Our latest Build 11 work session was held on Tuesday through Thursday, February 17-19.
Quentin Bethune installed the oil spuds and taper pins he machined in his home shop. Because the taper pins go in from the crown brass toward the driving box casting, Quentin locked them in place with a flat head countersunk screw. Quentin was assisted by Joe Monty.Harold Downey spent a lot of time between work sessions scraping and fitting the driving boxes to their respective axle surfaces. Here we see one of the driving boxes installed in the leading driving wheelset.Later in the work session Quentin and Gordon Cook staged the leading wheelset inside the locomotive frame. Once both driving wheelsets are positioned inside the frame, the frame will be raised a bit, blocking removed the wheelsets will be moved forward and the frame will be lowered onto the wheelsets.In order to lower the frame we first have to raise it to remove the jacks and blocking that’s supported the frame for the past 4 years. Rick Sisson and Brian Whitney gathered up the chain hoists and car jacks and set them up for a trial lift.We will lift the frame in the front using the gantry crane and straps around the cylinder saddle halves.We will lift the rear frame at a point near the rear firebox opening with pneumatic car jacks. This location was carefully calculated by Harold to impose no bending moment at the main driving wheelset pedestals. This is important because when we remove the pedestal binders we don’t want the pedestal jaws to move. Our pair of car jacks is shown.Since we try to practice significant processes involved in building our locomotive, we attempted to raise the frame ½ inch. We succeeded and you can see the small space between the jack and frame.During the Lift, Harold measured the span between pedestal jaws. His calculations were correct – we observed very minimal motion.Meanwhile, Earl Leavitt has continued working on the valve gear tumbling shaft and link hangers. He’s made and installed the tapered pins and he’s now locating the assembly, with pillow blocks, on the frame. He will match drill the pillow blocks to the frame, then ream both for fitted bolts.LATE BREAKING NEWS! We recently received the valve gear links and link blocks. These were wire EDM machined for us by our new friends at Northeast Tool and Die in Norway, Maine. Northeast Tool and Die outsourced the blanks to be roughed out by waterjet cutting. The wire EDM produced perfectly square cuts accurate to 0.001” or better.
Our 2026 fundraising is off to a moderate start with $22,739.50 raised. Remember, every dollar donated will be MATCHED by an anonymous donor (up to $60,000) and will help us keep construction of the locomotive “Pushing Forward”.
