Greetings to everyone, I hope that everyone is doing well this fall, and staying healthy.

Since I last reported in April, a number of interesting projects have come through the shop. One is to repair two dozen leaf springs for Steamtown that each needed their top two leaves replaced, other leaves inspected and repaired as needed, new bands made, and the springs painted and reassembled. This photo, shows a trial assembly of the spring leaves in their bands.

Here is a cart full of new leaves, ready to be nibbed and heat treated. With no source of 4-1/2" wide spring material, we had to buy 5" wide and mill it to the needed width.

Work continues on Pacific Lumber #37, belonging to the Timber Heritage Association. The valve bushings have been pressed into the cylinder block. After confirming the distance between the steam edges of the ports, the piston valves will be able to be completed as well.

There is a fair amount on new construction going on this year.

A set of six new driving boxes is under construction in the shops, here are two of them.

Three new driving wheel sets are being built as well. Here, the new wheel center castings are getting initial lathe work.

The mud ring for a new boiler is being milled to size in the horizontal boring machine.

The cylinder block for an engine has been mounted on our HBM as well, getting its slide valve seats, steam chest gasket seats, steam pipe joints, and exhaust stand gasket face refaced.

A small part we made for a customer was a new main boiler check valve poppet, due to the wings on the original being cracked. The CNC mill makes short work of the shape of the wings.

We also made two new Consolidated style 1-1/2” pop valves and mounting bushings for a customer, fitted to their steam dome lid. While we were at it, the bottom of the dome lid was faced off for a good gasket surface.


Last winter, we made injectors for the White Pass & Yukon, then last summer, they had a three man crew of ours travel there to install the injectors, and well as perform some other assembly and inspection work, as well as taking the locomotive on a diagnostic test run (the lucky buggers).

More trips to Skagway may be in the future in case any skilled steam engine mechanics out there are looking for some adventure in the employ of SRC.


We have been performing heavy wheel work on the Valley Railroad’s #97. Here, a new axle is having the keyways milled into it.

In this shot, the driving wheel centers have their axle holes cleaned up by boring.

Here is a new hub plate for the inside face of a driving wheel.

When machined, the components are pressed together.

When assembled, the tire seats were turned true to lock in the sizes needed for ordering tires. The second crankpin is left out of each wheel set to allow reboring the hole to correct any issues with quarter.

Regarding our own equipment, #90 visited the car shop to be temporarily backdated to her 1960’s look for a photo charter. Thankfully, that God awful color scheme was removed asap after the weekend.

Our combine #60 is in the shop for repainting. Here she is, stripped and ready for primer.

A recent acquisition to the shop machinery was a CNC plasma cutting table. One marketing idea that it is useful for is making SRC fire pits for people’s back yards. These should become available through the gift shop in the near future.

R&D work is proceeding for making our own cellar pads. I hope to be able to make then available to the industry in the near future.

After being closed for major renovations all year, our restaurant “Café 1832” will be opening this weekend. The man in charge is a professional chef, and boy is he good!

Unfortunately for all of us, my assistant Andrea Biesecker was recruited with an offer too good to pass up to take a position teaching welding at Thaddius Stevens College of Technology in Lancaster. She is still on the roster for part time engine service, but her departure throws our plans for her succeeding me in running contract work here out the window. To cover that vacancy, Erich Armpriester has moved over from his previous position as CMO, and to cover that, Brendan Zeigler has been named as Chief Mechanical Officer of the Strasburg Rail Road. Both are excellent fits in their new rolls, and will do very well going forward.

While we are keeping plenty busy, 2020 has stripped us of the notoriously long lead times that we have been well known for in the past. If your organization has been thinking of having some work done on your equipment, now is the time to check in with Erich or me to discuss having the Strasburg Rail Road do it.

Best wishes for the holiday season, and stay well.

Ahhh.... my favorite posts. I’ve been jonseing for some Strasburg Shop updates.

Thanks for sharing.

The usual nice work from the shop floor.

So.... about those pads: will there be standard car journal sizes also?

Howard P.

Kelly,

Very nice set up for the axle keyway milling, Bridgeport head on old-school planer. Dividing head looks like a full universal.

Lots of room on the planer table for set up.

Did you modify the planer to feed slow enough for end milling or do they have a creeper mode by default? The old planers I have seen working seem to have a very high feed rate for the traditional single point tools.

Thank you for posting these, always welcome and interesting!

Regards,

Randy

These updates are the best part of the board (I would mention ARR #557's updates as being in a similar vein).

Thanks Kelly. Fabulous work as usual.

Always enjoy these postings from Strasburg shops. This one particularly demonstrates the capability of the shops.

Thank you!

It doesn't get better than Strasburg. Thanks for the wonderful updates, Kelly.

Good luck to Andrea.

For those not from Pennsylvania, Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology is a 2-year Technical College that awards Associate Degrees. It was founded in 1905, the year PRR D16sb 4-4-0 1223 was new. It's considered one of the best 2-year Technical Colleges in the USA.

Thaddeus Stevens himself was in the US House of Representatives and was Ways and Means Chairman during the Civil War.

It should not be confused with Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken. Different Stevens family.

Phil Mulligan

What beautiful work. We are so blessed that there is a place that can fix or build new just about anything ( perhaps except a $ 100 bill printer) needed to make an historic icon a reliable runner.

May they always prosper and maintain their high standards.

Ross Rowland

Thanks for posting...too bad(and yet good) about Andrea. How did you machine the insides of the driving boxes? Almost looks like EDM?

Excellent as always Kelly!

You are teasing me with that WP&Y proposal....if I was smarter mechanically, I would be all over that one. :)

MD Ramsey

Thank you for spending some of your time posting another informative update. As for the fire pits, will the bases be equipped with an ash pan, grates, and a shaker?

I could look at these photos all day. You should gather all that you've taken over the years and assemble them on a FB page or separate website. Maybe even a book.
Very educational!
Thanks for posting.