Steam & Excursion > Skookum Down- Eccentric rod broke-!

Friend up at Oregon Coast Scenic Railway mentioned his trip with 2-4-4-2 Skookum 7 will not happened March 17, 2019 account eccentric rod broke.  Very unfortunate after all the effort exerted by the Oregon Coast Scenic crew.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/19 18:39 by cozephyr.

Well.....if we can send a man to the moon,  and bring him back alive.....we can reproduce a 1920 eccentric rod.....especially when we have one as a sample.

According to Oregon Coasts Facebook page, they are working on it! Cross your fingers!!

The Iron Horse

Can it be welded, or would a new one need to be forged?

Poor thing, they pretzeled the valve gear on the engineer side low pressure set at the end of last year, now this. 

In regard to welding:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/230.96

Posted from iPhone

Trains Magazine just announced that she WILL be running tomorrow on their Facebook page!!

The Iron Horse 

Terrific news-Skookum up and RUNNING 18 March 2019-!

Compared to all the hype the UP Big Boy is getting, the folks who got this little gem running again deserve a lot of credit.  I have no doubt that she will be running tomorrow.  The people at the Oregon Coast Scenic are volunteers, not paid contractors.  They care.

Things happen. It will run again


Thanks Luke Johnson

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/19 19:51 by LJohnson.

watched Skookum test runs out my hotel window this evening....high hopes for tomorrow's Trains Photo Charter....today was fantastic including gorgeous weather on the Oregon Coast.  Arlen

There’s severe drag forces at work in the valve chest.
The failed eccentric rods are a symptom, not a cause.
Eccentric rods don’t just fail, out of the blue.

The rubbing surfaces of the D-slide valves are not happy.
More, and similar,  valve gear failures are inevitable, unless the frictional drag of the valves is reduced.

There could be several causes, or a combination of causes .

Watch this space...

W.

wcamp1472 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There’s severe drag forces at work in the valve
> chest.
> The failed eccentric rods are a symptom, not a
> cause.
> Eccentric rods don’t just fail, out of the
> blue.
>
> The rubbing surfaces of the D-slide valves are not
> happy.
> More, and similar,  valve gear failures are
> inevitable, unless the frictional drag of the
> valves is reduced.
>
> There could be several causes, or a combination of
> causes .
>
> Watch this space...
>
> W.

Thanks Wes for the information. I always look to your explanations.

Pull is one thing, it's more like valve drag under puish that's collapsing the rod. The slide valve is meant to
be almost pressure balanced and lightly loaded unde static conditions, too tight and you get what Wes describes.

Out



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/18/19 12:56 by callum_out.

Like you, I’m curious as to the cause of the problems.

It’ll be interesting if we learn the underlying cause and then what was done to resolve the problem.

I will refrain from speculation, but I will look forward to learn the explanations.

I enjoy learning the reality of what is at work — in managing these old Iron Horses...

They’ve had me on my knees, “begging” in the past, when nothing I had tried, worked..

W,

Posted from iPhone

So what exactly did they do to solve the problem?... Being a "Nuke welder" I'd kinda like to know!...