Hot off the Presses!

After a busy summer for our volunteers, focus is turning back to our little locomotive’s restoration. Since our last progress update the metalwork on the cab has pretty much drawn to a close. Patches on the bottom of the cab have been completed, new angle iron fashioned to replace the deteriorated original sections around the bottom of the cab, and the rear cab overhang straightened out. One of the last items before we could sandblast the cab in preparation of primer and paint was permanently hot-riveting the angle iron onto the base. This task was not as straightforward as it sounds.

The roof overhang straightened back out.

Hot riveting requires a substantial amount of tooling before it can be done. Firstly, a torch or forge to heat the rivet white-hot. Secondly, an air compressor capable of delivering enough air volume and pressure to run the rivet gun. And thirdly, a rivet gun and accompanying set of “snaps”, or dies, to form the rivet, along with a “buck”, or tool to hold the rivet in so the rivet gun doesn’t push it back out of the hole. Earlier this year when we started the cab project, we didn’t have any of this. When we first signed the dotted line in purchasing the #4, we didn’t have anything other than the locomotive, basic hand tools, and a lease agreement. How far we’ve come since then! Thanks to the generous support of our members, donors, and partners, we’ve been able to acquire for ourselves or have had what we need loaned to us.

Watch the below video to see some of the most exciting work on #4 to date.

After the metal work had been completed, we had a contractor come to our site and sandblast the cab to bare metal- which guarantees a strong base for our primer and paint to adhere to and ensures a long lasting final product. After the blasting was completed, our volunteers worked quickly to clean and wipe the dust off all surfaces and then apply a coat of primer to protect the metal before it could begin rusting again.

The before and after shots show quite the difference!

Sandblasted to clean white metal- the perfect base for a strong and long lasting coat of paint.

Our newest volunteer Logan H. applies the first of the primer to the cab. While #4 had last been painted in the 1940’s, the inside of the cab being painted here was covered with wood lining, and consequently likely had not seen paint since it left Baldwin in 1913.

Fully covered in a coat of primer.

With the cab now primed and protected, we can move on to lining the interior with wood, which will be the subject of the next phase of this project.