LIRR Steam Locomotive #35

So, on this misty, sometimes rainy day, we the volunteers showed up to work!! And work we did. Now that we are closed for the season, forklift work doesn’t stop. George and Bernard did the heavy lifting while Gary drive the forklift to move almost every pallet of #35 parts. We had planned on bring the rails up from Farmingdale and placing them against the West fence line but it was determined that the North fence line would be easier to access. We started by moving all of t...he finished #35 parts away from the fence back to the West side of the yard while we also moved the toes from West to North to place the rails onto. We also took time to remove the finished plates on the frame of #35 as we felt that we really DID NEED to replace the angle brackets and install new studs into the frame. The LIRR cut these mounting studs and their version of a field fix was to just weld the bottom of the bracket to the frame. Not us. It goes back but will cause us to drill out 10 cut studs and replace them with new ones. Oh well! No work, no fun. We started at 9 and finished up at 2:30. Here are the photos. See more

We are replacing a lot of the piping on the locomotive. Some because of wear and corrosion, some because the strength of the schedule 40 pipe and fittings' we f...ound wasn't adequate for the 225 psi that 557 operates at. Do you know where to get these non-standard unions? Neither did our contact at a large plumbing supply house. The good people at Jefferson Union in Florida supplied them from stock. These are just a few of the bits and pieces that your contribution buys. http://www.557.alaskarails.org/support/donate.html

Today's work session yielded a lot of work by our dedicated volunteers. They continued painting Locomotive #35's cab, needlescaling the frame and tackling other details. Their dedication is truly unmatched!

Yesterday's work session progress wasn't enough for George Schlicter, so he went back to do more today. He applied the initial coats of paint on Locomotive #35's cab front wall, roof hatch slide rails and put another coat of primer on the cab support bracket Fred fixed. There's just no stopping him!

Another great day's work on Locomotive #35. Priming the front wall of the cab, replacement of more staybolt caps and repairs to more of the parts!

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It’s official! We will be open this weekend, Saturday 11/21 and Sunday 11/22, from noon to 4pm. We will be closing for the 2020 season after this weekend. We will continue to post our work session photos. Thanks to all of our followers and supporters.

A day late, but here's photos from Saturday's work session on Locomotive #35. The first coat of semi-gloss black was applied to the innumerable parts previously cleaned and primed by our dedicated volunteers. Additionally the first coat was applied to the Locomotive cab. A great day of progress with a beautiful result!

A grand Sunday it was. Short sleeve weather. So what to do? Go up to the yard and paint away. In my case, needle scaling #35.

Before he coated the boiler studs on the engineers side, George took a clean up die to them. These were previously repaired by Fred using the brazing method of welding.

Today, thanks to our own Hicksville Danny Tichio, who arranged for it, I picked up our first donation of paint from Sherwin Williams in Syosset. Since I had the morning much to myself, I met George at the yard and while I continued to needle scale the frame for #35, George began the task of applying the finish coat of black to all of the parts for #35. And since it’s related to our locomotive #35 at the Oyster Bay Railroad Museum, I added a shot of one of Oyster Bays’ native son, Mr. William Martin (Billy) Joel with our Historic Presidential Railroad Station in the background.

The last broken stud being drilled out yesterday.

Fred heating up a broken stud on the pilot beam. This was to allow its removal. One less to drill out.

Fed and George drilling out one of the broken studs on the pilot beam

While I was off from work due to a stoppage, I decided to have an impromptu work session today. Fred, George and Gary got much accomplished as you will see.

What do you do on Election Day after voting? Head up to the yard to enjoy a noisy day getting things done! Fred and George worked to get the broken or cut studs out on the pilot beam portion of the frame where we will be reinstalling the original plates and brackets. While this was going on, Gary continued to needle scale the engineers side steam cylinder. Until the cover gets removed, all that is left to clean is the fireman’s side steam cylinder and if I get another day off this week, that could be done on Thursday and Friday, leaving Saturday to removed and work on, more locomotive parts.

The weather report didn’t make it sound like anything but COLD for today. NOT!! It was brisk and beautiful with no breeze. Do you know what that means? A lot of projects getting worked on. While Fred started off with our boiler stud contractor to perform the final fit on the boiler, Paul and Bernard continue to needle scale the frame of #35. A few weeks ago, George picked up some scaffolding so he and Ronnie set it up and placed it at the back of the firebox in anticipation of putting on the new staybolt caps on top of the firebox.

Another great day of volunteer work on LIRR Steam Locomotive #35. We received a large donation from the Pennsylvania RR Technical and Historical Society as well as picked up a great sponsor, SHERWIN WILLIAMS PAINT who came aboard to assist us in our efforts. Thank you to both organizations.

Today was a good day in Oyster Bay. Much work was done, especially on Locomotive #35. Photo captions tell the story.