Thought we would bring you this pre-weekend update. Dan Pluta sure was a busy beaver this week. Git her done, Dan. The pilot valve and all four (4) throttle valves were removed last weekend from the throttle assembly. Take a look at how worn the valve seats were. Dan cleaned them up and cut new valve seats and carefully documented the amount of material removed in the process. Tomorrow, lapping of the mating valve seats in the throttle body will take place.

Stay tuned for Part II...

Sincerely,

Rob Gardner
ASR Chief Engineer and Fundraising Chairman

And the 2100 ran with those valves, in that condition?

How, apparently that is the case. Kind of surprising, huh?

Rob Gardner

Seems it was a good call to address this now. My little experience with steam locomotives is they are or can be very forgiving when you find things that need to be rebuilt or replaced. Not promoting running substandard equipment but the truth is steam locomotives can run a long time with leaky valves, worn valve gear, incredibly worn seats on steam delivery systems. Broken frame members, working cyl, egg shaped cyl, broken piston rings, worn packing glands missing parts and the list goes on. Admit the pictures look horrendous. Wouldn't of thought the valves would of been so rough in appearance? Never really know what you'll find when you start looking around, guess that is why we look. Thanks for the updates. Regards, John.

Thanks John. Yes, it's a fine line between wanting to run ahead in haste and leave something behind that could cost you "down the road" and making every part like new and return everything to factory condition, which is just not practical, nor is it necessary in every situation.

Rob Gardner

I always use double-sided tape to hold emery cloth on four pints of the freshly machined surface of throttle valves to cut down the hump on the mating surface. Lapping goes much quicker that way.

4 pints would make it seem faster and less painful anyhow.....

I agree! 4 pints of single malt ALWAYS make things better!

Very interesting as I truly love mechanical things, but know nothing about what the valves do. What do they do and how do they get like that?
My uneducated guess would be moisture and age.
Keep up the good work and thank you

Todd

Rob,
PM sent to you.
Adam

I know how we all like pretty pictures, lol, so here are a couple of screen shots from the manual for the American Multiple Throttle manual. This shows the cam shaft running through the bottom of the casting, which, as it is rotated, opens each valve sequentially, providing more even distribution of steam. This was a marked improvement over the single valve dome throttles.

Rob Gardner