9/14/2024 Work Session

Paul and Bob put everything away that was on display for Touch a Train and worked on some shop organization. Items were crated and stored. Rebuilt power reverser had its ports plugged and stored in on of our containers.

Leverett and his crew relocated our large pile of tubes and flues. Consolidated the footprint and made better use of yard space. Priority was better access to the spare rail stacks.

Paul started needle scaling the exterior of the boiler shell.

We had a few guests stop in for a shop tour.

7/20/2024 and 7/27/2024 Work Sessions

Paul and Bob had work sessions on 7/20 and 7/27.   More cab work and shop cleanup was accomplished!

We have another awesome vintage tool for the shop.  Bob found us a 50's era Black and Decker drill press and stand with a 3/4” capacity. The drill motor is a beastie! No plastic bits to be found on this. It is right at home in a locomotive shop. We also got two vises, large and small, plus a cigar box full of drill bits.

The guys fabbed up some handles for the large tender hatch.  These were drilled and bolted up, to be riveted later on. Some cab pieces were cut and fitted and drilled for rivets. Additionally, material was cut for the front cab widows, frames and mounting flanges.

Want to see the progress for yourself? Come to Touch a Train 2024. All details at www.touchatrain.org!

7/5/2024 and 7/6/2024 Work Sessions

Paul and Bob had two work sessions over the holiday weekend.  Spent some time cleaning the shop up some.  Major accomplishment was cleaning off the entire trailer deck that the boiler sits upon. Stored various bits and pieces that laid about, tossed the scrap, and swept the entire deck. 

Here’s the before:

and the after:

Long term followers may remember we had to cut access panels on the new tender. The access panels will allow enough space to hot rivet the tender! One access hatch cover has already been fabricated. Here, you can watch us fabricate the second tender access hatch that goes on the water leg. This hatch is quite a bit larger than the first one we made. To make it, we involved trimmed down the piece cut down from the top of the tank, framed it with a 3” mounting flange with mitered corners and hot riveted the flange to the hatch. The new hot rivet press worked like a dream!

Other work was performed on the cab.  A few offending rivets were removed and some of the wall to floor angles were fitted up and drilled for rivets.  Front window frames were test fitted! More cab updates to follow.

6/29/2024 Work Session

Bob and Paul worked on the cab, while Leverett and Ron did some work on the Downeast Scenic's passenger truck rebuild. It was a good day for shop work, a bit overcast and some rain, temperature was good for working. 

The guys completed fitting up the cab's front wall stiffeners.  All the rivet holes were drilled for both, and they were bolted up with 3/8” hardware.  The angle iron certainly made the wall much more rigid! They were able to lure Leverett away from fitting up bushings to help out with setting a few rivets for the stiffeners.  Mostly, this is a test of a new mandrel for the hydraulic rivet squeezer. The new mandrel allows setting rivets alongside the web of an angle iron.  It worked well, although it is a bit harder to get onto the hot rivet initially.

This photo is admittedly staged….  Drill isn't running, and safety glasses weren't needed! It is hard to work and photograph at the same time! Additionally, the guys worked on cutting up some stock for the front window framing.

6/15/2024 Work Session

It was another fine early summer day in Hancock at the NESCo steam shop.  Paul and Bob tackled fabricating the front wall internal bracing angle irons.  These run from the roof to the floor.  Starting vertical alongside the window framing, they kick out and then follow the profile of the boiler.  Two mirror image struts were needed.  It took some finesse to do the bending and capturing the curves needed.  A couple of fixtures were made to assist in bending the angle iron and maintaining the 90 degree profile of the steel.  One set up was Arm Strong operation utilizing a bit of heat and the other fixture was used on the hydraulic press.  Which one used depends on whether you are stretching or compressing the web of the angle.  We had one four foot piece of steel to practice technique on.  After managing to torture and contort our practice piece into a pretty mangled piece of metal, it was off to the good stuff!!  You have to be patient when doing this work. You start with a bit of eyeballing and chalk marks. Then, tweak it, refit, re-mark and bend it some more.  Always keep an eye out so you do not go too far and keep the one face plumb that contacts the wall.  In the end, they both came out very well.  Next will be to lay out and drill the rivet holes that affix the struts to the wall.  The new braces are a bit more elegant than what the Railroad had added over several front wall modifications and repairs. Unfortunately, there were not enough hands to go around to capture video or many pictures.  There will be follow-ups on this in the near future.

