locomotives never had any brakes, using the Johnson bar for braking and probably just crashing into things to stop. I want brakes on the 58 and so am devising a steam brake system for it. Using a 6" diesel locomotive brake cylinder and brake shoe head, I mocked up how the brake would be mounted for one of the front drivers. There is no room for conventional brake rigging so each wheel will get its own brake cylinder.

The cast iron brake cylinders are not strong enough to take the high steam pressure that will be used, so I will make new cylinders out of seamless tubing, only using the non pressure head and piston rod in the new design. New pistons with rings will also be made. Some sort of brake hanger still needs to be devised and a few details worked out, but the photos generally show how the front brakes will be arranged.

Wonderful following your progress here Rick! Thanks so much for posting these.

Question: Why did you choose to use steam instead of compressed air for the breaks? Could you have an air reservoir and a maxi type brake (I am thinking heavy truck spring loaded diaphragm) that needs air pressure to release. This would not necessarily need an air pump if your reservoir was capable of holding enough air for multiple applications.

Steve

If Porter had put brakes on this loco they would have been steam brakes, so I am just doing what they would have done.

That makes sense to me. Thanks for the reply.

Steve