Here is a somewhat tardy report from the Build 11 work session that was held June 8 -11.

Quentin Bethune and Gordon Cook heat shrunk the previously machined sleeves onto the second axle on Saturday. Quentin then machined both sleeves on the axle. Both rear truck axles are now ready to receive wheels. On Sunday Harold Downey, Gordon Cook and Rick Sisson applied Epifanes metal primer to all the components of the rear truck frame. We have partnered with Epifanes to provide finishes for our Coach 9 project and they are providing us great products and support. Once the primer has dried a black finish coat will be applied before final assembly of the rear truck.

Harold determined that some of the bearing brass babbitt had too many voids so he reclaimed the babbitt from the affected brasses so that they could be poured again.

Alan Downey completed the rough machining of the shoes and wedges which will provide a sliding interface between the forward frame and the driving axle bearing boxes. The interior of both shoes and wedges will be machined next making them ready for tramming in an upcoming work session. Gordon has been designing a fixture to ensure accurate tram line positioning.

On Monday Jerry and Carlos Steinke set up the wheel press and they, Quentin Bethune and Jason Lamontagne assisted by Noah McAdam, Harold Downey and Gordon Cook successfully pressed the wheelsets onto the rear truck axles. This is a major milestone toward assembling the rear truck and your Build 11 team is ecstatic!

Rick prototyped a tooling setup to enable us to drill the forward frame for shoe and wedge attachment bolts. We will be able to clamp a 3-sided bench block to the frame and attach Bob Longo’s right angle mag drill to that block, thus ensuring a properly aligned hole in both horizontal and vertical axes. The setup was checked to verify that all (3) holes could be drilled in the frame without interference. We will be boring these holes once the shoes and wedges are ready.

Rick and Gordon drilled and reamed the equalizer pedestals and forward frame preparing these components for riveting. Noah assisted by machining custom transfer punches to transfer hole positions from the frame (already drilled) to the equalizer pedestals.

On Tuesday Joe Monty, Gordon and Rick formed the first of four spring hangers. Noah had previously welded hole bosses on each of these components in his home shop. As with every new component we fabricate we had to develop specific methods to achieve the required geometry. This was the first time we used the flanger toggle to square up the end of the spring hanger and this approach worked quite well.

Our 2024 fundraising is continuing! To date we have received $22,509 (45% of the $50,000 goal for 2024). Remember, you can still donate directly by check to the museum, use a credit card to donate through the gift shop, PayPal, or you can go to www.build11.org. A very limited number of replica builder’s plates of WW&F locomotive #7 remain available for one-time donors of $1100; contact us for details!