We had three guests for a shop tour.  Feel free to pay us a visit!

6/1/2024 Work Session

Paul and Bob worked in the shop on a truly beautiful day.  First, they finished up the installation of the VFD (variable frequency controller) for the new hydraulic press.  They added a proper 220v power switch and a remote from the drive press start/stop switch.  Then, they added a window to the PVC enclosure so VFD status can be seen with it all buttoned up. The new press is officially ready for action.

Work on the cab has reached a new milestone. Bob and Paul cut material for the new cab front window outer frames to size with mitered ends.  This will get TIG welded up at Bob's shop.  This is officially the start of the window assemblies. Can’t wait to see how great it will look with the windows Bill made! Check out this post if you missed the cab window update.

Paul went through a five gallon bucket of donated pneumatic tools.  After cleaning, oiling, changing out some quick connect fittings, he is excited to report that everything works! NESCo now owns a brand spanking new riveting gun with mandrels for both 3/8” and 5/8” round headed rivets.   This hammer is quite a bit shorter than our old beastie.  Rated for 3/4” rivets it should be easier to handle and can get into tighter work spaces.

The guys also had the pleasure of meeting Jeff Kitchen first thing in the morning. He contacted NESCo recently offering 3D laser/optic scanning services. He brought some pretty amazing tech along and performed some demonstrations for Leverett and Bob. Impressive stuff! Jeff was pretty excited about his first visit and seeing 470 up close. We came up with some ideas for scanning projects. There will be more about this in the near future. Stay tuned!!

MEC 470 Turns 100!

Did you know that the Maine Central 4-6-2 "Pacific"-type locomotive #470 turned 100? The locomotive was built in May 1924 by the American Locomotive Company in Schenectady, NY with serial #65555 and at a cost of $62,296.90. If built today, it would cost an estimated $1,130,546.65 to build! After pulling passenger trains for 30 years between Boston, MA and Bangor, ME, the #470 became the last steam locomotive operated by Maine Central Railroad on June 13th 1954. Retired to a plinth in Waterville, ME, the #470 soon became a poignant piece of history – with generation after generation climbing aboard and visiting. For perspective, since she was manufactured 100 years ago, the country has experienced prohibition, the Great Depression, the dust bowl, a man walking on the moon, and the invention of the internet!

From Maine Central's Employee Magazine, July, 1924 on 470's delivery: "Many peered from rear windows of the general office building quite a few mornings ago, when the Maine Central’s two new passenger locomotives — giants of the Pacific type — ran by in the center of a long freight, Rigby to Waterville. They looked stylish — for a locomotive can be stylish, you know; and modern efficiency was written all over them. They have already been placed in service, on the Portland and Bangor."

On another page: "No. 469, one of the Maine Central's two new passenger locomotives, is to haul Trains 11 and 8; Paul and George are the engineers. No. 470, the other new passenger giant, is to haul trains 153 and 156, the engineers being Staples and Hooper. The firemen's jobs, as this is written, have not been bid on."

Let’s throw a fabulous birthday celebration for Maine Central #470! Send birthday cards to the #470 by posting them to:

New England Steam Corp.

P.O. Box 302

Winterport, ME 04496

or by dropping them off during a visit! All the cards will be displayed during our Touch-a-Train birthday bash on Saturday, August 17th 2024. For all the details, visit www.touchatrain.org or email Hanna at hbrooks@newenglandsteam.org. Can’t wait to see all the birthday wishes!

5/18/2024

We are excited to announce the donation of a KR Wilson H-frame hydraulic press by Tom Cote. The press was originally manufactured on March 24th, 1944. We believe it to be a model 37FB with a 75 ton capacity, but the builders plate has seen better days. If you can read the etchings for model, serial number, and capacity, comment below! Here are a few photos to examine:

The press requires 3-phase 220 V power. Therefore, we had to put in a power transformer and run some new electrical. With everything wired, we were able to test the press for the first time. Happy to report, after torturing a poor scrap of angle iron, it works like a charm… although it has a bit of an oil leak.

