I am not personally involved with the boiler work being done on the Montreal #1 at Mid Continent RR musuem, so what I say may be dated or mistaken. I have gone to the web site and the news is very dated!

From what I have "heard" and "read" from museum gazette is that a lot of work IS going on. A new rear tube sheet is being made up, the pattern was supposedly picked up this weekend. The belly patches on {all 3 courses} have been stressed relieved, drilling the holes for the new rivets is or was about half done from my understanding, and there is a lot of riveting to do. All the studs are being replaced and I would presume that they must be 3/4's done by now {just a guess}. Ever since the stress relieving was done, the crews have been going at it with lot's of progress.

Would one of you guys from the shop fill us in on what is happening? Glad to hear the work continues, and by the sounds of it, there is a lot going on.
Keep up the good work.

What kind of makes me smile is that when we finally get steam up again, both the Montreal #1 and the Polson #2 should be up and running about the same time. That folks, will be a long overdue celebration for all of us. Cheers, John.

John:

Montreal # 1; I assume your talking about Western Coal & Coke # 1 here?

Les

The news doesn't seem that dated, updated from less than a month ago here:
http://www.1385.org/shop.html

I was at the museum last weekend. All of the rivet holes for the course seems have been drilled. The bolts have been installed and tightened. The clearance has been checked between the sheets at the rivet seams. There is some work that will need to be done at the throat sheet seam. A new backer plate for the front furnace bearer has been made up. The holes for the staybolts, front furnace bearer studs and rivets have been drilled. There are a couple of staybolt clearance holes that will have to be milled since they are at the very edge of the plate. The new smoke box also recieved some attention. All of the seams inside have been seal welded to prevent cinders from getting in between the sheets, causing corrosion and distorting the sheets. All of the tube holes have been drill in the front tube sheet. The washout plugs and dry pipe opening have not been cut out yet. There has definitely been a steady pace since Snow Train.

Ed

Sorry about that, yes I mean the Western Coal & Coke #1. I grew up calling it "Stans engine" {Stan Mailer}, then the "Lethbridge", now the "Montreal". It must be against the rules for me to call it by the WC&C #1. John.

My opologies for saying the web site wasn't updated, when I looked I didn't see the "click here for shop news" or what ever it says. When I looked at the WC&C page and it was last updated 3/2005 I didn't look any farther and should of. Thanks for correcting me.

And Ed, thanks for updating the rest on the progress, even though the web page is there, many of us don't read it often or at all. I think it is good to spread the progress report any way we can. Keep up the good work. John.

Greetings Mr. Risley,

The pattern was actually not picked up, though that was the original plan. But, as does often happen, time and space mandated a change. So, the pattern was shipped a little more than a week and a half ago to me at a restoration project in montgomery alabama. I then, working with Gary Bensman, flanged the sheet over Tuesday and wednesday of this week. Thursday the sheet was crated and it shipped to you fine folks at Mid-Continent this past friday.

Feel free to check out pictures of the process at http://photobucket.com/albums/y107/jaso ... 0Coke%201/

Unfortuneatly I did not have time to orginize them, so they are all random.
Lastly, I would like to thank "Uncle" Al Phillips, he was our "go to guy" at the shop and quite a large help.

See you at the Canyon!!!!!!!!

Hello Jason .Thanks for the good news and the fast turn around on the flue sheet. I envy you working getting time in on that Mc Cabe, still a "wanna be" Mc Cabe hand.

My contribution to the shop has turned sour. The compressor is missing some major parts. So............. in your travels keep your eyes peeled for a Le Roi/Dresser #800 or #880 pump or complete compressor that we could use for parts. I am pretty good at finding things we need, but so far I am on the losing side of this compressor saga. I may have to load it up and bring it home till I find the parts I need. Too bad that compressor was just about right for the shop projects coming down the line. My plans were to get it up and running and then donate it to MC, but until I get it running it is a pile of parts and they don't need another project. One thing I won't do is leave it sitting on the floor of the machine shop, which already has too much stuff that doesn't belong there. We could also retrofit a different pump if you happen to trip over one somewhere. Be safe, John.