1210 Sidelined in Preparation
for Annual Boiler Test
Feature article
by Max Fish
Saturday 19th April 2003, Canberra
Locomotive 1210 was diagnosed the week or so before Easter with one or two boiler tubes needing replacement.
It was being prepared for its annual boiler inspection so it was not going to be just a tube replacement job to be completed just in time to take out the first of the Easter shuttle trips as advertised. These were diesel hauled.
With both 1210 and some operational crew free, work could be done on the loco while the most people concentrated on train operations.
The steam manifold on the firebox top had been removed as the steam ranges (valves) for the injectors were blowing through.
A blanking plate was put on for the boiler hydraulic test but seat for the manifold needed cleaning to stop it leaking.
The first picture shows the cleaned manifold seat and the second shows the blanking plate in place. A tube puller needed to be made as the replacement tube would come from locomotive 3102.
It would be checked and cut to length before being inserted.
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David Malcolm is seen manufacturing the clamp that circles the tube end while tube puller expands inside the tube to grip and haul the tube out of the tube plates. 1210's steam manifold is seen on the bench to the right on Dave.
We had tried to dismantle one of the valves, but despite a large spanner, heat and judicious force, it remained frozen.
Towards the back of the bench is the the tube removed from 1210. It is remarkably free from scale encrustation, given it was put in the boiler in 1988. That speaks volumes for our water treatment, boiler blowdown and boiler washout regimes.
A hydraulic boiler test involves the boiler pressure being raised to higher than operational pressure.
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Cold water under pressure is a different animal to superheated water and steam under the same pressure. Water is non-compressible, it just transmits pressure generated by a pump.
Just a small increase in volume of the boiler under test and the pressure drops away. A failure under hydraulic pressure does not result in a catastrophic explosion.
Some of Canberra's household water pressure is greater than 1210's boiler pressure. 1210's Ramsbottom safety valves have to be temporarily modified for the test procedure.
The valve spring and balance bar are replaced by a bracket screwed down to the safety valve spring anchoring studs. The valves are clamped firmly to their seats.
The valves are correctly reassembled for the steam boiler test, during which the valve lifting pressures are re-calibrated.
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| The tube puller looks a strange beast when just a mass of bits, and not much better when roughly assembled. Think of the ground as representing the tubeplate and you will get the idea. |
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A final view from this set shows the clamp around a boiler tube in 3102 and the expanding pieces within the tube.
During the week, the tube puller was made to work (our efforts saw all honours going to the tube and tubeplate). One tube has been replaced in 1210.
The other will be closely watched and replaced, if found necessary. The boiler tests have yet to take place.
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Track Machine Siding
Feature article
by Max Fish
Saturday 26 April 2003, Canberra
Saturday 26 April saw the track team return to the track machine siding at the Museum.
It was to be roughly (very) connected to the turnout.
Final alignment and ballasting would be done later.
Old, not too straight rails, old sleepers and a rough piece of ground made for an interesting time.
The happy group shown are trying to get the rails to standard gauge. This had to be done a sleeper at a time.
Just because the sleeper up there is in gauge does not mean gauge is right down here.
Note 7319 (and train) being used as a mobile air compressor for the spike hammer.
Some newer sleepers drilled to correct gauge had to be brought in to sort out the chaos and the Tracker Jacker brought in to lift and move things into place.
If it needed a siding, it had to help build it.
The Tracker Jacker therefore earned its honour of being the first vehicle to use the siding.
Not far behind though were the Flying Toothpick and the Rockulator.
The Rockulator was turned for the first time in its new base.
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