Failure to Lift

Last night bill and I began loading up the trailer to take the Mikado out to the track for it's first fire up.  We moved the Crab and it's trainset over to another track in the trailer so the Mike could be in the center.  Using the lift, we brought the tender out of the basement. Both Bill and I rode up with the tender.  The new lally column supports at the base kept the chains nice and tight during the lift; it was the quietest I've heard the lift operate since building it.

We put the big Mikado on the stand and started lifting it.  The motor barely changed pitch as it picked it up and kept going. The chains kept taut, and quiet.  Bill and I stepped onto the lifting stand along with the  Mike and leaned on the engine for the 10 minute ride.  Half way up the motor stalls without warning.  Just stopped moving.  No thumps, bangs or squeals.  Climbing down and checking the motor, worm drive and chain/sprockets out, we could find nothing wrong. Not even hot.

I took a 30" Stilsen wrench and grabbing on the #1 screw sprockets started rotating the drive down. It was hard to turn, even with all the leverage the large pipe wrench afforded.  A dozen turns later I had backed the screws down enough to reveal the culprit: Seized lifting nut on #1 screw.

After some more oil and backing things down by hand; we hooked the motor back up and it was able to lower everything back down again.  On the way down, the damaged nut continued to scrape and peel metal off the screw.

Only the one screw had this issue.  The others look good.  We'll have to replace the nut and screw, which will take some time to procure and fabricate.  So the big Mikado will be in the basement a while longer.

Spring Mid-South Live Steam Meet

St. Louis Live Steamers in action down at the Mid-South Live Steamers track in Columbia, TN.

Zach checks the gages of his Mikado

Bill, Zach and Tim prepare for departure

Corey and Henry double-heading

Tim and Jack double-heading with Zach, Meeting Joel on the return.

Joel confers with stationmaster Snake.

Corey and Susan enjoying the day.

Race weekend results

Race weekend results:
Had fun with the 5K run Friday night, finished at 31 mins 49 second.

Personal milestone: finished the Christie Clinic Illinois Half Marathon in 2hrs, 4 mins. My first half marathon ever!

Very happy!

Photo blog updates delayed...

If you have a limited lifetime warentee on a hard disk drive, how long is the lifetime? I can asnwer that: 10 years.  At least, that's how long the HDD on my shop computer lasted before having a non-recoverable error. 

Since this was the computer with the master copy of the website on it, updates to the photo section of the main site will be delayed until I get a new drive and reinstall the OS.

Spring Happenings

Running the Cottleville St. Pat's day 7K race.

Mom and Dad were in town from St. Patrick's day and I had a really nice visit with them.

Look who visited Ted Drews custard stand!

Major accomplishment: Utility tub installation

Roxy got to visit for the whole week

Dad and I get a 1953 Briggs & Stratton engine running again.  It will be the powerplant for a little diesel locomotive.

Up to her shoulders in depth, Another hole in the yard is born.



The tool that made the utility tub possible: portable drill press

We also worked on the freight elevator, re-doing the chain guides (gray tubes on the sides)

I made a jumper bar and we moved the big locomotive from the shop stand (background) to the lifting stand. Then we did a trial lift to see if the elevator would work.  The weight of the engine puts a lot of slack in the chain, causing problems when running. I'll have to fix that before the locomotive comes out of the basement. Not pictured is the new stairwell gate that was installed.

(weeks later) Easter Morning - freshly planted flowerbed in the sunshine!

More Elevator Details

I'm down to a really short list of items to completly finish the freight elevator. Last month I fabricated a cover for the electronic controls, adding the Emergency-Stop button.




The sheet metal plan as cut out.





The finished cover!



I also made up the chain guard for the motor. My Mig welder worked great tack-welding the box tabs together - no burn-through holes!

Chain guarg folded, welded and ready for paint.

I painted it red with some leftover paint.

I still need to design and fabricate some quick-disconnect brackets for the handrail.  Currently I have to remove six woodscrews every time I use the elevator to get the handrail out of the way.  And I would like to replace the 1/2" chain guides with larger 3/4" conduit.  The current ones work, but are too 'tight' when the chain is under load--I've had the chain snag the conduit and start wrapping it around the sprocket. Not good!

Shop Work

RBG's from Dad's shop. A one shot and a double-barrel two-shot.