On March 4, 2007 several volunteers met at Station Square in Pittsburgh to begin preparing the 80 ton Treadwell hot metal car for movement to the Tod Engine Heritage Park.
I drove down with Ken Izzo and met up with Bill Neal, a former P&LE car inspector. Derrick Brashear then showed up with his girlfriend coming down a bit later. Toward the end of the day Frank Stingone and Larry Kline from the P&LE Historical Society arrived to lend a hand.We managed to get the equipment housing torched loose and ready to lift off. The brake pipe between the two ends was removed and the brake rigging was cut to release the brakes which have been applied for probably decades. I also started removing the trunnion bearing cap bolts and cut off some other appliances.The handwheel I brought down was too big to fit the shaft end on the car so we were not able to turn the bottle any. The mechanism is actually in very good shape and I could turn the mechanism a bit by turning on the motor brake wheel. So with a new approach to the problem I think we can still get the bottle over to one side. Even without turning the bottle Derrick was able to make a pretty good dent in the removal of the firebrick.
After we stopped work for the day we met at the Longhorn Steakhouse in Homestead for lunch. Then Ken and I did a little bit of exploring in Homestead and over at the Duquesne Works. I took a bunch of photos of the three hot metal cars at Duquesne.I'm planning another work session soon, possibly next Saturday. My pickup was acting up a bit today so if I can get it fixed this week I'll be back down there next Saturday with some more tools and get some more work done.
No comments:
Post a Comment