Another huge weekend workday, yield a tremendous amount of gains. Bob teamed up with Hanna to get the valves and cylinders cleaned up, then went on to remove valve gear rod on the engineer's side. Paul V.S. was back and performed skilled surgery to remove a key which was holding the right valve gear in place. Roger and Alex were going to completely needle scale the tender wheels, but were foiled when the starter of the Diesel compressor forgot its job and had to be removed for service. Ron did repair work on the crane and other mechanical chores, including arranging the new DESR rail stack, adjacent to our shop building. Leverett worked with the steel crew as well, but cycled through the NESCO shop periodically to work with us. Jim Armstrong teamed with Dick to power wash as much of the tender truck as possible, starting with the journal boxes, brasses and shims. Jim and I finished by washing the truck frames as well.
The team approach on multiple tasks worked very well. (Editorial comment: Hanna seems to be at her happiest when absolutely filthy). Using a power wire brush, she polished the crosshead guide on the fireman's side so the crosshead will slide the complete length, using muscle power alone. Hanna has called "dibs" on the opposite crosshead guides. Alex and Roger wound up chipping paint onto tarps for collection, using just scrapers. Jim and I got soaked, but got almost the entire frame cleaned. The thunderstorms which followed in the afternoon coincided with kicking off for the day.
I should add that the DESR people did a fantastic job of racking their extra rail. It's a nice, neat, stack, separated with timbers.
Leverett and I spoke about the trucks. The axle journals are pretty good, but there is pitting of about 1/16th inch which should be turned down on at least one set. He's thinking of shipping them to Brian Fanslou for turning, and getting them back, hopefully, in a week or so. If that goal can be met, we may get the first truck set together - permanently - by September, or at least early September.
-Dick Glueck