We are so excited to be able to use this press on our continuing restoration of the Maine Central #470. Thanks, Tom!

If you have tools that you would be interested in donating, please contact info@newenglandsteam.org.

Present at the work day were: Hanna, Paul VS, and Bob.

4/28/2024 Work Weekend

Brian, Paul VS and Bob dedicated this weekend to making HUGE progress on the cab!

First, they worked on setting more rivets in the side walls. This work was made easy due to the magnetic drill and the new portable hydraulic rivet setting press from scratch in his home shop. See the 2/10/2024 work session post for more details about the new press. This marked the first test of using the press hand held and mobile.  Two people were able to handle it pretty well, with the third person inserting the hot rivet and operating the press.  This process is much easier (and quieter!) than driving rivets with the air hammer and bucking bar.  There was a 100% success rate and no do overs! We are so happy with the consistency of rivets set with this method.

Another milestone was reached with final decisions made about the placement of the front windows.  With the decision made, the guys laid out the design and started cutting with the plasma torch. Now the cab now has a proper face!

Next on the list will be making the window framing to fit the openings.  The glass will go into steel frames that are hinged to swing outwards. If you have an interest in hands on work at the NESCo shop, please contact us.

Work Weekends in March 2024

There were three work sessions during the month of March with Bob and Paul in attendance. 

Primarily, work was focused on the rebuild of the cab. One of the big challenges was the actual fitment of the new front wall to the boiler shell. We have the boiler, but the floor the cab sits upon has long since been lost to time. This has made things tough to figure out!

When we made the initial cab wall cutout, we made some assumptions in the shape of the boiler shell, such as perfect radius and plumb vertical side sheets.  It has become evident that things were not that perfect as better measurements came to light. To tackle this, Bob and Paul used a sacrificial sheet of plywood to accurately fit the boiler shell at the location of the wall brackets. This took multiple fit and scribe and cut sessions. Eventually, a pattern was developed that resulted in a one-inch clearance around the boiler.  This was transferred to the cab wall and steel trimming commenced. 

Now that that hurdle has been conquered, the front windows can be located properly and cut out.  The original front wall saw many changes over the years with doors and windows.  Some areas had only a little metal remaining, and many cracks, so patches were made.  We are trying to avoid those issues with this rebuild! Therefore, the front window size and location will be slightly altered to what was present at the end of #470’s service to give the best results. Next, the crew will tackle a bunch of rivets waiting to be installed in the cab!

NESCo Receives Mass Bay RRE Grant

New England Steam Corporation (NESCo) is proud to announce that it has received a $5,000.00 Mass Bay RRE Railroad Preservation Grant from the Massachusetts Bay Railroad Enthusiasts, Inc. (Mass Bay RRE). This gracious grant will be applied to the ongoing restoration of Maine Central steam locomotive 470’s trailing truck.

NESCo is honored to be the recipient of this grant in recognition of the historic significance of Maine Central 470 and the important restoration work that NESCo is conducting.

2/10/2024 Work Session

Hit the 50's today in Hancock!  Far cry from the 9 deg a few weeks ago. DESR had a crew in the shop working on the rebuild of one of their passenger car trucks. Meanwhile, Paul and Bob worked on 470’s cab, laying out rivet holes and testing a new tool!

What new tool? Bob DeWachter built a portable hydraulic rivet setting press from scratch in his home shop. Set up for 3/8” hot rivets, it makes short work of forming perfect spherical rivet heads. No assault on the senses like a big air hammer! Rivets are subjected to 12 tons of pressure via an air driven hydraulic pump controlled by foot. The press has proved easy to operate standing on a bench. With lots of handhold area, a crew will be able to hold it in place for many areas of the cab.

Its first job was to add rivets to one of the removable hatches on the tender. Bolt flanges were added to the panel shown here by welding. On this hatch, the rivets have been added for aesthetics. The other hatches will have only rivets used to attach the flanges. Best part, it only took about 1/2 hour to set all the rivets in this hatch, with no botched rivet heads and no earmuffs required.

