Steam & Excursion > B&W 759 - part 1 of 9

Well we finally got the "Niner" to Conneaut and started the initial work on Teusday July 2, 1968. Wes and I decide we should unboton all we could. He supplied me with an acetelene torch and I began to burn off all the retaining nuts on the small smokebox door, the larger door, and the feed water heater. I'm proud of the fact that none of the screw threads on the retaining bolts were melted. Fat chance I could do that today.

Photographs from my collection
1) Yours truly burning off the feed water heater nuts
2) More of the finish burn work on the front end doors
3) Doyle McCormack (white t-shirt) helping me ready the dome cap for futue removal

Respectfully,
Scoop

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Thanks for this series. I am looking forward to the rest of these.
Bob

Scoop:
Where’s Doyle hiding?

W.

He's moving so fast that the white tee shirt is a blur.

Okay, so that’s Doyle’s back, as he moves towards the sand box and Hank....

Stilts ....

WOW. Love these pictures and descriptions. Also great to see up close the oak partial cylinder head cover. I was very surprised to learn that they moved locomotives like this, but the NKP guys knew what they were doing!

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Wooweeee! Net series of photos! Great reading of stories.

Those large hinges need any persuasion? Any thought on when the last time the boiler front was opened?

Thanks for the all the hard work. Nice NKP 759 got back on the road.

* JB *

No problem with the hinges... other than being gooped-up with too much ‘house paint’... over zealous
paint-slopping at Steamtown..

The two Hinges are special ‘smoke box’ door application & design.

The pivot ‘hinge’ section actually extends forward to clear the rim-bolts of the smoke box.

Each hinge pivot is equipped with
‘Jack-screws’ that are moved by regular nuts, one ‘flat’ at a time..

The jack-screws allow the whole
Front to be moved away from the securement bolts, in a parallel fashion, from around the rim...

When ‘buttoning-up’ the smoke box front, the front sags a bit under the weight —- we used a small jack to lift the whole front so that all the
studs are centered in their bolt-holes... then the jack screws are
Tightened as new rim nuts are
applied... closing movement is done by bits at a time... we applied new,
non-asbestos, high temp gasketing
material around the whole rim between the front and the smoke box rim ( supporting the studs)..

The adjustable jack-bolts are not designed to be the securement,
just act as the adjustable supports while the whole front is swung open...

‘Scoop’ did not need to ‘burn’ those.

We found it easiest just to buy new nuts, rather than spending a lot of labor cleaning paint and old rust
off the old nuts...

W.

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Part 2....

Last time whole smoke box front was opened was probably at Conneaut Shops, August 1958...
when NKP did last 5-year flue-job..

Loco was totally rebuilt in 1958,
then never put into service,
until August 1968.

W.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/20 06:45 by wcamp1472.

Question for Ross...,

From Willever’s mileage record,
Do you remember the total number of miles that HICO ran the 759?

I think the total was 35,000 miles?

W.

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