Restoration Journal - June 24-25, 2008

Most of the work this day was spent removing the covers off of the cylinders and valve chests (which yielded some interesting discoveries). We managed to get all but one cover off, that being the front cylinder cover on the right side of the locomotive. It appears to be rusted solid to the cylinder head. One idea we've discussed is drilling and tapping some small holes at several points and use screws to try and "jack" the cover loose (we'll see when we get there). As I mentioned, we found some neat things. The front valve chest head on the right side is actually off of 6170 (stamped and chalked), while the left valve chest head had the date 5-26-57 chalked on it. Interestingly, she was in Winnipeg at that time (as far as I can tell, she left the Atlantic Region around September 1956 and was transferred out West. She returned to Ontario in June 1957). Another interesting revelation was that some of the bolts holding the heads onto the cylinders weren't done up all the way, but after what I've seen on that engine, I'm not surprised. I've found numerous instances of CN scrimping on bolts, for example, if a given fitting took four bolts, it would only have three. The check valve, and all of the light fittings in the cab are were all like that.

Today we pulled down the running boards on the right side of the boiler. Basically we loosened what ever had be loosened and used a come-along to lower the running boards to the ground. A relatively straight forward process, that the photos will explain.

Unfortunately, at the moment it appears that with our current budget, we may not have enough money to give the cab and tender the work they really need, i.e., the tender may not even be sandblasted, and the cab may not look so pretty. Of course we'll take care of essential items, like patching up that gaping hole in the coal bunker, but those areas won't look overly pretty unless we can raise a great deal more money (in other words if you would like to do something about it, you're more then welcome to make a donation to the project through the Guelph Civic Museum).

Of course, the exterior of the tender tank isn't in that bad condition as we suspect that it was needle-gunned at some point in the last twenty years (not like 6218's which has twenty or so coats of paint on it), so we could probably work with what's there, and the cab won't be a very interesting place either. We will have to examine these issues later on, as right now, our focus is removing the asbestos from the boiler and putting on a new jacket.

Another interesting observation I've maid, is that the work we have done so far hasn't really been cost intensive. The most expensive items so far have been renting the torch and the City employees that have come out from time to time. Also, most of the work was done by more or less three guys (unfortunately most of the work took place during the week so I've missed out on all the fun). Of course now that we are done, things will really start to get pricey. The next phase of the project will be the asbestos abatement, which requires constructing a small building around the engine, removing the jacket, pulling out the asbestos, sandblasting and painting the locomotive, fabricating a new boiler jacket, and eventually reassembling the locomotive.

One unforeseen problem we're having is in the cab. The squirrels living in the turret seem to be going to town on all the labels we wrapped around all the piping for the gauges. Not to worry, we will be serving an eviction notice sooner then he thinks.

When we removed the cover off of the valve chest, we discovered that the head was off of 6170.

The front of the left side cylinders.

The back of the right side cylinders. When it was new, the crosshead guide was bolted to the back of the cylinder head. You can see where the extension came out of the head. Why and when it was cut off remains a mystery.

The back of the left side cylinders.

Dave S., Grant K, and George R. lowering the first section of the running boards. This time around we worked out of the Roman Steam Locomotive Restoration Manual. For this lift the come-along was chained to the handrail.

Lowering the second section of the running boards. This time we chained the come-along to the grab iron on the steam dome.

Grant K. getting ready to lower the third section. We chained the come-along to the dynamo bracket this time.

Dave S. torching some of the bolts for the running boards.

Ready to lower the third section.