Check out the press setting a hot rivet, live!

1/4/2024 Reverse Gear Ships Out

The reverse gear was shipped out today to FMW Solutions to evaluate it for rebuild. While we love to restore #470 in shop, some things are best contracted out. Here, you can see the reverse gear in its current state before getting crated and shipped out!

We will keep you posted as we learn more!

From the Shop of Bob DeWachter

470's mechanical lubricator has a bronze steam manifold with four loops to heat the lubricating oil.  One of the loops had a split from freeze damage, another had minor swelling from freezing.  So, it went to Bob’s shop for repairs.

Both of these loops were removed and the unit glass bead blasted. This revealed that there are two plugs that seal the manifold passages. These plugs are where the drill entered the casting to make the passages that interconnect the steam loops. The 1/8” NPT plugs had been cut off flush.

Closer inspection revealed a problem….  Apparently in the distant past these plugs had been drilled out and replaced.  When the drilling was performed, that back portion of the plug broke off and traveled deep into the passage.  You can see it lodged in the hole feeding a loop.  Completely blocked off.  Decided the best course of action was to remove all the tubes, the plugs, re-drill the passages and ensure all was clear.  Sure enough, the other plug had done the same thing elsewhere.  Little to no steam could flow.

So, the bare manifold was fixtured up on the Bridgeport and an endmill was used to machine out the pipe plugs. Followed by a long shank drill to remove the blockages in the passageways. The pipe threads were chased out and new flush hex head pipe plugs fitted.

With that finished, Bob moved onward to a new setup to machine the ring grooves for the steam loops.  These needed to be clean and provide a loose fit for each of the four tubes. You need clearance for the hard silver solder to completely flow throughout the joint. A Volstro Rotary Spindle attachment was used. This orbits an offset spindle via the quill feed gearbox.  A  .100” diameter two flute endmill was used to cut the rings. Picked up the centers of each boss.  Digital readouts made short work of locating the rotary spindle at each station. All the bosses were machined to fit the steam loops. Check out a video here!

The tube split was cleaned and widened with a Dremel tool and burr. The crack was chased back, and the tube gently squeezed back somewhat. The surface was prepped for hard silver soldering, using 65% silver, by being pickled to chemically clean, fluxed, solder pre-placed. Bob brought to tube temp on a small hearth with propane. The solder flowed nicely, repairing the damage.

The manifold and steam loops were pre-staged in position, fluxed and silver bits around each joint.  A hearth was built about it and two propane heads positioned to primarily heat the base. A third torch was on hand to encourage areas in need of more heat.  All joints were done at the same time. Additional silver was added as required.  Metal clip clamps and sheet metal strips were used to steady the loops.

After letting slowly cool, flux was removed, unit was glass beaded and the tubes inspected. All the joints had flowed out well and nicely filleted. The loops were then pressurized with air and Bob used soapy water to check for pinhole leaks.

The manifold is now ready to be re-installed into the lubricator!

Virtual Shop Tour and Updates!

New England Steam Corporation director Bob DeWachter takes us through a detailed shop tour showing the current status of the Maine Central 470 restoration in this lovely two part video series. To schedule an in-person shop tour to see the locomotive and restoration for yourself, head over to https://www.newenglandsteam.org/tours.

A view of the boiler and cab work to date!

A tender almost ready for rivets and the chassis!

9/23/2023 Work Session

Luckily, the railroad suffered no damage from Hurricane Lee other than a few trees down across the tracks. Clean up was speedy, allowing restoration work and shop tours to resume last weekend. Paul and Bob spent Saturday in the shop working to make the lower panels for the new front cab wall. Rivet holes were drilled and fit up bolts installed. This allowed the panels to be trimmed to their final size and shape using the plasma cutter. Next, these new panels will be riveted!

Lead Truck Update

The new leaf springs arrived this week for the lead truck! They are headed down to Maine Locomotive & Machine Works where the lead truck restoration is being completed. Great progress has been made towards the completion of lead truck. The wheelsets were recently machined, and the bearings are being machined to fit the axles.

New England Steam Corp.
a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization
P.O. Box 302
Winterport, ME 04496