December 17th Worksession

223 Work: The baffles were installed inside the tank, at least temporarily. They will have to be removed to allow the contractors (whomever they may be) to coat the inside. A few more holes were drilled to mount hardware and part three of the water inlet has been started. For those that don't know, the water inlet has been the hardest part of the tender project because of its complicated forming. It is a roughly oval shape bent from a singel piece of sheet steel with a 90 degree flange on the bottom. The previous two attempts turned out okay, but were not perfect and had several flat spots. Hopefully this time it will come out perfect. Below, a team is drilling mounting holes into the flange before the sheet is formed:

In addition, metal screens were made for the windows of the rotary snowplow (OWR&N No. 900061), which were all knocked out by vandals during its tenure at the Business Depot Ogden a few years back. The hope is that this will keep transients out of the plow. Below, Andy (who is in charge of this project) measures a screen in preparation for "framing": a strip of metal wallboard corner that is folded over and tacked in place to allow a mounting surface.

The screens were stacked agains the 223's cab to wait for installation.

A Special Visit

A little late, yes, but better late than never.

The 844 and Heritage Fleet visited the museum on November 26th-28th, arriving Saturday morning and leaving Monday Morning. The following are some shots by Joshua Bernhard of the event on Monday.

Union Station Director Roberta Beverly and former chapter President Mike Burdett inspect the 844. Mike resigned from the chapter presidency to devote all his time to the Golden Spike Heritage Foundation, which is working towards rebuilding a portion of the original Trancontinental Railroad route between Corinne and Promontory.

Electrical Work on the Cargill

Johnson Electric Motor was the contractor hired by Cargill to complete the wiring. The traction motors are all repaired, and work is being done on the cab wiring which was also damaged.

The painting was completed in early November. Hopefully by the end of 2011 the museum will have a completely operational locomotive.

As a side note, the locomotive was moved to make way for Union Paciifc's heritage fleet when the 844 visited last month on the way back to Cheyenne. Below is a picture of the SW1 in its natural habitat. She stayed there only a few days before being moved back to her spot on Track 2 in front of the shop.

New Locomotive for the Utah State Railroad Museum

May 21st- restoration work was interrupeted by Union Pacific's local switch crew bringing an exciting load- a new locomotive for the museum.

The local Cargill grain elevator replaced their SW1 with a Trackmobile a few months ago, and donated the old locomotive to the Union Station Foundation, operators of the museum. Pictures of the locomotive can be found here:

Golden Spike R&LHS USRRM locomotives page

Cargill, as part of the donation, generously agreed to repaint and repair the locomotive. Sanding was completed by June 4th.

As an interesting side note, the locomotive is one of the first SW1s to be built, and in fact predates the official SW1 classification as it was built as an NS1.

National Train Day

National Train Day was May 7th, and this year is the first annual celebration of the holiday at the Utah State Railroad Museum (Ogden Union Station). The Golden Spike Chapter had a table, where we had memberships, 130th anniversary hats, and Gil Bennet prints of the 223 for sale. Union Pacific donated $1,000 to GSR&LHS, as well as the Union Station and the Promontory Chapter NRHS.

As part of the festivities, Union Pacific brought their Rio Grande heritage Unit (SD70ACe UP 1989) and Utah Central brought one of their brand new GP15 switchers. Lee Witten caught them coming in to the station:

In addition, Lee has provided a video of the actual event here:

Overall, the event was well recieved, and is planned again for next year.
You can see more pictures of the event at these places:
http://www.trainlife.com/albums/view/3070
http://www.trainlife.com/albums/view/3074
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lewitten/sets/72157626561773933/
http://gallery.me.com/lewitten#100155&bgcolor=black&view=grid

Grafitti Removal-April 16th

For his Eagle project, a local Boy Scout and his troop removed grafitti from the equipment.

Lee Witten also made a video of their work:

Whatever they were using, it did a good job. No trace of the grafitti- and the body paint wasn't damaged at all. Thanks, Josh!

April 9th Worksession

Lots of riveting- this time with 1/4" rivets instead of the regular 1/2" ones. These mini rivets hold the flange around the top of the tank on.

Here, we see the crew selecting the next rivet to be used:

While the unfortunate soul who volunteered to handle the rivet gun prepares to enter the tender tank:

We finished the tank braces, which are made out of boiler tubes as were the originals. These will be riveted in place soon.

All pictures by Joshua Bernhard

April 2nd Worksession

Lee Witten made a video of the riveting done on the 223's tender on Saturday April 2nd: